The Australian Women's Register

Gwendolyn Wilmot Griffiths was educated at Methodists’ Ladies College (now Annesley College) and Girton Girls’ School in Adelaide. She travelled to England where she enrolled in a photography course at the London Polytechnic, worked at the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC) and married James Wilmot Griffiths. A member of the Lyceum Club, Wilmot-Griffiths was involved with the Flower ladies and the Embroidery circle.

Irene Foster was a leader of many circles in the Adelaide Lyceum Club including the Literature Circle. She wrote book reviews for thirty years and was a preliminary judge for the Adelaide Advertiser Literary Competition.

Patience Howard moved around a lot during her childhood. As a small child, she lived in Central South Australia at Bungaree. She was educated at Miss Dow’s boarding school at Glenelg, 1912 at “The Hermitage” in Victoria, and from 1914 at Frensham’s Girls’ school in New South Wales. Later she attended Bedford College in London to study history. During the 1920s she went to an International Students’ conference in Prague before returning to Adelaide in 1924. Howard became a teacher at Woodlands and then Girton Girls’ School in Adelaide. Here she met Mabel Hardy and together they established the Stawell School at Mt Lofty. In 1928 she married Roy Howard. Following his death she and her children moved to Bungaree and then Kensington Park. A member of the Lyceum Club and the Labor Party she also spent time working with meals on wheels.

Dr Marjorie Casley-Smith was educated at the Methodist Ladies’ College (now Annesley College in Adelaide). Upon finishing she spent two years at home learning music and the domestic arts before studying medicine. Following graduation, in 1927, she went to the Royal Adelaide Hospital as House Surgeon under Dr Sleeman. She completed obstetrics at Adelaide’s Queen Victoria Hospital. In 1930 she married Roy Frisby Smith, a lawyer. After her husband’s death, in 1938, she returned to work at the School Medical Health Service. Casley-Smith became Vice President of the National Council of Women of South Australia. She became convenor of Health for SA and Australian Convenor of Health. Dr Casley-Smith started the Marriage Guidance Council, was active in the Asthma Association, and the Mental Health Association. She was involved with music and was an early member of the Lyceum Club.

Anne Stanton was born in Adelaide and educated at the St Peter’s Girls’ School. On leaving school she attended the Conservatorium of Music and then joined the School of Social Studies. Her first job was with the Probation Branch of the Sheriff’s Gaols and Prisons Department. Stanton later became a senior social worker for the Crippled Children’s Association. As Vice-President of the Muscular Dystrophy Association she completed many country visits and with Adelaide Legacy she helped set up holiday camps for children. Stanton was involved with the National Trust, Friends of the Gallery, opera, theatre and the Lyceum Club. On 6 June 1978 Stanton was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australian for her work with crippled children.

Roxy Byrne was born in South Australia in 1912 and attended school in Adelaide. From 1922 to 1929 she attended the Methodist Ladies College (now Annesley College) where she developed her love of the theatre, as well as her skill in hockey. An excellent student (she was dux of the school in her final year) she went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts at Adelaide University in 1933, majoring in Botany and French. After graduation she joined the Adelaide Repertory Theatre, becoming a leading actress who played a variety of outstanding roles for a period of 40 years. She was active in a number of women’s organisations, including the Lyceum Club of Adelaide. She married Dr. Dudley Byrne in 1940 and had three children.

The daughter of a sea captain Winnie Levy grew up in Western Australia. She attended the White Gum Valley School and won a scholarship to the Perth Modern School. She completed a degree in French and Mathematics at the University of Western Australia and then went to the Sorbonne for two years. On returning to Western Australia she became a French tutor at the University of Western Australia. She was forced to resign when she married. After having a baby, she returned to the university to study law. Following her move to Adelaide Levy was admitted to the Bar, in 1945, and practised for 23 years. A member of the Lyceum Club Levy was a leader of the International Circle.

Aileen Bond, born Aileen Ingelby in 1898, was educated at St Peter’s Girls’ School and studied law at Adelaide University and was one of Adelaide’s earliest practising female solictors. She joined the Lyceum Club when it formed in 1922. In 1924 she married John Leslie Bond, a minister, and they moved around South Australia. During World War II her husband enlisted and went to New Guinea and she and the four children lived at Brighton, in Adelaide. After the war they lived at Clare and Victor Harbour. Her husband was given an administrative job and became in turn an Archdeacon and then a Canon. Following his death, Levy moved to Toorak Gardens, an eastern suburb of Adelaide.

