Hocken Digital Collections

Davidson, Mavis Melville : Papers

Details

Reference NumberMS-2985CreatorDavidson, Mavis Melville (nee Gedye), 1910-2004DescriptionThis collection includes correspondence/subject files, trip diaries and other papers relating to trips, colour slides, and photographs. Davidson's correspondents included climbers and trampers, scientists, friends, and family.
Only a small part of this collection is digitised and available through Digital Collections. Information about other items can be found on the Hākena catalogue, through the Library Catalogues link above.History / BiographyMavis Melville Gedye was born at Te Karaka, Poverty Bay, on 10 February 1910. She was the seventh child of a Norwegian mother and a Cornish father. She attended schools in Tokomaru Bay, Gisborne, Wairoa, and Dunedin. In 1925 she studied at Brain's Commercial College, afterwards working as a shorthand typist, ledgerkeeper and clerk.
In 1930 Mavis married Lewis Welton Hunt but the marriage ended in divorce within a few years. She moved to Wellington in 1933 where she was engaged in commercial work. In 1934 she joined the Tararua Tramping Club and developed a keen interest in tramping, mountaineering, and ecology. She married fellow club member Bill Davidson in 1939 and began studies at Victoria University in 1940.
Davidson's studies were interrupted by the war, when she served in the Women's Royal Army Corps. After the war she returned to Victoria, graduating M.Sc. in Zoology in 1950 and subsequently lecturing at the university. She was a foundation member of both the Wellington Botanical Society and the New Zealand Ecological Society. She also belonged to the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Association of Scientists.
Davidson was a member of the New Zealand Alpine Club, which she served as vice-president. She made many ascents in the Mount Cook area and in 1953 led the first all-woman ascent of Mount Cook. With Rod Hewitt she wrote a guide book titled 'The Mountains of New Zealand'. Davidson was also a talented alpine photographer, and won awards with some of her images.
In 1958 Davidson began work as a biologist with the New Zealand Forest Service. Her work included trials of '1080' poison on possums and she was particularly associated with deer studies, becoming recognised as an international authority on sika deer. She retired from the Forest Service in 1975, when she and her husband moved to Leigh, Auckland.
Among other honours, Davidson was a life member of the New Zealand Alpine Club and a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Foresters. She was awarded an OBE in 1992. She retained an enthusiasm for tramping into her eighties, and published a paper at the age of 85. She nursed her husband, Bill, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, for some years prior to his death in 1990. Davidson's own health problems (including the amputation of a leg) prevented her from climbing and tramping in her later years. She remained a prolific letter writer until her death at Leigh on 27 May 2004.

Photograph

Ruth Mason, Mavis Davidson and Margaret Burfin

Depicts Or Relates To

SubjectsMountaineersMountaineeringTrampingPhotographyForests and ForestryWomen scientistsWomen mountaineersSika deer

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Davidson, Mavis Melville : Papers

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