Australian Dictionary of Biography

Freda Oxnam, later Freeman, 1921

Courtesy Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Archives

Winifred Alice (Freda) Freeman, née Oxnam (1905–2000), schoolteacher and community leader, and Eric Bernard Freeman (1898–1966), engineer, were a married couple prominent in voluntary service to tertiary education. Freda was born on 22 April 1905 in Bendigo, Victoria, elder child of Victorian-born parents George Charles Oxnam, accountant, and his wife Mary Elizabeth, née Sampson. She attended Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School (BGGS) (1917–21) and, as a Women’s College resident, the University of Queensland (UQ) (BSc, 1925), where her enthusiasm for student life included Boat Club participation as a ‘lady coxswain.’ Later, she would recall a time of close academic and social relationships between staff and students, ‘when I just seemed to blossom … Everything in my life I love I can put back to the university days’ (Pennell 2000, 15).

Engagement to Eric Freeman while a student ended Oxnam’s aspiration to pursue a career in scientific research. After graduating, she taught at BGGS (1925) then St Gabriel’s School, Charters Towers. The couple married on 19 April 1927 at St Colomb’s Church of England, Clayfield, Brisbane, and were to have four children: Lois, Beryl, Ian, and Merle. While they were young, Freda focused on community activities, apart from two years (1944–45) during World War II when she rejoined BGGS temporarily to augment the depleted science staff. She would later teach at Cavendish Road State High School (1962–70).

A long-term member and president (1958–61) of the Australian Federation of University Women–Queensland, Freeman was committed to furthering educational opportunities for women. She was a driving force in establishing the AFUWQ Fellowship Fund, which, in 1972, began awarding annual scholarships for postgraduate research or study, one of which was named after her. The fund’s main source of income was revenue from the AFUWQ’s academic dress-hiring service, of which she was joint convenor (1976–85).

In 1953 Freeman had been an inaugural member of the Queensland standing committee of ‘A Call to the People of Australia.’ As president (1952–56) of the National Council of Women of Queensland (NCWQ), she emphasised its ‘endeavours to raise the status of women, to work for the good of children and to stress the importance of every aspect of home and family life’ (Buckley 2005, 2). The NCWQ’s efforts to foster the welfare of women in prison led to her appointment to the Queensland Parole Board (1959–80), in which capacity she was respected for seeking a balance between the well-being of prisoners and protection of the community. She was also a consumers’ representative on the Fish Board (1958–62), which managed the State’s fish supply and related works. In 1965 she was appointed MBE and in 1980 elevated to CBE for her services to the community.

Eric Freeman was born on 22 March 1898 at Mount Morgan, Queensland, second of three surviving children of English-born parents Jesse Bernard Freeman, schoolmaster, and his wife Sarah Hill, née Lloyd. He attended three State schools, at each of which his father was head teacher: Mount Morgan Boys’ (1905–06); Eagle Junction, Brisbane (1906–09); and Maryborough Central Boys’ (1910). In 1910 he was awarded the Lilley memorial prize for achieving the highest mark in the State scholarship examination. At Brisbane Grammar School (1911–15), he continued to excel academically while representing the school in rugby, cricket, and rowing; he was a house prefect and an officer in the cadets.

World War I having broken out in 1914, Freeman overstated his age to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 8 December 1915, immediately he finished school. He served on the Western Front, initially with the 11th Light Trench Mortar Battery (November 1916 to February 1917). Following officer training and commissioning in England, he joined the 41st Battalion in Belgium in June. Less than a month later, he was back in England, hospitalised with gunshot wounds to his face and side. In November he rejoined the battalion and in January 1918 was promoted to lieutenant. He returned home in June 1919, and his AIF appointment ended on 24 September.

From 1920 Freeman was a mechanical and electrical engineering student at UQ (BE, 1924), resident at St John’s College and again a stand-out sportsman, particularly in rowing. He joined the University Boat Club and, as a member of its VIII (1921–24), stroked Queensland to victory in the Australian university championships in 1922 and 1923. His prowess was later commemorated (1967) in the naming of UQ’s Eric Freeman Boatshed.

In 1923 Freeman joined the staff of the City Electric Light Co. Ltd (CEL), Brisbane, which, in 1953, the State government would convert to a public utility, the Southern Electric Authority of Queensland. Employed at first on design and project management, he transferred to the overhead mains department in 1926 and in succeeding years assumed increasing responsibility for the construction and operation of the company’s rapidly expanding transmission and distribution systems. He published a paper on the subject in the Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia (1933). In October 1946 CEL sent him on a five-and-a-half-month study tour of North America. Outcomes included installation of two-way radios in the company’s vehicles and distribution depots, and major research into lightning as the primary cause of blackouts. He was promoted in 1947 to executive in charge of transmission and distribution.

Freeman had chaired the Brisbane division of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, in 1946. He was also prominent in the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, convening the committees on consumers’ services and on rural electrification. The worsening effects of presenile dementia prompted his early retirement, at the end of 1960.

The Freemans maintained lifelong ties with their alma mater and, as voluntary workers, assisted its development. Eric was an honorary lecturer in engineering (1940–54). He served on the senate (1944–60) and numerous committees, including the combined advisory committee. In 1946 he presented a notice of motion for a senate review of the university’s engineering teaching, which recommended replacing the single chair with separate chairs in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. Freda was a member of the senate (1960–68) and of the standing committee of the council (later convocation). A foundation member of the UQ Alumni Association, she was elected to the executive at the organisation’s first meeting in 1967 and remained in that role for fifteen years (vice-president 1970–82). She continued as a volunteer for the association and for the AFUWQ, particularly the dress-hiring service, until the 1990s. The university awarded her its medal for distinguished service in 1991.

Eric died of bronchopneumonia on 25 January 1966 in South Brisbane and was cremated. His family remembered him as ‘an intelligent, kind and gentle man’ (Jensen pers. comm.) who grew vegetables and played the piano, but who ‘was “fragile” … and easily shattered by reminders of the war’ (Meyers pers. comm.). Freda had cared for him and for her elderly father until he, too, died (1968), after which she travelled extensively. She was a strong-minded, well-organised person who, in old age, was ‘fiercely independent’ (Meyers pers. comm.). Survived by her children, she died on 19 May 2000 in Canberra and was cremated. Her colleagues remembered her fondly. Lisbeth Hopkins (UQ Alumni) described her ‘as a “noble role model” … universally respected and loved for her kindness, wisdom and resourcefulness’; and Barbara Williams (AFUWQ), as ‘always gracious, a good friend and a wonderful lady’ (Pennell 2000, 15).