Eric John UNDERWOOD
Born 7 September 1905 at Harlington, Middlesex, England [200]
Son of James UNDERWOOD and Elizabeth Gilbert LOWE [200]
His mother passed away at the age of 31 years in 1907 [21]
In 1911 was living with his father, siblings Gilbert and Marjorie and aunt Esther at Dower House in Harlington, Middlesex, England [20]
His father departed Liverpool, England on the steamship Persic on 4 May 1912 bound for Western Australia [203] [372: 15-Jun-1912]
With his siblings he departed London with their future stepmother Kate TAYSOM on the steamship Australind on 19 July 1913 [203]
They arrived on the Australind in Fremantle, Western Australia and the next day his father and Kate were married [200]
His father worked as a saddler in Mount Barker [50] and Latham [19] before purchasing farmland in Coorow [44]
He was a student at the Mount Barker State School, North Perth State School and at Perth Modern School [200]
Spent his school holidays living and working on his father’s Hill Crest Farm in Coorow [200]
Sailed from Fremantle, Western Australia on the steamship Largs Bay and arrived at Southampton, England, on 29 December 1928 [204]
His occupation as student and his intended address in England was the Animal Research Institute at Cambridge University [204]
Departed from London, England on the steamship Orsova and arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia on 15 September 1931 [338]
On his arrival back in Western Australia he gave his address as care of both Coorow and the Department of Agriculture in Perth [338]
In 1933 he was on the research staff of the Agricultural Department at the University of Western Australia [4: 26-Aug-1933]
He and his sister Marjorie spent their summer vacation at Hill Crest Farm in Coorow in January 1933 [4: 7-Jan-1933]
Gave a lecture on 'Some Aspects of Animal Feeding' to a crowd at the Coorow Hall on 17 August 1933 [4: 26-Aug-1933]
Married Erica Reid CHANDLER in Perth in 1934 [66]
In 1936 and 1937 he and his wife were living at 31A North Street in the Perth suburb of Maylands [50]
He was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Service Fellowship to spend two years in the United States in May 1936 [4: 16-May-1936]
He planned to study cobalt in animal nutrition and United States methods at attacking animal problems [4]
He was issued with a visa to travel at Adelaide in South Australia on 24 October 1936 [218]
Departed from Auckland, New Zealand on the steamship Monterey on 14 November 1936 bound for the United States [218]
On his return he embarked from Cape Town, South Africa on the Thermistocles and arrived in Fremantle on 14 November 1938 [338]
He gave his occupation as Research Officer and intended address as 7 Rene Road in the Perth suburb of Nedlands [338]
At the invitation of the Coorow-Waddy Forest Districts Agricultural Society, he gave a lecture in Coorow on 29 June 1939 [39: 6-Jul-1939]
The lecture was on Animal Nutrition and a summary of his talk was printed in The Irwin Index newspaper [4: 8-Jul-1939]
Gave a series of ten lectures on 'Nutrition and the Australian People' for he University Adult Education Board in 1941 [39: 16-Jul-1941]
From the 1940s to the 1960s he and his wife lived at 2 Wattle Avenue in the Perth suburb of Claremont [50]
He and his wife donated £5 to the United Nations Appeal for Children in August 1948 [39: 11-Sep-1948]
Gave lecture on 'Fifty Years of Agricultural Science in Australia' at Moora, Morawa and Geraldton in August 1951 [86: 7-Aug-1951]
Member of the Western Australian branch of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science in 1953 [120: 5-Feb-1953]
He and his wife were guests at a party in Claremont in February 1953 at which they met Mark and Lady Elizabeth LONGMAN [120]
Lady Elizabeth LONGMAN had been a bridesmaid at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh [120: 26-Feb-1953]
He was one of the guests at the field day held on the farm of Eric SMART in Mingenew during September 1953 [120: 24-Sep-1953]
At the field day he gave a talk on the plant food deficiencies of light land and the importance of lupins and clover [120]
In 1964 he was a Professor of Agriculture at the University of Western Australia [4: 17-Jan-1964]
During the 1970s and in 1980 he and his wife lived in retirement at 3 Cooper Street in the Perth suburb of Nedlands [50]
Father of Elizabeth Jill, Jennifer Mary, Roger John and Peter James [39: 22-Aug-1980]
Died 19 August 1980; ashes interred at Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth, Western Australia (EC Section, Garden 26, 255) [2]
From The Geraldton Guardian and Express newspaper, Thursday 30 April 1931:
Social & Personal Activities
"Mr. Eric. J. Underwood, formerly a student at the University of Western Australia, has had outstanding success in his studies in England. It was recently announced that Mr. Underwood had been awarded his Doctorate of Philosophy at Cambridge. He was a Hackett student at the University of Western Australia, having come up from Perth Modern School. In 1928 lie obtained his degree of Bachelor of Science, and later went to the School of Agriculture at Cambridge to continue agricultural research work. He is remembered for brilliant scholastic work at the University of Western Australia, having won the Amy Saw scholarship in Science in 1926, while he was granted in 1929 a Hackett studentship, which, was renewed last year. Mr. Underwood is a son of Mr. J. Underwood, of 'Hill Crest,' Coorow."
From The Mirror newspaper, Saturday 12 August 1933:
Engagement
"Erica Reid, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Chandler, of 18 Park Road, Mt. Lawley, to Eric John, second son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Underwood, of Hillcrest, Coorow."
From The Geraldton Guardian newspaper, Tuesday 7 August 1951:
Agricultural Science - Fifty Years of Progress - Informative Lecture
"Farmers on the Midland and Wongan Railways will have the opportunity this week of meeting Professor E. J. Underwood, who is the Director of the Institute of Agriculture at the University of Western Australia, as he is delivering a Jubilee lecture at Moora tonight, at Morawa tomorrow, and at the Geraldton Town Hall next Friday. These addresses have been arranged, at the request of the Jubilee Science and Educational Committee, by the Adult Education Board, and the title of the lecture will be 'Fifty Years of Agricultural Science in Australia'. Dr. Underwood is not only a brilliant agricultural scientist, but also an excellent speaker. Still in his early forties, the Professor is a graduate of the University of Western Australia and Cambridge and is an outstanding example of the value of our educational system. The son of an English farmer, who settled at Waddy Forest, near Coorow on the Midland Railway, he obtained a scholarship to the Perth Modern School from where he won an exhibition to the University. After a brilliant degree, course, he won an Amy Saw Research Scholarship, which enabled him to do an honors degree, the subject of his thesis being 'The Feeding Value of Wheatbelt Pastures'. From the University of Western Australia he won a Hackett Research Scholarship to Cambridge, where he was awarded his Doctor's degree in Agricultural Science in the field of animal nutrition. On his return to Western Australia he became active in research work, which has proved of untold value to the State. It is not often that men on the land have the opportunity of meeting such a specialist and so it is anticipated that there will be a large attendance of farmers and graziers, in addition to businessmen, at his lectures. Anybody wishing to discuss stock or land problems with the Professor, while he is in the Geraldton district, may do so by advising the stock firms or the district officer of the Department of Agriculture."
| Reference: Carnamah Historical Society & Museum and North Midlands Project, 'Eric John Underwood' in Biographical Dictionary of Coorow, Carnamah and Three Springs, retrieved 20 April 2024 from www.carnamah.com.au/bio/eric-john-underwood [reference list] |
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