The Australian Women's Register

Monica Gallagher has been associated with church and other community groups in her voluntary work. Her positions have included associate member of the New South Wales division of Australian Church Women, member of the advisory committee of the Festival of Light, past chairman of the Appeal Committee, Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), Sydney, and board member of the Save the Children Fund, New South Wales from 1992-1994. She was chairman of the Friends of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, from 1983-1987 and later from 1998-2000, as well as executive director of the Flower Festival Committee from 1996-1997. The Catholic church acknowledged her work with the award of the Papal Honour, Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 1981. She gained the Good Citizen Award for Outstanding Community Service in 1979. She was appointed as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 12 June 1976 for services to the community.

Source: Who’s who in Australia 2002, p 719

Florence Cardell-Oliver became the first woman in Australia to be appointed to a cabinet or ministry when made Western Australian Minister for Health, Supply and Shipping in 1949.

For her services to literature, Mary Gilmore was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 1 February 1937. The major themes of her work covered nationalism, the spirit of pioneering, motherhood, women’s rights, history, Aboriginal welfare, treatment of prisoners, health and pensions.

Margaret Scott was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 13 June 1981 for services to ballet. She had previously been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 31 December 1976.

Joan Hammond was appointed DBE 1974, CMG 1972, CBE 1963, OBE 1953. She received the Sir Charles Santley award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, London 1970, ‘Musician of the Year’. In 1988 she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Recording for the Australasian Sound Recording Association, in 1994.

In her biography on Dame Mary Herring, Della Hilton lists Dame Mary as being Patroness of the following organisations:
• Aftercare Hospital
• Victorian Women’s Hockey
• Australian Association O Group
• Ministering Children’s League
• Spastic Children’s Society
• Victorian Association of Day Nurseries
• Victorian Family Council
• Save the Children Fund
• Travellers Aid Society
• Bush Nursing Association (Life Governor)
• Royal Eye & Ear Hospital Auxiliaries
• Royal Melbourne Hospital Auxiliaries
• Tweddle Baby Hospital
• Gentlewomen’s Aid Society
• Victorian Amateur Sports Council
• RSL Women’s Association Veterans Care Homes.

Mary Herring was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 11 June 1960 for service to nursing in Victoria.

Zara Bate was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for devotion to the public interest on 8 June 1968.

Gertrude Cosgrove appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 1 January 1947 for public service in Tasmania.

Leonie Kramer was notable as an academic and public figure, particularly as Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1982-1983 and professor of Australian literature at Sydney University from 1968, and later chancellor from 1991-2001. She supported conservative educational values in the face of progressive approaches and campaigned against the adoption of a republican form of government in Australia. She was appointed as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 31 December 1982 for services to literature and the public.

Elizabeth Couchman, widowed after ten years of marriage, and without children, devoted her life to working in the public sphere. She was president of the Australian Women’s National League from 1927 until 1945, when it merged to form the Liberal Party of Australia. She made three unsuccessful attempts to be pre-selected for the Senate. She eventually gained Liberal Party pre-selection for the safe Labor seat of Melbourne in the 1943 election, but was unsuccessful. She worked in the Liberal Party organisation as a member of the state executive and state council and served as Victorian vice-president of the party from 1949-1955. Her major contribution lay in providing a political base for women and increasing their role and effectiveness in political life. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 31 December 1960 for public and patriotic services.

Ruby Litchfield was appointed as a Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 13 June 1981 for service to the performing arts and the community. She had earlier been appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil), on 1 January 1959, for social welfare.

Mary Cramer, a teacher before her marriage to John (later Sir John) Cramer, in January 1922, brought her formidable organising skills to rearing their four children and to her public activities. On the election of her husband as mayor of North Sydney in 1939, she assumed the duties of lady mayoress. Known for her natural sense of humour, she organised a Voluntary Aid Detachment for North Sydney at the beginning of World War II, and also the first group of the Women’s Australian National Service in Sydney and became its first commandant. Her husband later became a founding member of the Liberal Party of Australia and a Minister for the Army from 1956-1963. She was president of the New South Wales division of the Red Cross Society and of the Mater Misericordae Hospital Advisory Board at North Sydney. Despite recurring illness, she maintained her public activities and was appointed as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 12 June 1971 for distinguished public service, which had covered four decades. According to the report in The Sydney Morning Herald on 26 May 1994 on the death of Sir John Cramer, ‘Sir John with his late wife Dame Mary, had left an indelible mark on the lower North Shore’.

Patricia Mackinnon joined the Royal Children’s Hospital Committee of Management in 1948, serving it in several offices before being elected to the presidency in 1965. She was appointed a Commander to the Order of the British Empire in 1972 and a Dame of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1977 in recognition of distinguished service to the community in hospital administration.

