Betty Archdale

Helen Elizabeth Archdale (21 August 1907 – 11 January 2000) was an English-Australian sportswoman and educationalist. She was the inaugural Test captain of the England women's cricket team in 1934. A qualified barrister and Women's Royal Naval Service veteran, she moved to Australia in 1946 to become principal of The Women's College at the University of Sydney. She later served as headmistress of Abbotsleigh, a private girls' school in Sydney, and was an inaugural member of the Australian Council for the Arts. Early life Archdale was born in London, the daughter of Helen Archdale (née Russel), a suffragette who was at one time jailed for smashing windows at Whitehall and was later renowned as a leading British feminist. Her father was an Irish professional soldier in the British Army, who died in World War I when Archdale was eleven. Her godmother was Emmeline Pankhurst. Archdale attended Bedales School in Hampshire where she learned to play cricket and, thence, to St Leonards School in St Andrews, Fife. Cricket Archdale played as a right-handed batter and appeared in five Test matches for England between 1934 and 1937. She was the first captain of England, leading the team on their first tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1934/35. She played domestic cricket for various regional teams, as well as Kent. Career After school, Archdale attended McGill University in Montreal, graduating in 1929 with a BA in economics and political science. She studied law in London. Specialising in international law, she conducted part of her studies in the Soviet Union. In 1938, she was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn.