- Entry type: Person
- Entry ID: AWE3976
Read, Irene Victoria
- OBE
- Maiden name Phillips, Irene Victoria
- Born 29 August 1880, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Died 27 August 1972, Mosman, New South Wales, Australia
- Occupation Charity worker, Community worker, Philanthropist
Summary
Irene Read was active in many women’s associations and charities in the first half of the twentieth century. During World War 2 she was very active in the Women’s Australian National Services, an organisation she helped to found of which she was Executive Chairwoman from 1942 until the demise of the organization in 1948.
Details
Irene Read began her career as a volunteer welfare worker at the age of twenty, with the Sydney Medical Mission. Belonging to an influential Sydney network of prominent professional and philanthropic women engaged in community work, she was a member of the Women’s Club by 1908 and while president (1925-29) was its delegate on the National Council of Women of New South Wales (executive-member, 1928). She chaired the ladies’ committee of the Havilah Church of England Children’s Home and was a council-member (1931-54) of the women’s central auxiliary of the New South Wales Society for Crippled Children. In 1936 she joined the Women’s Executive Committee and the Women’s Advisory Council for Australia’s 150th Anniversary Celebrations and in 1938 was appointed O.B.E.
Archival resources
Published resources
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Resource Section
- Read, Irene Victoria (1881-1972), Weatherburn, Hilary, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110354b.htm
- Edited Book
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Site Exhibition
- Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2003, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/honours/honours.html
- The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Smart, Judith and Swain, Shurlee (eds.), 2014, http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders
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Resource
- Trove: Read, Irene Victoria (1880-1972), http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-775087