Papers of Mary Boyd

Curriculum Vitae

Name : Mary Beatrice Boyd (nee) Mackersey Date of Birth : 1921, Hastings Date of Death: 2011 aged 90 Education: 1927-1939 Hastings West High School and Hastings High School 1940-1944 Victoria University College, Wellington

Academic Qualifications : BA in History (UNZ: Victoria College), 1942 MA (History) wrote thesis on early Race Relations in NZ (1815-1845), 1944 Employment: Worked for two summers c1941 as cook/assistant for Ernest and Pearl Beaglehole during their research at Otaki (which became 'Some Modern Maoris').

Research Assistant in the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, and in Army Archives 1944-1946 Appointed a Junior Lecturer in history, Victoria University 1947, Lecturer 1955, Senior Lecturer 1965, Reader 1975, retired 1987 aged 65. Research and study leave at Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London 1965, and 1975; also at London School of Economics and Political Science, 1949-1950; and University of Ibadan, 1966. Research in Western Samoa 1954-55 and 1961. Taught NZ history courses which included Maori Affairs to DPA and Dip Soc Sc students in the 1950's and first year history students 1957-76. From 1975-1987 taught a second year course on race relations in NZ and an Honours course on decolonisation of the Pacific islands. Supervised and assessed the work of a number of thesis writers in these fields. Main fields of research have been the decolonisation of Western Samoa, New Zealand's external relations, and the history of Hastings and its districts. From 1989-1999, a member of the Waitangi Tribunal, as an historian primarily working on claims to do with ownership of rivers.

Other Involvements

Dictionary of New Zealand biography as Hawke's Bay convenor and contributor in the areas of historians and Pacific History Oxford Illustrated History of NZ - contributed a chapter Involvements with: NZ Institute of International Affairs; Trade Union History Project; NZ History Association