Skene, Lillias Margaret

Entry type: Person
Entry ID: AWE0755

(1867 – 1957)

Born 28 March, 1867, Smythesdale Victoria Australia
Died 25 March, 1957, Armadale Victoria Australia
Occupation Farmer, Welfare worker, Women's rights activist, Women's rights organiser

Summary

Lillias Skene was a prominent member of numerous women’s groups and social welfare organisations in Melbourne from the early 1900s into the 1940s. She initially focussed on philanthropic work, but from the 1920s she devoted most of her energies to the Red Cross and the National Council of Women of Victoria. She was present at the inaugural meeting of the British (Australian) Red Cross on 25 August 1914 and was a member of the Victorian council from about 1920 until 1941. She became assistant-secretary of the National Council of Women in 1914, honorary secretary in 1916, vice-president in 1921 and president in 1924. In this year she also became foundation president of the federal council of the various State-based National Councils of Women.

Details

Lilias Skene was born in 1867 at Smythesdale, Victoria. She married David Skene, a sheepmaster, in 1888 and they had 4 children. The family moved several times, at one time running a dairy in Manly, before moving to Melbourne in 1906. Soon after this she joined several philanthropic and reform organisations included the Charity Organisation Society, the Lady Talbot Milk Institute and represented the Guild of Play on the National Council of Women of Victoria until the 1920s. For thirty years, from 1919, she was honorary secretary of the Women’s Hospital Committee’s board of management. In 1927 she became one of the first seven women Justices of the Peace in Victoria and played an active role in the Women Justices Association.

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Events

1927 - 1970
Victorian Nursing Board
Membership
1929 - 1970
State Relief Committee
Membership

Published resources

Resource Section
- Skene, Lillias Margaret (1867 - 1957), Smart, Judith, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160304b.htm
Resource
- Trove: Skene, Lillias Margaret (1867-1957), http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-707057
Site Exhibition
- Stirrers with Style! Presidents of the National Council of Women of Australia and its predecessors, National Council of Women of Australia, 2013, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/ncwa
- The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Smart, Judith and Swain, Shurlee (eds.), 2014, http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders
Book
- Champions of the impossible: a history of the National Council of Women of Victoria, 1902-1977, Norris, Ada, 1978
- A Brief history of the National Council of Women of Victoria, 1902-1945, Gillan, Helen E (comp.), 1945
- A Sense of Purpose: Great Australian Women of the 20th Century, 1996
Thesis
- The Acceptable face of feminism : National Council of Women, 1902-1918, Gray, Kate, 1988

Archival resources

State Library of Victoria
- National Council of Women of Victoria
National Library of Australia, Manuscript Collection
- Minutes [1904-1960] [microform]
- Records of the National Council of Women of Australia, 1924-1990 [manuscript]

Digital resources

Related entries

Presided
- National Council of Women of Australia (1931 - )
- National Council of Women of Victoria (1902 - )
Related Women
- Moss, Alice Frances Mabel (May) (1868 - 1948)
- Barrett, Edith Helen (1872 - 1939)
Member
- Women Justices' Association of Victoria (1938 - )
Membership
- Charity Organisation Society of Melbourne (1887 - )
Related Organisations
- Australian Red Cross Victoria (1914 - )
Related Concepts
- Community Programs, Australian Red Cross Victoria