Hunt, Doreen   (1910 - 1997)

Born in ?February 1910 in UK; died in March 1997 in UK, a month short of her 87th birthday.

Often known to Australian botanists as 'Miss Hunt of Bool Lagoon', Doreen was born in the UK and first joined Stamford High School (UK) in 1922.

Later in life, Doreen wrote: "Stamford High School fostered my love of plant life". She studied under Miss Sunderland-Taylor (Headmistress, 1910-27) who was enthusiastic about plants and wildlife, and initiated a wildflower competition (Doreen remembered participating in one of those). Throughout her life she continued contact with the school through the 'Old Girls' Guild' (OGG).

After Stamford High School, Doreen joined St Peter's Training College, Peterborough, UK. In 1930, she passed the final examination of the University of Birmingham and Midland Training Colleges Joint Board with Distinction in Teaching and Advanced Biology.

We have a gap in Doreen's movements during the Second World War, other than it must have been around this time that she moved to South Australia.

An OGG Magazine from the 1990s says that it was in 1944 that Doreen first took up teaching at the Bool Lagoon Primary School (established 1888)in the South-East of SA. She wrote to the OGG that her pupils "have made their own garden and playing field, and they see in their district kangaroos, emus, and snakes". She also mentioned that she was District Commissioner for the Girl Guides and owned 'a small Fiat car'.

In November 1951 Doreen gave a talk to the Bool Lagoon CWA on a recent trip she had made to Switzerland, and displayed craft items she had brought back.

Outside her teaching commitments, Doreen made a hobby of collecting plants for the South Australian Herbarium in Adelaide.
She told the OGG: "I am particularly interested in orchids and have over 60 species in my personal collection".

In September 1965, the Bool Lagoon School closed and Doreen took Long Service Leave. She used this as an opportunity to 'indulge in unrestricted plant collecting for the South Australia Herbarium', moving to Finnis, which is thirty-five miles from Adelaide. She wrote "Really it's a good move as I can now enjoy living in the country, and also have benefits of the city when I so desire".

Doreen's collection of plants for the Herbarium continued until 1973. Her collections of Euphrasia proved a great source of help to Bill Barker in his publications on this genus.

By the 1980s, Doreen had returned to Britain. She visited Stamford High School for the first time in sixty years and remained an active member of the Old Girls' Guild until the end of her life.

She gave her blue and white Staffordshire china to the National Trust to go on show at Attingham Park in Shropshire 'and despatched her coffee cans to Leicester Museum'.

In her final years Doreen said she had received a photograph of a plaque erected to acknowledge her contributions in setting up the Nature Reserve at the Bool Lagoon School.

She died in March 1997, just a month short of her 87th birthday.

Source: Extracted from: Stamford Old Girls Guild magazine, https://stamfordschools.org.uk/images/Community/Publications/OGG/OGG2022_Digital.pdf
The Naracoorte Herald (SA) Mon 26 Nov 1951 Page 6, BOOL LAGOON C.W.A.
Portrait Photo: above OGG publication.

Collecting localities for 'Hunt, D.' from AVH (2023)

Data from 4,257 specimens