Barbara Jefferis
| Barbara Jefferis | |
|---|---|
| Born |
25 March 1917 Adelaide, South Australia |
| Died | 3 January 2004 (aged 86) Sydney, New South Wales |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Years active | 1951-1998 |
Barbara Jefferis AM (25 March 1917, Adelaide, South Australia – 3 January 2004, Sydney, New South Wales) was an Australian author.
Barbara Jefferis was the daughter of (Arthur) Tarlton Jefferis (1884–1965) and Lucy Barbara Ingoldsby Jefferis, née Smythe (1888–1917). Her father was one of Australia's leading analytical chemists, who was in England working as an adviser to the munitions industry during World War I when Barbara was born.
When Barbara was about 6 months old her mother died. Due to the war, her father remained in England and Barbara was taken into the care of her aged maternal grandfather, who was a widower. He died when Barbara was three years old, and she then lived with her paternal grandmother and was absorbed into that woman's extensive group of grandchildren. Jefferis later said, "Even as a child, I was determined to be a writer, although I hadn't a very clear idea what that meant. When I was very small I had a slightly younger cousin who always wanted to hear stories, and for some reason I used to write them ... I rather think it was because a story wasn't a story until it was written down."
At age eight her father returned from England and was employed at Roseworthy Agricultural College (now part of the University of Adelaide) in the country some 50 km north of Adelaide. Barbara enjoyed the country life but was sent to boarding school after relations soured with her new stepmother.
She was educated as a boarder in Adelaide and then began a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Adelaide. In her second year she won the Jefferis Memorial Medal for Philosophy, named in honour of her paternal grandfather, Dr James Jefferis, a Congregational minister, philosopher and natural scientist, who died eight months after she was born.
In 1939, she left university and moved to Sydney to work as a journalist on The Daily News. Within a short time she married John Hamilton Hinde, a journalist on the same newspaper, and later famous as film critic for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Jefferis later worked at The Telegraph, Women's Weekly, and Pix.
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