| Admin History | Monica Agnes McMain, the daughter of John McMain, was born in Northampton in 1915. She was educated at Northampton School for Girls and University College Nottingham (Bachelor of Arts in French with Latin, 1936). She was awarded a Cambridge Teaching Diploma by University College Nottingham in 1937. Monica married Maurice Partridge in 1940. In September of the same year she began studying languages and phonetics at the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies in the University of London. In 1944 she began teaching Russian phonetics at University College London.
In 1947, Monica Partridge moved to University College Nottingham as a tutorial assistant in the Department of Slavonic Studies. She was appointed as senior lecturer for the Department in 1962 and in 1967 became Head of the Department of Slavonic Studies and Professor of Russian Language and Literature (the first female Chair). She retired in 1980 and was made an Emeritus Professor. She was awarded a Ph.D. in 1953 for her thesis, 'Alexander Herzen: A Study of His Years in Russia 1812-1847'. She was one of very few scholars in her field to be honoured by the Yugoslavian Government and awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Kiev, in recognition of her work to promote relations with Soviet and Yugoslav scholars.
Maurice William ('Bill') Partridge was born in Lincoln on 15 June 1913 and was educated at Magnus Grammar School, Newark and University College Nottingham (Bachelor of Pharmacy, 1936 and Bachelor of Science, 1937). He was awarded a Ph.D. (London) in 1942. He worked for a variety of organisations, including West Midlands Forensic Science Laboratory, British Pharmacopoeia Commission and Boots, before being appointed in 1947 as a lecturer in the Chemistry Department of University College Nottingham (now the University of Nottingham). He became Reader in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1955 and first Lord Trent Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1960. In 1967, Professor Partridge was made Head of the Department of Pharmacy and in 1972 he was appointed deputy Vice-Chancellor. He died in 1973. |
| Custodial History | The collection was acquired by the University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections on several occasions between 1985 and 1996. Further material was received in 2009. |
| Description | The papers in the collection relate to the career in Slavonic studies of Professor Monica Partridge. The papers include correspondence, including letters from Janko and Nora Lavrin, and other academics in the field of Slavonic studies; personal papers collected by Monica Partridge concerning her education, career and interest in Slavonic languages; sketches by Nora Lavrin; research papers including photographs of Slavonic documents; papers relating to the International Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia; and files maintained by Monica Partridge during her working life at The University of Nottingham, containing correspondence, printed items, and circulars relating the work of the Department of Slavonic Studies, Monica Partridge's membership of various organisations relating to Slavonic studies, and the development of academic and cultural links between the University of Nottingham and universities in the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. |