The Australian Women's Register

Over the course of her life Alice Moss worked with a number of women’s organisations, as well as various education, child welfare and Red Cross societies. Educated at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne, she married I H Moss in 1887 (deceased 1938) and they had two daughters. In 1914 she relinquished her position as vice-president of the Australian Women’s National League to become the only female member of the Victorian recruiting committee for the Armed Services. Later she became the only woman member of the Victorian Centenary Celebrations executive committee (1933-1934). At the same time she was president of the Women’s Centenary Council of Victoria as well as being the first president of the National Council of Women (1931-1936). On 4 June 1934 she was appointed Commander of the British Empire.

On 15 March 1941 Peg Cockburn (later Utting) was one of “The Original Mob” who enrolled in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) at the No 1 RAAF Recruit Centre. After completing a “rookie training” course she was employed as a teleprinter operator and trainer during World War II. Peg Utting was one of the servicewomen that the WAAAF used for recruiting photographs.

On 17 March 1946, Wing Officer Audrey Herring was appointed to the position of Staff Officer in the Directorate of Personal Services Women’s Auxiliary Australian Airforce (WAAAF). Previously the Deputy Director WAAAF since 17 November 1943, in this new appointment Herring became responsible for all WAAAF matters.

Prior to joining the WAAAF, Herring worked as a journalist at the Courier Mail in Brisbane and also wrote for Women’s Weekly before she worked on Fleet Street, London, in 1937. Following the outbreak of the World War II she returned to Brisbane and became a Red Cross volunteer, at times cooking breakfasts for servicemen on leave.

After joining the WAAAF, Herring completed the No 1 administrative course at Methodist Ladies College, Kew. During her time in the Service she was promoted through the ranks and before being discharged was effectively in charge of the organisation.

In 1947 Herring was recruited by Sir Keith Murdoch to become the women’s editor for the Herald and Weekly Times. She left the company in March 1948 to marry Dr John Craig and the couple moved to Western Australia.

In Perth Audrey Craig became involved with community services. She was a member of the Western Australian branch of the Save the Children Fund and sponsored children from destitute backgrounds for 35 years. Also she was a board member of the Western Australian Hospital Benefits Fund for 15 years as well as being a friend of the Royal Perth Hospital for 25 years and a financial supporter of the Bible Society of Australia.

Audrey Craig died on 11 May 1994 in Western Australia.

Officially founded in 1902, with Janet Lady Clarke as president, and continuing today, the National Council of Women of Victoria is an umbrella organisation for a large and diverse number of affiliated Victorian women’s groups. It functions as a political lobby group, attempting to influence local, state and federal government. Like all National Councils of Women, it operates though a standing committee system whereby specific issues are brought before the Council and, if there is general agreement that a question should be taken up, a subcommittee is established to investigate the matter.
Until the 1940s at least, the Council was a major focal point for women’s activism.

Its initial aims were:
1. To establish a bond of union between the various affiliated societies.
2. To advance the interests of women and children and of humanity in general.
3. To confer on questions relating to the welfare of the family, the State and the Commonwealth.’

While encompassing a diverse range of organisations, the Council emerged as a largely middle-class women’s organisation especially in terms of its office bearers.

Although not always an overtly feminist organisation, the NCWV drew on the conviction that women had a special contribution to make to public life and the formulation of social policy. They were thus concerned with a wide array of social reform issues** as well as those more directly related to the legal and social status of women. It also drew on notions of gender unity and international sisterhood.

[Kate Gray, ‘The Acceptable Face of Feminism: the National Council of Women, 1902-1918’, MA thesis, University of Melbourne, 1988.]

From the 1960s Ethel Lane devoted her time to helping service organisations. A member of the Australian Army Nursing Service during World War II, Lane was associated with the Returned & Services League as well as the War Widows’ Guild of Australia.

Lane was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 11 June 1990 and appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire on 30 December 1978 for service to the community, in the field of veterans’ welfare.

President of the Women’s Services Sub-Branch of the RSL, Alice Penman served with the Australian Army during World War II. She served in the Middle East as a Voluntary Aid Detachment member and then in Far North Queensland. Penman later served with the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) after the Government of the time decided to distinguish between military and non-military Voluntary Aids.

During the ‘Australia Remembers, 1945-1995’ celebrations Penman participated in a number of functions emphasizing the work carried out by the Voluntary Aid Detachment Red Cross members.

On 13 June 1993 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to veterans particularly through the Returned & Services League New South Wales and to the Friends of the Northcott Neurological Centre.

