Claire weekes biography
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Claire Weekes was born in Sydney in 1903 to musician Ralph Weekes and his wife, Fanny. Claire was the eldest of their four children, and her natural intelligence and love of learning led her to the University of Sydney, where she studied zoology.
She excelled in her studies, and was about to become the first woman to earn a doctorate from the university, when she started to cough. It was 1927. Her illness became nightmarish – she lost weight, her skin changed colour. And the doctors’ diagnosis was heartbreaking: tuberculosis.
Claire knew that TB was a potential death sentence, and had to be managed carefully - her survival depended on it. She was told she had to rest: no study, no exertion of any kind.
Getting sicker and sicker, she would often lie in bed at night, and anxiety about her health would hit. In the darkness, she could feel her heart beating in her chest. Her breathing would get shallow, and she would feel dizzy, unable to catch her breath.
She hated this panic. She hated the way the room seemed to get smaller, her heartbeat louder. It was excruciating, lying in bed, night after night, unable to escape this fear. The panic simply overwhelmed her. It was scarier than the TB itself.
Then, she got better. The doctors had been wrong: it wasn't TB after all,
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Claire Weekes was educated at Sydney Girls High School; and in 1926 graduated from the University of Sydney, receiving the University Medal in Zoology. She became a demonstrator in zoology and began doctoral research on reptile placentation, her study supported by a Macleay Fellowship from the Linnean Society of NSW and later a Rockefeller Fellowship which enabled her to study at University College London in 1929. Weekes was an exceptional young scientist in the field of evolutionary biology, as indicated by the naming of a species of lizard after her, Lygosoma weekesae, in 1929.
Before gaining her D. Sc, Weekes had been misdiagnosed with TB and confined to a sanatorium. On discharge, she suffered from panic attacks. During her time in Europe she overcame her panic, assisted by suggestions from her fiancé, Marcel Aurousseau, who had observed the experience of shell-shocked soldiers in World War I.
In London Weekes’ research focus changed and she worked on comparative neurology with another Australian, Sir Grafton Elliot Smith.
On her return to Sydney Weekes resumed her work in zoology while hoping to move into medicine. Passionate about music since childhood, Weekes studied singing part-time at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music where she met the piano tea