The Australian Women's Register

Phyllis Benjamin was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire on 31 May 1956 for services as a member of the Legislative Council in Tasmania. On 26 January 1977 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). From 1968 to 1969 Benjamin was leader of the Upper House in Tasmania – the first woman in Australia to be appointed to the position.

On 10 June 1961, Ida Spencer was appointed a Member to the Order of the British Empire for services to the Country Women’s Association in Western Australia.

Eileen Dawson was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) on 31 December 1976 for services to golf.

Mollie Lukis graduated with Honours from the University of Western Australia in 1932. She worked as a teacher from 1934 to 1940 in Perth, Victoria and England, then with the Munitions Supply Laboratories during the war years. In 1945 Lukis was appointed State archivist of the Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia. On June 1976 Lukis was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for archival work.

Rita Samson attended Miss Parnell’s School (now St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls), Claremont, Western Australia. She married Robert Bruce Laurie and the couple moved to Melbourne where they stayed for 28 years and raised two sons. Following the death of her husband, Laurie returned to Western Australia to stand in as Mayoress of Fremantle for the deceased wife of her brother Frederick Samson, Mayor of Fremantle. A Mayoress was needed for the upcoming Royal visit, and Laurie retained the position until her brother retired in 1972. She was appointed an Officer to the Order of the British Empire on 10 June 1967 for services as Mayoress of Fremantle. In 1976 she launched the Fremantle Port Authority’s new pilot ship the Sir Frederick Samson.

Gertrude Ruston was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 13 June 1970 for services to the community. Ruston was state secretary of the Women’s Service Guild for over six years, convener of the committee for Mentally Retarded Children, vice-president of the Slow Learning Children’s Group and Honorary life member. She served as a member on the Western Australian committee on Access for Disabled for many years and assisted in the producing of the Guide to Perth for the Handicapped. One of her most outstanding services was the establishment of the Citizens Advice Bureau in Perth. Ruston also was involved with the establishment of Council of Social Service of Western Australia, Citizens’ Advice Bureau and Perth Emergency Housekeeper Service.

On 12 June 2000 Beryl Grant was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to nursing and to the community through the support and development of services and programmes for children and families, particularly in rural and remote areas of Australia. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1976 for services to nursing.

Mildred Manning was a full-time staff member at Wesley College (Perth) from 1930 until her retirement in 1970. The College named the biology laboratory in the then new science block after her in December 1963. On 1 January 1964 Mildred Manning was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (MBE) for services to education in Western Australia.

Erica Underwood was the first woman Deputy Chairman of Council at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, the first psychologist trained in Western Australia, an ABC broadcaster and a founder of the University radio station 6 NR. [1] She was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) on 31 December 1977 for services to radio, education and the community.

Catherine King was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the community on 11 June 1966.

At the age of 15, Shane Gould won five Olympic medals at the Munich games in 1972. During her short career she was the holder of every freestyle world record from 100 metres to 1500 metres. On 13 June 1981 Shane Gould was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to swimming.

Raelene Boyle represented Australia at four Olympic games as a sprinter. She was appointed a Member of the British Empire on 15 June 1974 for services to athletics, and was named ABC Sportsperson of the Year in 1974. Named by the National Trust as one of ‘100 Living Treasures in 1998’, Raelene Boyle was an Olympic torchbearer at the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.

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.

Jeannie Gilruth, née McLay, married John Anderson Gilruth on 20 March 1899 at Dunedin, New Zealand and accompanied her husband to Australia when he took up the appointment as professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Melbourne in 1908. He later became the administrator of the Northern Territory in 1912. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1918 for her contribution to the Red Cross Society.

Helen Ashton was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 4 October 1918 for her work for the Red Cross Society. Her husband, James, worked closely with the first president, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson.

Adelaide Creswell was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 15 March 1918 for services to the Red Cross Society. From 1914 to 1915 she was a member of the provisional committee of the Victorian Division of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society.

The Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) was established on 13 August 1941, to release men from certain military duties for service with fighting units. The Service recruited women between the ages of 18 and 45 and they served in a variety of roles including clerks, typists, cooks and drivers. In 1945 a contingent was sent to Lae and a small group went to Holland. In June 1947, owing to the end of World War II, the AWAS was disbanded.

