Enid Derham was an Australian poet who taught for most of her life at the University of Melbourne. Born March 24, 1882 to Thomas Plumley Derham, she was educated at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College, and the University of Melbourne where she was granted her MA with High Honors in 1903. In 1904, she was granted the Shakespeare scholarship at the University, and in 1905, gained first place and first class honors in modern languages and literature. Shortly before World War I, Derham spent six months at Oxford, studying Anglo-Saxon and Old English.

Derham began her academic career as a tutor at Trinity and Ormond Colleges, and lectured for the University Extension Board and the Workers’ Educational Association. In 1921, she was offered and accepted a temporary appointment to lecture at the University of Western Australia, and in 1922, became the first woman appointed as a lecturer in English at the University of Melbourne. Derham continued to teach at the University of Melbourne until her death in 1941, with the exception of a year spent at Oxford (1927). In 1938, she spent a short period as acting professor of English at the University of Melbourne.

Derham was well-liked by her students, and is remembered as being warm, friendly and always very busy. She showed great promise early in her teaching career, but is not remembered as a great teacher. In fact, it’s stated in her official biography at Australian Dictionary of Biography that she was an ineffectual teacher whose scholarly output was little.

Enid Derham published her first book of poetry, “The Mountain Road and Other Verses”, in 1912, and later that same year, published “Empire: A Morality Play for Children”. Her poetry was widely published in literary journals throughout her life, but it wasn’t until 1952 that her works were collected into a posthumous collection of her poetry. Those poems showed a depth of emotion and passion that few of her acquaintances realized, and that established her reputation as a poet skilled in writing love poetry, lyric poetry and sonnets.

Enid Derham died of cerebral hemorrhage at her home in Kew on November 13, 1941, and was cremated.