Rica Hübbe


Edith Ulrica Hübbe, invariably referred to as Rica Hübbe or Hubbe, was a South Australian medical doctor and teacher.

History

Samuel Grau "Sam" Hübbe was the first South Australian commissioned officer to be killed in the Boer War. A practising Unitarian, he was a son of Ulrich Hübbe, who was important in the development of the Torrens Title system of land registration. Edith Agnes Cook was in 1876 the first female student at the University of Adelaide, and second principal of the Advanced School for Girls. They were married at the Cook home, Norwood, by John Crawford Woods on 3 January 1885.
Hübbe was born in Norwood, South Australia, the first child of surveyor and explorer Samuel Grau Hübbe and Edith Agnes Hübbe. Her education culminated in three years at the Advanced School for Girls, where her mother was once Principal, and was a successful student, awarded the Old Scholars' Prize for high achievements in the 1903 Leaving examinations, as well as some successes on the tennis court.
Hübbe, her sister Marjorie Hübbe and, until she married, Ethel Holder, taught at her mother's school at 17 and 23 Statenborough Street, Knightsbridge. She completed, by part-time study, several demanding degrees —
Knightsbridge School closed in 1922, and was taken over by the Misses Jones and Wells, after which Hübbe went into private practice and her sister Marjorie was married to Alfred Beech Caw by George Hale.
From 1927 to 1933 she was an instructor in Physiology and demonstrator in Biochemistry at the University of Adelaide.

Other interests

Hübbe was a member of Adelaide's Lyceum Club; she was the club's longstanding secretary, from 1928 to 1950, in which year she appears to have ceased being a member.

Family