The Australian Women's Register

Jessie Vasey, the eldest of three daughters of Joseph and Jessie Halbert, attended Moreton Bay Girls’ High School as a boarder, before the family moved to Victoria in 1911. She then attended Lauriston Girls’ School before moving to Methodist Ladies’ College, Kew.

In May 1921 Jessie Halbert married George Alan Vasey. In the same year she graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts. In 1928-1930 and 1934-1936 Jessie Vasey and her two children accompanied George Vasey when he was posted to India. The family returned to Australia in 1937 and settled at Wantirna at the foot of the Dandenongs.

During World War II, while her husband was posted in Europe, Jessie Vasey worked with the Australian Comforts Funds. In 1940 Jessie Vasey was a foundation member and secretary of the Australian Imperial Forces Women’s Association. George Vasey drew the attention of his wife to the plight of war widows after visiting the widow of one of his men and was appalled at her living conditions. It was Major-General Vasey’s wish that after he returned from the battlefields he, with the help of his wife, would look after the families of the men who were killed while serving with him. On 5 March 1945, aged 49 years, Major-General Vasey was himself killed in an aircraft accident.

In 1945 Jessie Vasey established the War Widows’ Guild in Victoria, the following year in New South Wales and thereafter in every Australian State and the Australian Capital Territory. By the time of her death in 1966 the Guild had grown into an influential national lobby group.