The Australian Women's Register

Kathleen Lester was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 13 June 1970 in recognition of her work as Welfare Officer at the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs in Sydney.

Margaret Bain was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 31 December 1976 for Aboriginal welfare.

Eva Collins was awarded an Imperial Service Medal in 1979 for her work for ‘Queensland Aboriginal Affairs – Dormitory Supervisor.’ She worked at Cherbourg Aboriginal Mission.

Joyce Caroline Clague (née Mercy) was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 31 December 1977, with the citation ‘Aborigines’. As Joyce Mercy, she worked as a welfare officer at the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs in Sydney in the 1960s.

Elizabeth Hansen was a foundation member of Perth’s oldest Aboriginal community organisation, the Coolbaroo League, formed in the 1940s. She has been a long-time campaigner for Aboriginal rights and was vice-president of the New Era Aboriginal Fellowship and Treasurer of the Aboriginal Rights League and Old People’s Home.

Hansen won the Western Australian Citizen of the Year Award in 1976, and was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for ‘Aboriginal welfare’ on 31 December 1979.

Professor Enid Campbell, a leading Australian scholar in constitutional law and administrative law, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 16 June 1979 for services to education in the field of law. Campbell, who was the first female dean of a law faculty in Australia, was bestowed with the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the University of Tasmania in 1990.

Winifred Hilliard was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire on I June 1977 for ‘Aboriginal welfare’. She was later awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia on the Queen’s birthday list, 1989, for ‘service to Aboriginal welfare, particularly the Pitjantjatjara people’.

Margaret McIntyre was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to education on 1 January 1948. She was the first woman Member of Parliament in Tasmania and was killed in an air crash three months after being elected to the Legislative Council seat of Cornwall as an independent.

On 12 February 1942 the Empire Star sailed from Singapore harbour. The ship which normally had an allocation of space for 20 passengers was carrying over 2100 people. While on route to Batavia, the ship came under enemy fire and received three direct hits. During one of the raids, two of the Australian nursing staff on board, Sister Vera A Torney and Margaret Anderson came on deck to attend to the wounded. They protected their patients by covering them with their bodies. Staff Nurse Vera Torney was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military) on 22 September 1942 for her work with the Australian Army Nursing Service. Staff Nurse Margaret Anderson received the George Medal.

Gwendoline (commonly known as Gwen) Plumb was awarded an Order of Australia (AM) on 13 June 1993 for services to the entertainment industry [1]. On 1 January 1973 she was appointed Order of the British Empire (Civil) for service to the community and charities.

Agnes Good was acknowledged for her work in Adelaide for the Red Cross Society through her appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 19 October 1920. Born and educated in England, and married there to Dr J E Good, she arrived in Adelaide before World War I and was an early member of the Australian Red Cross Society, South Australian Division, having joined it in August 1914. She became a member of the Division Council in 1917. Good had been a medical student before her marriage. She organised fund raising activities during the war and continued to work for the Red Cross Society afterwards. Her contribution was rewarded with life membership. Her other community interests included chairmanship of the Combined Charitable Organisations and of the Children’s Hospital Red Cross Canteen in 1927. She also assumed the role of official visitor to various hospitals in Adelaide.

Hazel de Berg interviewed thousands of people in her work as an oral historian. A significant number of her interviews are held in the oral history collection of the National Library of Australia. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1968 for services in collection of archival material.

Annie Miller’s contribution to the Red Cross Society in Launceston, Tasmania was acknowledged with her appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 15 February 1918. Her major work was as Secretary of the Red Cross, Northern Tasmania from 1914 until her death in 1926. She held the position also, of Secretary to the Fund Raising Committee of the Children’s Section of the Launceston Public Hospital.

Sources used to compile this entry: A biographical register, vol II, p 104.

Champion sprinter and hurdler, Shirley Strickland (as she was then known), became the first Australian female to win an Olympic medal in a track and field event at the London Olympic Games in 1948.