Lillian Frank was a high profile Toorak (Victoria) hairdresser who built up her own business as well as undertaking fundraising for charity. On 11 June 1977, Frank was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her involvement with charities, including the Royal Children’s Hospital and Odyssey House in Melbourne. On 10 June 1991 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her service to the community.

Eva Hughes was a prominent figure in women’s groups as well as charitable and patriotic organisations in Melbourne from the early 1900s. She became second president of the influential, politically conservative, anti-socialist group the Australian Women’s National League (1909-1922), after the death of her sister Janet Lady Clarke.

During the First World War she encouraged war-work and became a member of the Australian League of Honour, the Lady Mayoress’s Patriotic Fund and the Friendly Union of Soldiers’ Wives and Mothers. She supported the government’s conscription campaign, and garner support through her presidency of the Australian Women’s National League. On 4 October 1918 Eva Hughes was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (OBE) for services as president of the League. Following her retirement as president, Hughes continued to act as an adviser, and was made a life patroness and a life member of the League’s council.

Constance Fall’s distinguished war service in the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps was acknowledged with a Mention in Dispatches on 1 April 1941 and the award of the Royal Red Cross medal on 16 April 1942, when she was serving with the 1st Australian General Hospital in the Middle East. Born in England of Australian parents, and educated there, Constance Fall completed her nursing training in Launceston, Tasmania. After her war service she assumed the position of matron-in-charge of the King George V Hospital in Sydney, New South Wales from 1948-1960 and from 1961 became matron of the New South Wales Masonic Homes in Glenfield. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1976 for services to the Red Cross Society.

Violet Herring, née MacGregor, gave forty years of service to the Red Cross Society and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to that organisation in 1954. Although educated in Melbourne, she spent most of her life in Queensland, and was a life member of the Creche and Kindergarten Association, vice-president of the District Nursing Association of Queensland for thirty years and a driver for the Lady Goodwin District Nursing Transport Corps for twenty years. She also served on the committees of the 2nd Australian Imperial Forces Nurses’ Fund and for the building of St Martin’s hospital.

Australia’s first female athletic star, Decima Norman won five gold medals at the 1938 Empire Games (later known as the Commonwealth Games) in Sydney. She won gold medals in the 100 yards, 220 yards, long jump and two relays, and in winning the 100 yards she beat the world record-holder. She might well have won Olympic gold in 1940 if those Games had not been cancelled. Decima Norman was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1982 for her services to sport.

Gwen Meredith was the writer of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio serial Blue Hills. On 10 June 1967 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to radio entertainment and on the 11 June 1977 an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to the Arts.

Lillian Armfield was one of the first female plain-clothes detectives in Australia. She joined the New South Wales Police Force as a special constable in 1915 and retired 34 years later in 1943 as a special sergeant 1st class. During that time she helped runaway girls return home and dealt with female suspects or victims. Armfield was awarded the King’s Police and Fire Service Medal for outstanding service in 1947. Four years later, after her retirement, she was awarded the Imperial Service Medal.

Opera singer Marjorie Lawrence contracted poliomyelitis in 1941 and was almost crippled in both legs, but continued to perform using a wheel chair placed on stage. During World War II she entertained the troops and was awarded the cross of the Legion d’ Honneur (1946) by the French government. On 31 December 1976 Marjorie Lawrence was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for her services to the performing arts.

Bessie Rischbieth’s interest in woman’s suffrage was aroused when she attended a suffrage meeting in London in 1908. A co-founder of the Women’s Service Guild of Western Australia in 1909, she was also co-founder and President of the Australian Federation of Women Voters (1921-1942). Rischbieth edited The Dawn, a women’s paper issued in Perth from 1914 to 1939. A talented craftswoman her art embroidery, beaten copperwork and word carvings were exhibited with the West Australian Society of Arts. In the later years of her life Rischbieth clashed with Jessie Street, whom she labelled a communist. Bessie Rischbieth was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her work with women’s movements.

Vivienne MacKay, née Plews, was a prominent member of both the Victorian and National Divisions of the Australian Red Cross Society from 1940-1978. She graduated from superintendent of the Red Cross Transport Company in 1940 to divisional commandant in 1945, and served as deputy chairman of the Victorian Division from 1952-1978. She was a member of the National Council from 1948-1978. She became a life member in 1955 and also served as Red Cross member of the National Florence Nightingale Committee from 1949. She was appointed as Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1958 for her services to the Red Cross Society.