Dr Cynthia Begbie/Dean (1933–2023)

A Tribute by Honorary Associate Professor Lea Beness

Cynthia Dean, Florida, 2010 (photo courtesy of Graeme Begbie)

​Cynthia Mary Begbie was born in 1933. She was the daughter of Gwendoline Electra Dean and Herbert Gordon Smirnoff Begbie. In 1919, Cynthia’s mother had gained entry to the University of Tasmania, an institution known for its early admission of women. Her father was part of a dynasty of Anglican ministers, serving as rector of the Moss Vale-cum-Berrima Parish in the Southern Highlands during Cynthia’s formative years. The family lived in the Rectory of St John's Moss Vale and Cynthia attended the small but distinctive Anglican Koyong Day and Boarding School for Girls in Moss Vale. The school advertised itself as having a “bracing and delightful climate … in the heart of a delightful health resort … with large playing grounds”. It also boasted of having its own dairy and orchard. The school’s formidable Principal, Miss Hetta Mein was renowned for her encouragement of physical culture, her knitting nights, instilling in her charges an awareness of those who were less fortunate (indeed they were actively involved in supporting needy children) and, at times, for her harsh discipline. Cynthia may have been spared from some of the more negative aspects of this regime because she was a day girl. Her father taught weekly scripture lessons there and officiated at the annual prize-giving. Students remembered Miss Mein’s spaniel, Kim, snoring under her table and, at least on one occasion, catching fire because of its inclination to warm itself by the heater.

A class of the ‘little schoolroom’ at Koyong ca 1943. Cynthia Begbie Centre row on far right; Front row, Kim the cocker spaniel, and far right Cynthia’s younger brother Roger. (Young boys were sometimes allowed to attend the school if they had an older sister there.) (Photo courtesy of the Berrima District Historical & Family History Society)

​One student from Koyong remembered: “We were inculcated with certain standards: honesty (meaning openness and the absence of deceit), integrity and fair play. The importance of being a good loser and a gracious winner was stressed. Politeness, good manners and correct behaviour were instilled into us. Miss Mein had her faults but could probably claim to having laid the foundations for our good character. If nothing else, I attribute to her a certain stoicism and resilience which I think is found in every ‘old girl’ from her school.”[1] The school motto: domine dirige nos was a prayer for divine direction rather than the customary aphorism. Latin was one of the curricular options which Cynthia probably undertook at Koyong. Her interest in the ancient world was reportedly fostered by her Christian background and her “bookish” father.

Cynthia, her father Gordon and younger brother Roger, Campsie 1947 (photo courtesy of Graeme Begbie)

​From 1945 to 1950, Cynthia attended secondary school at Frensham, an independent non-denominational school for girls in Mittagong in the Southern Highlands. The school has been celebrated for its beautiful surroundings, encouragement of a non-competitive community, commitment to loving service, the valuing of experience and expression as much as scholarly endeavour, and its promotion of an “environment in which creative gifts are awakened, encouraged and pursued with enjoyment.” [2] Cynthia sat the Leaving Certificate twice despite excellent results the first time. In the iteration she picked up an extra subject, Ancient History, and held the position of School Prefect. The school still holds her school blazer embroidered with an Iris (the school’s highest recognition of excellence) which Cynthia was awarded for both Latin and French. At Frensham, she also loved sport and was very good at it. In her last year, 1950, she was a member of the 1st 11 Cricket Team.

The blazer pocket shows Cynthia was awarded an Iris for Latin and French in 1950. (L & F) (Photo courtesy of Frensham)

​In 1951, Cynthia enrolled at the University of Sydney, studying Latin, History and Elementary Greek. In her 2nd year, she added Classical Archaeology to her chosen subjects and in her 3rd year, English. Her end-of-year results included High Distinctions in Greek II and Latin III and in her BA Examination she was awarded a Latin Honours Class I, second only to Harry Jocelyn, her main competitor, a reportedly combative and irascible person who was later to become one of the leading Latinists of his generation and take up a Personal Chair at the University in 1969. The then Professor of Latin, John Dunston, later reflected that he “tried to … keep an eye on who were the good people in the Honours classes and to give them an extra dose of fertiliser.”[3] Dunston and another senior departmental colleague, Jim Nicholls, had maintained strong ties with St John’s College, Cambridge, their alma mater, where Jocelyn went on to read Part II of the undergraduate Classical Tripos. Such an option was not possible for Cynthia as the college did not admit undergraduate women until 1981.
 
Notably, Cynthia continued to excel in the sporting sphere during her undergraduate years, being selected for the NSW Junior Women’s Cricket Team.
 