Shirley de la Hunty was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on 26 January 2001 for service to the community, particularly in the areas of conservation, the environment and local government, and to athletics as an athlete, coach and administrator. She had been appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (MBE) for services to athletics on 1 January 1957.

Rose Crow was appointed to the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1962 for services as an archivist at the Australian Embassy in Washington.

On 4 October 1918 Molly Barr Smith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to the Red Cross in South Australia during the war.

Pixie O’Harris was an artist and author particularly of children’s books. On 1 January 1976 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to the Arts. In 1953 she was awarded the Queen’s Coronation Medal and in 1977 she received the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal. In 1977 she became patron to the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney.

Dr Lorna Lloyd-Green founded the sterility clinic at the Queen Victoria Hospital (Melbourne) which became the infertility clinic and later the IVF Clinic at Queen Victoria Monash. Lloyd-Green ran the clinic for 25 years. She was also the first medical adviser to the Nursing Mothers Association (now Australian Breastfeeding Association). She was the first woman fellow of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), and foundation fellow of the Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; she was a senior member and president of the Australian Federation of Medical Women and president of Medical Women’s International Association, hosting a world conference in Melbourne in 1970, the year in which she was named Woman of the Year. Lloyd-Green was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 16 June 1979 and Officer (Civil) on 1 January 1968 for services to medicine as a doctor.

Soroptimist International of the South West Pacific (SISWP) is one of four federations in the world’s largest classified service organization for business and professional women. Soroptimist International has more than 100,000 members in 3,000 clubs in over 100 countries and territories.

Soroptimists are executive women of all ages, cultures and ethnic groups who work through a Programme of Service to make a difference for women throughout the world.

Isobel May Schenk worked for many years alongside her husband, Reverend Rodolphe Samuel Schenk (1888-1969), at the Mt Margaret Mission in Western Australia. Rev. Schenk established the mission, located between Leonora and Laverton, in 1921, under the auspices of the Aboriginal Inland Mission (later the United Aborigines Mission). According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Rev. Schenk, Isobel Schenk was ‘a typist’ who ‘taught crafts to the women’ on the mission. The mission was made a central ‘rationing station’ and was visited by anthropologists and researchers including A. P. Elkin, Phyllis Kaberry, J. B. Birdsell and Norman Tindale. Along with the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, these researchers engaged in the assimilation debates of the day. Rev. Schenk’s ‘unsympathetic and fundamentalist interference with traditional practices’ attracted criticism from Elkin, and resistance from Aboriginal elders. Many Aboriginal children were taken to the mission, which had a children’s home and a hospital, and mining- and pastoral-related work was carried out there.

Isobel Schenk was appointed to the Order of the British Empire (31 December 1977) for work in Aboriginal welfare.

In October 1972, two armed men abducted teacher Mary Gibbs and her students. 20-year-old Gibbs was in charge of the one-teacher primary school at Faraday, a farming district near Castlemaine, Victoria. The men left a ransom note and placed their hostages in the back of the van and drove to the forest. To help settle the young children Gibbs pretended the incident was a game and sang songs to them during the long cold night. Near dawn, she realised the men had left the front of the van. She urged the children to kick the van door with her. Luck was with them, the door came free and they were able to make their escape.

After this incident, the then Liberal Victorian Government closed one-teacher schools. Mary Gibbs received the George Medal on 22 January 1973 for bravery during a child hostage incident.

Doris Mary Robb was born in 1890 at Armadale Victoria, the daughter of Arthur Thomas and Ethel Gertrude (née Richardson) Robb. On 20 November 1913 she married Rupert Major Downes (later Major-General and director of Medical Services, 2nd Australian Army Melbourne) at St John’s Church Toorak. They had three children. As Doris Downes she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 4 October 1918 for work among soldiers’ families through the Friendly Union of Soldier’s Wives. She died in 1981 aged 91 years.

