• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE2250

Pirie, Daphne

  • MBE
  • Maiden name Welch, Daphne
(1931 – 2022)
  • Born 12 December 1931, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  • Died 1 April 2022, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
  • Occupation Hockey player, Sports administrator, Track and Field Athlete

Summary

Daphne Pirie was a nationally ranked track and field athlete who captained the Queensland women’s athletics and hockey teams and represented Australia in hockey. She then became a world-ranked Master’s Athlete, winning eight gold medals in international competitions. In 1989 she was awarded an MBE for services to hockey and appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia in June 2012.

Details

One of eight children – six boys and two girls – Daphne Pirie came to love sport at an early age. Her father, President of the Queensland Rugby League and a former champion sprinter, lost a leg as a Lighthorseman in the First World War and turned to sports administration on his return home. On Sunday afternoon outings the family would hold potato races by the creek. Daphne’s mother, who grew up on a farm in Rockhampton and worked hard to look after her children and her crippled husband, encouraged her daughter to get out and about and be involved in sport. School sport mostly consisted of air raid drills, but Daphne would swim at the Milton School swimming pool and run at the Exhibition Ground at State Primary School Athletics days.

When the Queensland Women’s Amateur Athletic Association re-formed after the war, Pirie began running. Serious training began at the age of seventeen when she was sent with a junior team to Sydney by the Mayne Harriers’ Athletic Club in 1948. By 1955 she held 40 open championships in her State and was unbeaten in all events.

In the early 1950s Pirie and others re-formed the Valley Women’s Hockey Club (disbanded during the war) as a social activity alongside the Valley men’s team. In her second year in the game Pirie made the State team, and by 1955 was in the Australian team. She enjoyed the team game, finding it easier than running – ‘running is tougher, and it’s individual’ – and was happy to switch between the two; playing hockey in the winter, running in summer, and working at Whatmore’s Sports Store in between. Daphne Pirie was married in 1958 and had her first child soon afterward. The family lived at the Gold Coast and Pirie began playing hockey at Murwillumbah.

Not content only to spectate when her elite career was over, Daphne developed a career in sports administration. On Ruby Robinson’s retirement she was appointed to the Queensland Olympic Council, becoming its first female vice-president. She was founding president of Womensport Queensland and is a director of Gold Coast Events Management. She was awarded life memberships with Hockey Australia, Women’s Hockey Australia and Hockey Queensland and is a Hockey Queensland Hall of Fame Inductee. She was a board member of the Queensland Academy of Sport and President of the Gold Coast Sporting Hall of Fame. She was honoured by Womensport Queensland who, in 2006, granted her their inaugural 2006 contribution to sport award.

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Events

  • 1989

    Services to Hockey

    Member of the British Empire (MBE)
  • 2003

    Inducted into the Queensland Hockey Hall of Fame
  • 2002 - 2006

    Vice Patron of Hockey Queensland
  • 1987 - 1993

    President of the Queensland Women’s Hockey Association
  • 1991

    Queensland Women’s Hiockey Association

    Life Member
  • 1962

    Captain – Queensland Women’s Hockey Team
  • 1988

    Australian Women’s Hockey Association

    Life Member
  • 1961

    Appointed an Australian Umpire
  • 1951 - 1952

    Queensland Track and Field Championships – winner 100 yards
  • 1952

    Queensland Track and Field Championships – winner 440 yards
  • 1956

    Queensland Track and Field Championships – winner 440 yards
  • 1951 - 1952

    Queensland Track and Field Championships – winner 880 yards
  • 1949

    Queensland Track and Field Championships – winner High Jump
  • 1952

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Finalist 220 yards
  • 1952

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Member of the Queensland relay team to win run in third place in the 4 X 110 yards event.
  • 1956

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Third Place 440 yards
  • 1956

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Fourth Place 880 yards
  • 1954

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Second Place 440 yards
  • 1954

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Second Place 880 yards
  • 1950

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Finalist 220 yards
  • 1950

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Finalist 880 yards
  • 1989

    Board member (since inception) of the Queensland Academy of Sport
  • 2006

    Recipient of the Inaugural award

    Womensport Queensland Contribution to Sport Award
  • 1993

    Founding President of Womensport Queensland (then named the Queensland Women’s Sports Foundation)
  • 2000

    Pan Pacific Master’s Games Competitor -winner of the 60m, 400 m and High Jump events in the 65 years category
  • 1950

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Finalist High Jump
  • 1950

    Australian Women’s Track and Field Championships – Finalist Long Jump
  • 1953 - 1957

    Member of the Queensland Women’s Hockey Team
  • 1960 - 1962

    Member of the Queensland Women’s Hockey Team
  • 1955

    Member of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team
  • 1993 - 2000

    Queensland Olympic Council Committee member
  • 1997

    Elected Vice President of the Queensland Olympic Council Committee (The first woman to be elected to the position)

Published resources

Related entries


  • Founding President
    • Womensport Queensland (1994 - )

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