| From | South Africa |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 26 October 1907, Durban, eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Death |
2005, Durban, eThekwini, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (aged 97 years) |
| Star sign | Scorpio |
Professor Elizabeth Sneddon (1907–2005) was a speech and drama teacher, theatrical director and academic.
Education
Sneddon did her schooling at Durban Girls’ College, she then attended the University of Glasgow, where she took a MA Honours degree in English, followed by a post-graduate teacher training degree at the University of London. She also attended the Royal Academy of Music where she obtained a licentiate.
Work in speech and drama teaching
Sneddon was appointed as the senior English teacher at St Cyprian’s School, Cape Town. In 1950 she was awarded a Nuffield Dominion Travelling Fellowship to study speech and drama at British universities.
After her academic studies in the United Kingdom she returned to Durban and opened a speech and drama studio. Mabel Palmer, of the University of Natal invited Sneddon to give extra mural classes to the black students enrolled at the University of South Africa who were excluded from the white universities. The University of Durban-Westville had its origins in this venture.
Sneddon founded and became the inaugural head of the department of Speech and Drama at the University of Natal. Sneddon was also instrumental in having drama accepted as an examination subject at the high school level in South African schools.
Sneddon directed many plays including Oedipus and King Lear.
Legacy
The Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on the campus of the University of KwaZulu–Natal was named in her honour in 1981.