Katharine Susannah Prichard, author, pacifist, Communist, indefatigable political activist, chose to live on the outskirts of Perth, Western Australia, for fifty years, from 1919 until her death in 1969. Her life is one of courage, determination, hard work, great joy and satisfaction, and tragedy. During her lifetime she developed an international reputation as a novelist, she was recognised as one of Australia’s foremost writers, and she established an almost legendary reputation locally as a political activist whose initiatives made a profound impact upon the lives of many West Australians. In the midst of such physical isolation and unsophisticated conservatism, how was her brilliant light able to shine so readily?

Annette Cameron was born in Middle Swan WA in 1920. Her interest in politics was sparked by the Spanish Civil War, prompting her to join the Modern Women’s Club, the Anti-Fascist League, and, in 1941, the Communist Party. She was an active campaigner for peace, human rights, and Aboriginal causes.

The Pan Pacific and South East Asian Women’s Association – South Australian (S.A.) Branch was active from 1928. Miss Lena Swann represented South Australia at the Pan-Pacific Conference held in Honolulu. In 1931 Dr. Constance Davey formed the South Australian Branch with Miss Swann as Honorary Secretary. It was originally composed of delegates from various women’s organizations, including the League of Women Voters, who were very helpful in the early days. Later, individual members were also accepted. The Association aimed to strengthen the bonds of peace by fostering better understanding and friendship among women of all Pacific and South East Asian areas. It also sought to promote co-operation among women of these regions for the study and improvement of social conditions. To achieve these aims, various methods were employed such as lectures, international nights, study groups and representation on various committees such as the Good Neighbour Council and the United Nations Association – South Australian Division. Dr. Davey remained in the Chair until the late 1940s or early 1950s and was replaced by the Reverend Winifred Kiek who was later elected vice-president of the National Association which formed in 1953. Early members included Ellinor Walker, Hilda Harris, Edith Caseley, and Mrs. Mountford.

The Temperance Alliance of South Australia was inaugurated on 15th August 1884 as a result of the failure of existing temperance organizations to accommodate moderate drinkers who were nevertheless interested in the reform of the liquor trade. The general aim of the Alliance was to educate the public on the dangers of excessive drinking. Emphasis was placed on educating the young and the South Australian Band of Hope Union was formed in 1916 to address this. The Alliance was a strong organization and provided valuable support for other temperance organizations such as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in joint projects such as the fight for women’s suffrage. For instance the Alliance was part of a Temperance Electoral Committee that sent out copies of a pamphlet entitled ‘How to vote’. Matthew Wood Green, pastor of the Grote Street Christian Church, became general secretary of the Alliance in 1888 and edited the Alliance and Temperance News, a publication that supported women’s suffrage and opened the subject to men as well. Although this organization was not a women’s organization per se, women played an active role via the Women’s Committee.

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) began in Australia in 1915 as The Sisterhood of International Peace, with the motto ‘Justice, Friendship and Arbitration’. In 1919 the sisterhood heard of the WILPF and became the Australian Section of the League after sending a delegate to the 1919 conference in Zurich. The League ‘aims at bringing together women of different political and philosophical tendencies united in their determination to study, make known and help abolish the political, social, economic and psychological causes of war, and to work for a constructive peace’. (from ‘Aims, Principles and Policies’ a pamphlet printed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Australian Section in 1965.) The League also maintained ties with other organizations such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Society of Friends and Save the Children Fund. Ellinor Walker was one of the early secretaries of the League but unfortunately most of the papers pertaining to that time are missing. The WILPF operated as a study group in the 1950s and went into recess in 1965, before being revitalised in response to the Vietnam War. The League vigorously protested against the war and conscription, and used means such as preparing submissions to parliamentary inquiries, sending out pamphlets and organising rallies. Margaret Forte was one of the more active members during the latter period being at various times Secretary, Section Liaison, Junior Media Peace Project convenor and representing the WILPF on other committees such as United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) (South Australia), Status of Women Committee, People for Nuclear Disarmament, and Time for Peace.

Mary Lee became secretary of the Women’s Suffrage League of South Australia in 1888. She served with the Female Refuge ladies’ committee, the Distressed Women’s and Children’s Committee and the Adelaide Sick Poor Fund, and was secretary of the Working Women’s Trades Union.

