21 Facts About Betty Archdale

Helen Elizabeth Archdale was an English-Australian sportswoman and educator.

Betty Archdale was the inaugural Test captain of the England women's cricket team in 1934.

Betty Archdale later served as headmistress of Abbotsleigh, a private girls' school in Sydney, and was an inaugural member of the Australian Council for the Arts.

Betty Archdale was born in London, the daughter of Helen Betty Archdale, a suffragette who was at one time jailed for smashing windows at Whitehall and was later renowned as a leading British feminist.

Betty Archdale's father was an Irish professional soldier in the British Army, who died in World War I when Archdale was eleven.

Betty Archdale attended Bedales School in Hampshire where she learned to play cricket and, thence, to St Leonards School in St Andrews, Fife.

Betty Archdale played as a right-handed batter and appeared in five Test matches for England between 1934 and 1937.

The tour was initiated by Australian captain Margaret Peden, who like Betty Archdale was a Christian Scientist; their mothers had previously corresponded.

Betty Archdale played domestic cricket for various regional teams, as well as Kent.

Betty Archdale was awarded an Order of the British Empire for helping nurses escape from the conflict.

Betty Archdale was a member of the University Senate for 25 years, and a television and radio personality throughout the 1960s.

Betty Archdale was headmistress of the private girls school Abbotsleigh in Wahroonga, Sydney for 12 years from 1958.

Betty Archdale reformed the curriculum, introducing physics and cutting back on British, in favour of Australian, history.

Betty Archdale lived on an estate in Galston, Sydney, with her brother Alexander Archdale, an actor.

In June 1968, Betty Archdale was named as an inaugural member of the Australian Council for the Arts.

Betty Archdale was raised as an adherent of Christian Science, which her mother had credited with fixing her own health issues.

Betty Archdale converted to Anglicanism in the 1950s under the influence of her friend Felix Arnott.

Betty Archdale was influenced by an incident where a Christian Science hospice refused to care for her mother, on the grounds she had visited a hospital following a heart attack in violation of the denomination's restrictions on medical treatment.

In March 1999, Betty Archdale was one of the first ten women to be granted Honorary Life Membership of Marylebone Cricket Club in England.

Betty Archdale died on 1 January 2000 at the age of 92, in Sydney.

The Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools "Betty Archdale Debating" competition, involving Sydney's private and Catholic girls' schools, is named in her honour.