Dame Daphne Helen Purves DBE (née Cowie; 8 November 1908 – 14 October 2008) was a New Zealand educationalist.
[1][2] In the 1979 Queen's Birthday Honours, Purves was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the International and New Zealand Federations of University Women.
[3] Daphne Helen Cowie married Herbert Dudley Purves in 1939.
She died in hospital on 14 October 2008 aged 99, three weeks short of her 100th birthday, and was survived by her two daughters, Hilary Helen and Elizabeth Celia, and one son, Robert Dudley Purves.
The IFUW offers a Daphne Purves Grant to help women graduates to obtain specialized training and to carry out independent research in any country for a minimum period of two (2) months of work.