The Australian Women's Register

Known as Lily, Marion Lillian Addison had moved from Adelaide to Melbourne by 1910. In 1906 she first won the Victorian Ladies’ Tennis Championship.

As a tennis player she had significant success in Australia and often played doubles with her brother J. J. Addison. She was the South Australian Ladies Tennis Champion in 1906, 1908, 1909, 1910 and 1911. She was holder of the Victorian Ladies’ singles championship and mixed doubles title in 1909. In 1910 she won all three events in the New South Wales Tennis Championships – the ladies’ singles, ladies’ doubles and challenge pairs. In 1911 she was both Victorian and New South Wales State Ladies Tennis Champion. In late 1913, at the age of twenty seven, she commenced nursing training at the Melbourne Hospital, graduating in early 1917. She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service in August 1917 and was posted to a number of British military hospitals in Salonika, Greece. In 1918 she suffered lung trouble. After the Armistice, in February 1919 she transferred to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford, England.

In June 1919 she played in the All England Tennis Championships at Wimbledon. She defeated Mrs Tucker, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round. She was beaten by Mrs McNair in the second round 12-10, 6-2. She also competed in the mixed doubles with Max Decagis and beat Mrs L. Mauser-Doust, 6-3, 11-9.

She returned to Australia in July 1919 and by November that year had returned to local tennis, being selected in the Victorian team to play against New South Wales. In 1921 she was again nursing at the Melbourne Hospital but still managed to win the Victorian title for the fifth time. In 1925, Lily Addison held a position as Sister with the Australian Army Nursing Service Reserve.

It appears she did not marry. In 1937 she was a Sister at the Adelaide Hospital but in 1940 is recorded as living in Mont Albert, Melbourne. In 1972 she lived in Kew.