Swimming champion Dawn Fraser is an iconic figure in Australian sporting history. A exceptional sportswoman with a larrikin streak, over the course of her swimming career, she won eight Olympic and eight Commonwealth medals. In October 1962 Dawn Fraser became the first woman to swim the 100 metres in less than a minute. She had to wait until after her retirement to see this record broken, and even then, it took eight years.

Dawn Fraser was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on June 8, 1988. Her citation read, “For service to the community, particularly as a sports consultant and administrator, and through organisations for people with disabilities, and to the environment.”

Dawn Fraser also had a short political career. She was elected as an independent MLA for the seat of Balmain, New South Wales, in 1988. The seat was abolished in a redistribution prior to the next election. She ran, unsuccessfully, for the new seat of Port Jackson in 1991.

Born Lilian Edith Lewers, the daughter of Alexander and Rebecca (née McFarland) Lewers in 1867 at Creswick, Victoria, Lillian married medical practitioner David Grant in 1892. She was a council member of both the Australian and Victorian Red Cross Societies as well as a member of the Junior Red Cross Committee. From 1915-1926 she was chairman and secretary of the Home Hospitals Committee. Chairman of the Committee for Blinded Soldiers, Lilian Grant was also an original member and honorary treasurer of the Victoria League Club.

From 1917-1918 Lilian Grant was president of the Alexandra Club. She was also involved with the establishment of the club library, and for many years was its acquisitions officer. During the First World War she changed her buying policy from purchasing novels to that of buying books about war and illustrated newspapers. On 19 October 1920, Lilian Grant was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for service to the Red Cross Society. She died in 1941 aged 74.

Margaret Court was one of Australia’s greatest sportswomen. She won 62 grand slam titles and, in 1970, was the second woman in history to win the Australian, French, U.S. and Wimbledon titles in a calendar year.

Winner of the ABC Sportsman of the Year Award in 1963 and 1970, Margaret Court was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) on 1 January 1967 for services to sport and international relations. In 1970 she also won the Walter Lindrum Award.

In January 2003, Tennis Australia renamed Melbourne Park’s Show Court One to the Margaret Court Arena. She was the recipient of the 2003 Australia Post Australian Legends Award, and featured on a special 50c stamp.

In 2006 she was awarded the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier Award.

In 2017, in the context of Australian debates about marriage equality, Margaret Court became a controversial figure, as many prominent people in tennis condemned her views on same sex marriage and the rights of transgender people.

In January 2021, Court was awarded an AC in the Australian Day Honours Awards list, for eminent service to tennis as an internationally acclaimed player and record-holding grand slam champion, and as a mentor of young sportspersons. In response to criticisms that it was not appropriate to honout her this way, based upon her controversial views on the rights of LGBTQI+ people, an anonymous member of the Council for the Order of Australia said the award to address a gender disparity created five years ago when Rod Laver became the first tennis player to be made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Jessie Mary Johnston, the daughter of Brigadier-General Walter John and Mary Euphemia (née Johnston) Clark, was born at St Kilda in 1889. Educated privately in Tasmania during World War I she became a member of the Red Cross Society (Tasmania). On 3 December 1923 Jessie Clark married her maternal cousin Dr William Johnston (later Sir) and they had two sons. From 1939-1952 Jessie Johnston was a member of the Red Cross Centenary Council, and from 1940-1942 a member of the Executive Committee of the Australian Imperial Forces Women’s Association. When Johnston was appointed Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Commissioner for War Services, she resigned from the presidency of the Alexandra Club but remained a member of the Committee. In 1951 Johnston became President of the YWCA of Australia, a post she held until 1957. On 1 January 1958 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for service to the community. Lady Jessie Johnston died in 1984, aged 94.

Awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 30 August 2000, Heather McKay was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 26 January 1979 for her service to the sport of squash. She had previously been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1969 for services to sport. An Australian representative in squash and hockey, McKay dominated ladies squash for two decades and lost only two squash matches in her career.