Margery Freda Perham was born in 1895 in Lancashire, England.She attended St. Anne’s School, Abbots Bromley; St.Stephens College, Windsor; and St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. Shebegan her professional career as an assistant lecturer in historyat Sheffield University. Then, after a year in Somaliland (1922-3),She was Fellow and Tutor in Modern History and “ModernGreats” at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford (1924-9). In 1931-2 shewent around the world on a Rhodes Traveling Fellowship tostudy the administration of colored races in North America, Polynesia,Australia, and Africa. The next year took her to WestAfrica, and she has made frequent visits to Africa and the WestIndies since. She has been a Research Fellow of St. Hugh’s College(1930-9); Reader in Colonial Administration at Oxford(1939-48); Director of Oxford University Institute of ColonialStudies (1945-8); Fellow in Imperial Govemment, Nuffield College,Oxford, since 1947. Miss Perham was named a Commanderof the British Empire in 1948; awarded an honorary doctorate oflaws by St. Andrews University in 1952; elected a Fellow of theBritish Academy in 1961. Her publications include Native Administrationin Nigeria (1937), Race and Politics in Kenya (withElspeth Huxley, 1944), Lugard (two volumes, 1956, 1960), TheDiaries of Lord Lugard (with Mary Bull, 1959), African Discovery(with J. Simmons, 1948), The Government of Ethiopia(1948), as well as 2 early novels. She has edited a series,Colonial and Comparative Studies, published by Faber & Faber(1948), which includes several studies of colonial legislatures, anda 2-volume study of Nigerian economics, Economics of a TropicalDependency (1948). She has also contributed to such Americanpublications as The New York Times and Foreign Affairs.Miss Perham lives in Nuffield College, Oxford, England, whereshe is Senior Fellow and the only woman Official Fellow in theone mixed college in Oxford. She is on the Executive Committeeof the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas.
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