During World War II Betty Mount-Batten served with the civilian Voluntary Aid Detachments, the Army Voluntary Aid Detachments and later the Australian Army with the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service. At the time of her discharge on 14 November 1945 she was posted at the 113th Australian General Hospital, Concord, New South Wales. Mount-Batten is a member of the Ex-AAMWS has been minute secretary since 2000, as well as secretary for the Women’s Services Sub-Branch of the RSS & AILA.

As part of the Australia Remembers 1945-1995 celebrations in 1995, Mount-Batten compiled the publication From Blue to Khaki: The enlisted voluntary aids and others who became members of the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service and served from 1941-1951.

In October 2002 Betty Mount-Batten became a participant of the “Australian Women in War Project” working group.

Betty Ball, the daughter of Frederick (Australian Infantry Force World War 1) and Emily Newlyn, was educated at Manly West Public and Manly Domestic Science Schools. She joined the Brownies and later became a member of the Girl Guides. Ball was employed as a clerk with H V Leckie & Wilkinson, Insurance Supervisors until she joined the services.

In 1938 Ball joined the Australian Women’s Flying Club and had her first flight in a Gypsy Moth with pilot Gwen Stark, who later became Wing Officer with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). At the beginning of World War II the clubs lectures were centred on air raid precautions, first aid, Morse code etc. In the early 1940s the club amalgamated with the Women’s Australian National Service.

On the 16 January 1942, Ball enlisted in the WAAAF and served as a stores clerk. After completing a photographic course at Fairbairn Canberra, in 1943, she was promoted to the rank of Corporal. She was stationed at Bankstown, Waterloo, Mildura, Canberra, East Sale and Brisbane before being discharged from the Central Photo School at Bradfield Park on 29 November 1945. Betty Ball served a total of 3 years 11 months.

In 1947 she married ex-serviceman Reginald Arthur Ball and they had two sons (one deceased) and two daughters. The family moved from Sydney to Perth (1950), to Brisbane (1963) and back to Sydney in 1967. While in Brisbane Betty Ball became a member of the local branch of the WAAAF Branch of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Association.

Betty Ball joined the New South Wales Division of the WAAAF of the RAAF Association in 1982 and was editor of the WAAAF Chat magazine for 9 years. Ball was a delegate on numerous occasions to RAAF Association Assemblies, held the position of vice-president of the WAAAF Branch and was a member of the State Council of RAAF Association. Ball was also on the committee for the Seniors Club of St Johns Church, Sutherland. In November 2002 Betty Ball became a participant in the Australian Women in War Project.

Sergeant Joy Linnane served with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) during World War II. She enlisted on 11 April 1942 and was discharged on 7 December 1945.

After the war Linnane joined the Sydney WAAAF Branch and has been a member since 1956. During that time she has held the positions of vice-president, treasurer, state councillor and delegate to country branches.

Betty Twynam-Perkins and Leith Cameron married in July 1940. They both joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in April 1941. After the war Betty Cameron joined the WAAAF Branch of the RAAF Association. She held various positions including president, secretary and treasurer. She also has been the convenor of two national reunions for the WAAAF, as well as a committee member. Her other community work included being a member of MU (Mothers’ Union) Australia and a voluntary driver at Concord Hospital.

In 1941 Marion Stevens was one of the first 14 women to join the Royal Australian Navy. After two years at Harman she was transferred to Molongo and later to Cerberus for the Officer Training Course and then returned to Harman. After the war, with her beautiful singing voice, she joined the Gilbert and Sullivan Company and toured with them for two years. When the WRANS were reformed she was recalled and transferred back to HMAS Harman as Second Officer. Stevens stayed until 1956. On retirement she joined Paton and Baldwins. At HMAS Harman a street called ‘Marion Stevens’ honours the work she did there during the war. [1] Steven’s achievements were acknowledged with the renaming of the HMAS Harman Wardroom Dining Room in her honour.

Jess Prain was one of the first fourteen women to join the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1941 and was stationed at Harman. From here she was drafted to Kuttabul where she was the first Petty Officer in Sydney. She did an Officer Training Course and returned to Harman as Third Officer. After her discharge in 1946 she was a welfare officer for Berlei and was recalled to the Navy in 1951 to train new recruits. Prain was Officer-in-Charge Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) at Flinders Naval Depot until 1954 and retired as First Officer. Married to Denis, Jess Doyle became Appeals Officer for Legacy (Sydney). [1]

Annie Laidlaw devoted her life to nursing and served in both world wars. She completed her nursing training at the Children’s Hospital (later Royal), Melbourne. In 1917 Laidlaw joined the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and served in military hospitals at Bombay and Poona.

After the war Laidlaw returned to the Children’s Hospital as ward sister. In 1925 she was granted a year of leave to complete midwifery training at the Royal Hospital for Women, Sydney. Returning to Melbourne, Annie became assistant lady superintendent (assistant-matron) at the Children’s Hospital. In 1930 she was promoted to lady superintendent of the hospital’s orthopaedic section at Frankston. She held this position for 12 years.

Selected to head the Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service (RANNS) in 1942 she was in charge of the Flinders Naval Depot hospital as well as being in charge of the RANNS. After her discharge from the navy Laidlaw returned to her position at the Children’s Hospital until 1950.

From 1951-52 she worked in London. On her return to Melbourne she took the position of Matron at the Freemason’s Homes of Victoria, Prahran until her retirement in 1957. Aged 89, Annie Laidlaw died on 13 September 1978 at McKinnon, Victoria.

Beryl Evans was a Liberal Member of the Legislative Council in the New South Wales parliament from 1984-1995. She later ran unsuccessfully for the Senate as an independent, and for the New South Wales Legislative Council as a member of the Seniors Party. She was an official candidate for the 1998 Constitutional Convention, representing the One Australian Monarchist League, but was not elected.

During World War Two, Evans served in the Royal Auxiliary Australian Air Force with distinction. She became president of the WAAAF Branch of the RAAF Association New South Wales Division on 25 March 1997.

Honor Darling was a journalist who played a significant role in the Girl Guide Movement in Australia. She held various roles, including that of local publicity officer and ultimately, Chair of the Australian Publications Committee. Whilst a member of the armed services (the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force) she edited the members’ magazine.

The Association began in 1946 and was founded by Miss Gwen Stark (later Caldwell). The ex-WAAAF joined the RAAFA (New South Wales Division) as associate members and in 1947 were accepted with full membership.

Mickey Syer enlisted at Claremont, Western Australia, in the Australian Army on 6 February 1941. A member of the Australian Army Nursing Service, she was stationed with the 2/10th Australian General Hospital when captured by the Japanese during the fall of Singapore. Mickey spent three and a half years in Japanese prisoner of war camps in Sumatra.

During October 1945, she returned to Australia and was discharged from the Army on 10 August 1948.

A nursing sister serving with the 2/10th Australian General Hospital, Pat Gunther (later Darling) was one of the Australian nurses taken prisoner by the Japanese in Sumatra during World War II. She writes about her three and a half years incarceration and survival in Portrait of a Nurse published in 2001.

Tootie Keast (later MacPherson) was one of six Australian Army Nursing Service sisters who were taken Prisoner of War on 23 January 1942 in Rabaul, New Britain. The sisters spent three and a half years interned with civilian nurses and missionaries. At first they were held at Vunapope Catholic mission before being transferred to Yokohama and then Totsuka.

After the War in the Pacific had ended a Japanese official told the women that their imprisonment was over. At the end of August an American officer found them, and arranged for their repatriation. They were flown back to Australia via the Okinawa Islands and Manila. [1]

On 10 April 1946, MacPherson was discharged from the Australian Army.

[1] Guns and Booches p. 149

Jean Greer (later Pemberton) enlisted in the Australian Army on 16 December 1940. Attached to the 2/10 Australian General Hospital she was posted to Malaya in 1941.

On 14 February 1942, Jean was one of the 65 nurses aboard the ship Vyner Brooke when it was sunk by Japanese bombing. After reaching the shore she was captured by the Japanese and was a Prisoner of War for the next three and a half years before being liberated.

Jean Greer was discharged on 23 September 1946 and married Scotsman Duncan Pemberton in Singapore in 1947.

The couple moved to England where Jean died on 7 December 2001.

Frances Provan was one of the first 14 females posted to HMAS Harman, the communications station in Canberra, on 28 April 1941, making her one of the first members of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS).

After moving to Canberra with her family in 1926, Jessie Daley became involved with a variety of community associations. She joined the Canberra Society of Arts and Literature, was the first President of the Canberra Ladies’ Choir, became a member (later President) of the Canberra Golf Club Associates as well as being a member of the Canberra Women’s Hockey Club and school associations.

In 1930 Daley became President of the local Girl Guides’ association and was district commissioner (1931-1932).

A member of the Canberra Mothercraft Society, Daley was Vice-President from 1930 until March 1935 when she became President. It was at a difficult time for the society with board disharmony and staffing problems. She resigned as President in May 1935 and was not re-elected.

