Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and the Australian Red Cross: Vice-regal Leader and Internationalist in the early Twentieth Century
Melanie Oppenheimer
Abstract
This chapter examines the leadership role played by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, the wife of Australia’s sixth Governor-General, in the formation, administration and direction of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society from August 1914. With her familial and lifelong experiences of philanthropy and female citizenship and as a vice-regal woman in Australia, Lady Helen provided positive leadership to Australian women during a period of significant upheaval and war. Her connections with Australia continued long after leaving as she represented Australian Red Cross at the League of Red Cross Societies until the mid-1930s. The article muses on the need to reassess the roles of vice-regal women on the development of women’s leadership and democracy in Australia in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Keywords
Australian Red Cross, philanthropy, vice-regal women; Australian women’s history; women and leadership
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