In 1955 Cynthia went on to complete a Diploma of Education and in 1956 joined the Classics and Ancient History Staff at Sydney Girls’ High School. Resigning her secondary school teaching post, she continued as a Temporary part-time Lecturer in Latin at the University of Sydney in 1957 and 1958. In late 1958 she was chosen out of eight applicants from Australia and overseas for a full-time Lectureship at the University of Sydney. Cynthia took leave of absence for two terms in 1960 to conduct research at Cambridge for a Master’s thesis on a study of source material for Roman History of the Second Century BCE. In the same year she was awarded an MA in Latin with First Class Honours and the University Medal from the University of Sydney. In the following year, Cynthia commenced research into the transmission of the text of Livy in the period of the Roman Empire to the end of the Fourth Century CE. According to the University Senate Minutes, this was “considered to be an important and difficult subject in Roman historiography.” This research materialised in print form in 1967 as an article on the epitome of Livy in the prestigious British journal Classical Quarterly.
 
Cynthia also took up a role as Tutor at two of the University of Sydney’s residential colleges for women. At the Catholic Sancta Sophia College, she taught Latin and Ancient History between 1959 to 1967; and, in 1962, History at ‘The Women’s College’. In 1966 she is recorded as a ‘Friend’ of the Nicholson Museum and as a member of the Sydney University Arts Association nominated by the Faculty of Arts.
 
In 1967 Cynthia was promoted to a Senior Lectureship at the University. In the grounds for her promotion the quality of her teaching (and particularly her ability to apply her research experience to it) was underlined. Past students have remarked upon her enthusiasm as a teacher and her caring and encouraging nature. One has highlighted Cynthia’s experimental teaching practices (such as the novel use of inscriptional evidence to study the 3rd century CE), and the enjoyment of evenings spent with her cooking Roman food from the Apicius cookbook. Cynthia’s teaching duties ranged from all levels of undergraduate to Honours level. Her lecturing in the Department of History was also highly regarded. Likewise, her introduction of courses in Roman History and the Honours School.
           
We cannot underestimate the challenges of working for many years as the only woman in a department which was not particularly encouraging of women, especially given that one colleague had a proud record of publicly denouncing the Christian faith in university fora. More specifically, it has been alleged, he was ready with disparaging comments about her. One junior colleague who benefitted from Cynthia’s generosity and encouragement and who went on to an academic career, felt that given her interests, that she would have flourished in an Ancient History department.
 
In this period, Cynthia took leave without pay from the University of Sydney and enrolled in a PhD at University College London in partial fulfilment of which she worked on a dissertation on the bishop-historian Gregory of Tours. The thesis submitted in March 1969 focussed on Gregory in his historical context and the importance of his belief in the “ultimate authority” of the church and the authority vested in him by his episcopal office in his penning of the Historia Francorum.
 
Having been awarded her doctorate, an achievement which was no mean feat given the short leave of absences she undertook from teaching while undertaking research, Cynthia returned to Australia and continued as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. In 1970 she resigned. She settled in Berrima on the Southern Highlands, took up pottery and ceramics and established a much-loved nursery business known as ‘The Lavender Farm’ with her friend Julie Rigby. People fondly recall visits there. In 1985, she served as President of the new Wingecarribee Shire’s Tulip Festival, by which time she had changed her surname to that of Dean, her mother’s family name. Her years in Berrima also saw a short-lived marriage.

Cynthia at the Berrima Lavender Farm, 1973 (photo courtesy of Graeme Begbie)

​In 1988, Cynthia sold her Berrima property and moved to Boston in the United States, involving herself in academic circles in New England. She loved Boston but it proved too cold for her, necessitating a move to Florida. During these years, Cynthia reportedly undertook a degree in theology, converted to Roman Catholicism and was very involved in social work, especially with the elderly. She passed away in 2023 after a short illness.
 
Members of her family remember her as a warm, shy, and gentle person with a natural reticence. Former students have commented consistently on her approachability, generosity and kindness, and some still refer to her as “the lovely Miss Begbie”.

References

[1] Winifred Jones in Koyong. Day and Boarding School for Girls. Moss Vale. 1915–1952 (Moss Vale, 2012), 82.

[2] Susan E. Emilsen, Frensham. An Historical Perspective (Mittagong, 1988), 9–10.

[3] University of Sydney Archives, Dunston, Arthur John Interview, Tape 1, Side A: https://archives-search.sydney.edu.au/nodes/view/91835?keywords=dunston&highlights=WyJkdW5zdG9uIl0%3D&lsk=7f32a34dc552df511b89e0d9184f5186

Acknowledgements

​My sincere thanks to members of the Begbie family, especially Graeme Begbie and David Connolly, and to Linda Emery, Bernard Gredley, Angela Hartnup, Dorothy Healey, Tom Hillard, Frances Muecke, Vipasha Mukherjee, Alanna Nobbs, Tim Robinson, Ann Sherwood and Greg Stanton for their generous assistance. Any errors are my own.