Mary Daly, nee MacMahon, was acknowledged as an interested and hardworking member of a range of Catholic and other charitable organisations. Educated at Loreto convents in both Normanhurst, New South Wales and Ballarat, Victoria, she maintained her Catholic links throughout her life. In January 1923, she married Dr John Joseph Daly, a nephew of the founder of St Vincent’s Hospital, Mother Berchmans Daly. They had two children, John and Marie. Dr Daly was appointed to the staff of St Vincent’s Hospital. Mary Daly served on the St Vincent’s Hospital auxiliary as honorary secretary and was acting president for a period of three years from 1933-1936. She was president of the Catholic Welfare Association from 1941, a member of the National Council of the Australian Red Cross Society, and executive member of the Council of the Victorian Division. She was the author of four children’s books, one of which was published by the Yooralla Hospital School, another of her charitable causes. Her services to social welfare were acknowledged with her appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1937, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1949, and Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 7 June 1951. The Catholic church awarded her the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 1951. She was also awarded a long service medal from the Red Cross Society in 1940 and honorary life membership in 1971.

Ella Macknight was an obstetrician and gynaecologist who worked at the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne. She was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1969 for services to medicine. She was also a talented hockey player, winning University Blues and playing in the Victorian team when she was at the University of Melbourne.

Alice Berry understood the problems of living in rural Australia and was committed to finding ways to improve the lives of women and children in rural areas. Through her work in the Country Women’s Association in Queensland, and in the Associated Country Women of the World, she made a lasting contribution to the provision of services in country areas. She was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 01 January 1960 for Service to country women.

Helen Blaxland spent much of her life working for charitable institutions, particularly the Australian Red Cross Society, for which she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1967. Her other interests included flower arrangement, on which she published two books. She was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 14 June 1975 for service to the community in recognition of her contribution to the National Trust (New South Wales) and the Parramatta Properties Committee.

Jill Bolte was appointed a Dame (Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander) on 01 January 1973 for public service to Victoria. She was associated with many community organisations, and participated in official duties, while her husband, Sir Henry Bolte, was premier of Victoria for 17 years.

Sister Philippa, as she preferred to be known, took the religious name of Sister Mary Philippa at her Religious Profession to the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy on 10th January 1918. After graduating from the Teachers’ Training College at Ascot Vale, she became a teacher in several Victorian Schools. In 1928 she transferred from teaching to nursing, completing her training at Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Brisbane. In 1935 she became foundation matron at the Mercy Private Hospital, where she introduced general nurse training.
From 1954 to 1959 she was appointed Provincial of the Sisters of Mercy in Victoria and Tasmania, after which she returned to the Mercy Private Hospital.
In 1979 Sister Philippa was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for outstanding service to the people of Victoria and beyond, especially in the Health Care Field.
Two years later, on the 1 August, the University of Melbourne awarded Sister the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws in recognition of her services to women and family life. She was the first nun to receive the award from the University.

Dame Marie Breen was a Federal Senator for Victoria for the Liberal Party from July 1962 to June 1968 (retired).

Mabel Balcombe Brookes, who worked for many charitable organisations, was acknowledged as a talented organiser and effective committee member. Her greatest contribution was as president of the Queen Victoria Hospital from 1923-1970. She was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1933 and as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 9 June 1955 for charitable and social welfare services.

Edith Burnside was acknowledged as a committed worker for charitable causes. She was educated at St Michael’s Church of England Grammar School in St Kilda, Victoria, and married W K Burnside. They had two children; a son and a daughter. She was president of the Royal Melbourne Hospital Almoner Ambulance from 1952. She served on a number of committees, which included the Yooralla, the Lady Mayoress’s, the National Gallery Society of Victoria, the Australia-Japan Society and the Australian Elizabethan Trust. She also served as president of the Prince Henry’s Hospital Central Council of Auxiliary. She was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1976 for service to hospitals and the community.

Source: Who’s who in Australia 1983, p. 148.

In 1955, Nancy Buttfield became the first South Australian woman member of an Australian Parliament. She was appointed the Order of the British Empire (Dames Commander) on 1 January 1972 for political and public services.

Dame Mary Hughes was awarded the Order of the British Empire – Dame Grand Cross – Civil, on 31 December 1921 for public services to Australia during World War I. It was the highest award a woman could obtain, and she was the first Australian to receive it. Mary Hughes was the wife of the 13th prime minister of Australia, William Morris (Billy) Hughes (1915-1923), one of Australia’s longest serving parliamentarians.

Rita Buxton was interested in many philanthropic societies. She was closely associated with St Vincent’s Hospital, serving as a member of the Advisory Council and as general president of all working committees. She was educated at Sacre Coeur in East Malvern, Victoria and married Leonard Raymond Buxton in 1922. They had three daughters. In recognition of her philanthropic services, she was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1955 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 14 June 1969.

The Honourable Dame Roma Mitchell was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 1 January 2000. During her life Dame Roma achieved a number of firsts. She was the first woman Governor of an Australian State (South Australia, 1991-1996), the first woman Chancellor of a university in Australia (University of Adelaide, 1983-1990) and the first Australian woman Queen’s Counsel (1962).

In 1951 Dr Kate Campbell, a specialist in children’s diseases, was the first person to prove the link between retrolental fibroplasia (a blindness in premature babies) and oxygen levels in humidicribs. She was appointed to the Order of the British Empire (Dames Commander) on 1 January 1971 for services to the welfare of Australian children. Along with Norman Gregg she was co-winner of the first Encyclopaedia Britannica award for medicine in 1964. Dr Campbell had previously been recognised for her services to medical science when appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Commander (Civil) on 1 January 1954.