Daley became a member of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), using her expertise to organise social, sporting and cultural activities as a welcome for newcomers to the city and to raise funds for charity. In 1937 she became Vice-President of the YWCA’s Canberra branch and a non-resident member of the national board.

On 4 July 1939 Daley was elected Foundation President of the Australian Capital Territory branch of the National Council of Women. The Council worked with the Canberra Relief Society to assist the needy.

Jessie Daley died of cancer on 10 November 1943 at Mosman.

Elva Batt enlisted in the Australian Army on 29 October 1941. Originally a Voluntary Aid she later joined the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service. Batt was then transferred to the Australian Women’s Army Service.

Before attending the Australian Women’s Services Officers Training School, Batt was a sergeant working as a clerk in the orderly room. Upon completion of the course she was promoted to Lieutenant (later Captain) and became an Amenities Officer with the Australian Women’s Army Service.

It was Batt’s job to organize sporting events (i.e. swimming carnivals, basketball matches, etc.) and entertainment and to oversee the supply of goods from the Canteen Funds, such as bedspreads, irons, jugs, sewing machines etc., to make a servicewoman’s tent or hut seem like home. [1]

Nearing the end of the war, Batt was transferred to Melbourne Headquarters to oversee the disbanding of the Australian Women’s Army Service. She was discharged on 28 June 1946.

Later, in 1946, she married Barry Batt and they had two children. Batt states that one of her major challenges was now having to cook, as during the previous five years all meals had been cooked for enlisted personnel.

In retirement Batt and her husband became volunteer members of the Royal Blind Society (New South Wales). She has been president of the ex-AAMWAS Association of New South Wales for eight years.

In 2020, Elva was living in a retirement home in Sydney, where she celebrated her 100th birthday.

[1] From Blue to Khaki p. 217

In June 1946, following the establishment of a War Widows’ Craft Guild in Victoria, a Guild was formed in New South Wales.

The purpose of the Guild was to enable war widows in NSW to live their lives with dignity and support to meet their ongoing and emerging needs.

With the setting-up of the Guild, craft work got under way almost immediately, commencing with sock and glove-making classes. By November, the guild shop was opened in Rowe Street, to sell craft goods made by members and other saleable goods. Although Victoria was planning a guild shop, NSW was first to establish one. The NSW Guild closed its handicraft school in December 1951 and sold the equipment to members, but the shop was to remain open, a good money-spinner for the Guild, until September 1960. [1]

From 1953 to 1988, the Guild in NSW built 13 blocks of units at nine locations. After selling two housing properties, at the time of writing (April 2003) the Guild provides a total of 198 self-care, one-bedroom units of retirement housing in seven Sydney locations.

In 2002 and 2003, President Marie Beach and Chief Executive Officer Patricia Campbell represented The War Widows’ Guild of NSW Inc. on the Women in War Project working group.

The second daughter of Vance and Nettie (née Higgins) Palmer, Helen Palmer spent a year in London after being educated at Presbyterian Ladies’ College (Melbourne) where she was dux in 1934. Returning to Melbourne she won a scholarship to the University of Melbourne and graduated with a BA and DipEd in 1939. She later obtained a B.Ed. (1952). From 1940 until 1942 she was a teacher in Victorian State schools.

Helen Palmer enlisted in the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force on 18 February 1942 and during her service worked in the education division. After the war she worked with the Commonwealth Office of Education (Sydney). In 1948 she returned to Melbourne teaching in private schools.

She made several trips to China and in 1953 published her observations in An Australian Teacher in China. Through the bi-monthly publication Outlook (1957-1970), Helen Palmer provided a forum for vigorous discussion of all issues which were part of a radical critique of Australian politics and society.

The author (with Jessie MacLeod) of First Hundred Years (1954) and After the First Hundred Years (1961), she also authored books on Australian literature, popular culture and history. Helen Palmer was also a prominent poet and balladist and is remembered for ‘The Ballard of 1891,’ that describes the shearers’ strike.

Helen Palmer died on 6 May 1979.

Amirah Inglis was a devoted and active member of the Communist Party in Australia during the politically turbulent Menzies era. Her autobiographical works describe the difficulties and confusion of growing up a migrant in Australia, born of Polish-Jewish parents. She has also written essays, reviews and books on Papua New Guinea, and on the Spanish Civil War.

The hammer & sickle and the washing up: memories of an Australian woman Communist includes descriptions of Amirah’s life in Canberra in the 1960s, and her marriage to academic Ken Inglis.

Dur-e Dara was awarded the Medal of The Order of Australia (OAM) in 1997 for services to the community and promotional and fundraising activities for women’s groups.