Veronica Brodie (née Wilson) was born at the Point McLeay Mission. She moved to the Port Adelaide area in 1971, an area to which her grandmother’s had links. For a time Brodie worked with the local Aboriginal Community including an Aboriginal Friendship Club for parents and children at the Port Adelaide Central Methodist Mission. She has been involved with the development of the regional Aboriginal Co-ordinating Committee; Kura Yerlo, the Aboriginal Centre in Largs Bay and the Nunga Miminis Women’s Shelter.

Born at Point Pass in 1901, Jessie March was educated at Adelaide High School and Teachers Training College. She joined the New Britain Methodist Mission in 1925, becoming principal of Vunairima Girls School in 1939. In 1940 she was a governess at Brachina Station in the Flinders Ranges. She was also a Croker Island Methodist Mission teacher in 1941 before being evacuated in 1942. After the war she taught in state government schools before returning to New Britain in 1967. She moved to Papua New Guinea’s eastern highlands in 1971 to translate bibles. Her life and work have been commemorated by the Jessie March Library at George Brown High School, New Britain.

The Lyceum Club Adelaide Incorporated was founded in 1922 by Helen Mayo who became its first president. Its object was to advance the status of women in professional life and in art and letters.

Dr Winifred Wall spent her childhood in Broken Hill and Georgetown in the mid north of South Australia. After attending bush schools she went to Gladstone and Adelaide High Schools. Wall won a scholarship to study medicine at Adelaide University (1918-1922). She then worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital where her duties included treating returned servicemen from World War I. She married Dr Fred Wall, they had four children, and she established a private practice. During World War II she returned to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where she specialised in anesthesia. Foundation president of the Family Planning Association (South Australia), Wall was awarded Life membership of the Royal District Nursing Society, the Australian Medical Association and the British Medical Association. On 26 January 1979 Dr Wall was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for service to the community, particularly in the field of women’s affairs.

Unionist and activist Madge Cope was born in Yorkshire and migrated to Australia in 1915, aged 11. With her parents and two brothers she settled on a farm in Carnamah. She later married her neighbour, Harold Cope, and the pair had four children. Cope himself was born to an English father and an Australian mother.

During wartime, the Copes sold pies at Victoria Park. They grew tomatoes at Geraldton, then Guildford, where they also sold flowers. In 1966, while driving on a gravel road, Madge lost control on a bend and hit a truck. Harold was thrown from the vehicle and died on the road after telling the truck driver to look after his wife, who was trapped in the car.

Madge became involved with the Communist Party in Guildford, and was made a life member of the Guildford Association. She joined the Peace Movement and the Union of Australian Women. She also wrote short stories, two of which were published in the magazine Our Women. Madge died in 2001, aged 97 years.

The daughter of Edward and Amy (née Thiselton) Dolling, Alison Dolling was born in St Peters and grew up in Tranmere, South Australia. She was educated at Ellerslie College, Tranmere, and Methodist Ladies College, Wayville, before studying at the universities of Adelaide, Washington, Seattle, Berkeley and King’s College, London. Returning to Australia she taught in both South Australia and New South Wales, including ex-servicemen after World War II. Dolling joined the Chronicle newspaper as the editor of the Women’s Pages and was unemployed after the Chronicle closed down. Her publications include Chronicle cameos and a district history of Marion. She completed research on John Harvey and the Spoehr family, as well as being involved with family history and German ancestry. She also worked on the book South Australian Women Artists by Shirley Cameron Wilson. Dolling’s special interests included Australian history, especially early architecture, literature and art.

Roma Gilchrist was first a member of the Modern Women’s Club before joining the Union of Australian Women, Western Australian Branch. She was vice-president in 1954 and president from 1957 until 1971.

Esther Bright worked in the Education Department for 40 years as an infants teacher and finally as Inspector of Schools. She was a long standing member of the Adelaide Lyceum Club.

Kemeri Murray attended Adelaide University, graduating in 1953 in Law and 1954 in Arts. She studied piano under Raymond O’Connell while doing articles at Vaughan, Porter and English, a well known South Australian Law firm. After being admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of South Australia she transferred to Brian Magarey and was offered a partnership, making her the first married woman to be offered a partnership in South Australia. In 1973 she was offered a position on the Bench with the District Court of South Australia, thus becoming the second woman judge in South Australia. A member of the Flinders University Council, in 1978 she was appointed to the Advisory Council for Inter-Government Relations.