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 thiry 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.

Sources used to compile this entry: Smart, Judith, 'Skene, Lillias Margaret (1867 - 1957)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, Australian National University, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160304b.htm.