Persona

Crozier, Dorothy

1918-2001

Dorothy Felice Crozier (1918-2001) studied history at Melbourne University from 1936 till 1944 and also tutored in its Department of History after the War. In 1948-49 Ms Crozier studied anthropology at the University of London and began research on culture change in Tonga, using a combination of anthroplogical and historical techniques, under the direction of Professor Raymond Firth. In 1950-51 she carried out fieldwork in Tonga as an ANU Research Scholar. In 1952 Ms Crozier joined the Department of Pacific History in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the ANU as a Research Assistant surveying and listing Western Pacific High Commission (WPHC) records left behind in the former WPHC Secretariat building in Suva following the WPHC’s move to Honiara. Ms Crozier continued this work, under the auspices of the ANU and the WPHC, until 1954 when she was appointed Archivist by the Government of Fiji. Ms Crozier remained Archivist at the Central Archives of Fiji and the Western Pacific High Commission till 1958 during which time she completed an inventory and calendar of the WPHC archives and wrote an administrative history of the WPHC to 1900. In 1959 Ms Crozier returned to London for further anthroplogical studies under Professor Firth and to write up work on the develoipment of social services in Tongan. In 1962-63 she was also involved in the conduct of a London kinship survey during this period. From 1964 till 1971 Ms Crozier lectured in the History Department at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, and worked on a definitive edition of William Mariner’s, Natives of the Tongan Islands. She gave the Macmillan Brown lectures in 1968. Ms Crozier returned to Australia in the early 1970s and lectured on European history at Melbourne University in 1976-77 before retiring from her academic career.