The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Marie Charlotte Bage was best known through her association with the National Council of Women of Victoria, of which she was an inaugural member and treasurer for more than 20 years. She was a member of the International Council of Women and in 1900 she joined the committee of the Convalescent Home for Women at Clayton, and the Parents’ National Education Union. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children also interested her from their beginnings. For many years she was a member of the City Newsboys’ Society and of the Charity Organisation Society.

In 1909 she was the honorary treasurer of the Victoria League of Victoria, and was a member of the council. She was also a member of the Field Naturalists’ Club, the Forest league, the Arts and Crafts Society, and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. She was one of the first members of the Alexandra Club and a foundation member and one-time treasurer of the Lyceum Club.

She was the mother of Miss Freda Bage, principal of the Women’s College, Brisbane University, and Miss Ethel Bage, who, after a distinguished career at the Melbourne University, took over the control of a motor garage in Kew on the death of her friend, Miss Alice Anderson. Mrs Bage’s only son, Robert, was a member of the Mawson Antarctic Expedition in 1911. He served in the Royal Australian Engineers, and was killed at Gallipoli on May 7, 1915. Her husband, Edward, died in 1891.