Betty Archdale
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 England (Eng) |
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat (RHB) | |
| Bowling type | ||
| Tests | ||
| Matches | 5 | |
| Runs scored | 133 | |
| Batting average | 26.60 | |
| 100s/50s | 0/0 | |
| Top score | 32* | |
| Balls bowled | 0 | |
| Wickets | 0 | |
| Bowling average | N/A | |
| 5 wickets in innings | 0 | |
| 10 wickets in match | 0 | |
| Best bowling | N/A | |
| Catches/stumpings | 1/0 | |
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Test debut: 28 December 1934 |
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Helen Elizabeth "Betty" Archdale (born London in 1907 - died in 2000) was captain of the English women's cricket team in 1934 and 1935. In 1934/35 she led the first English cricket team to tour Australia and New Zealand, the result of which was a 2-0 victory over Australia. This tour did much both to raise the status of women's cricket and to heal some of the damage done to Anglo-Australian cricket relations by Bodyline two years earlier.
Archdale was the daughter of a suffragette and a professional soldier who died when she was eleven in World War I. Archade attended Bedales School in Hampshire where she learned to play cricket and thence to St Leonard's Girls' School at St Andrews.
After school Archdale attended McGill University in Montreal, graduating with a BA in Economics and Political Science. She studied Law in London, took the Bar exams and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn.
During World War II, she served as a wireless operator in Singapore. She was awarded an Order of the British Empire for helping nurses escape from the conflict.
Having moved to Australia, in 1946 she was appointed principal of Sydney University's "Women's College", a post she held for 10 years. Archdale was a member of the University Senate for 25 years, and a television and radio personality throughout the 1960s.
Archdale was headmistress of the private girls school Abbotsleigh in Wahroonga, Sydney for 12 years from 1958. Archdale was credited with breaking down the rigid system of discipline at the school, with introducing sex education and abandoning the gloves and hat as part of the school uniform. The Assembly Hall 1963 and Chapel 1965 both date from this time. She lived on an estate in Galston, Sydney with her brother.
In March 1999, Archdale was one of the first ten women to be granted Honorary Life Membership of Marylebone Cricket Club in England. In 1997, she was listed as an Australian Living Treasure. She died in January 2000.
The Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools, 'Archdale Debating' competition (a debating competition for Sydney's most exclusive private and catholic girls' schools) is named in her honour.
