Bate, Zara Kate (1909 - 1989)

Zara Bate was appointed Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire for devotion to the public interest on 8 June 1968.

• Dickins, Zara (maiden name)
• Holt, Zara (former name)

From her first marriage to Colonel James Fell, Bate had three sons. She married her second husband Harold Holt, who was to become the 22nd prime minister of Australia, in 1946. After his disappearance in 1967, from a Portsea surf beach in Victoria he was presumed drowned, she married H. J. P. (Jeff) Bate on 19 February 1969. Mr Bate, a former Liberal politician and farmer, died in 1984.

In 1968 Dame Zara wrote a book titled My Life and Harry: An autobiography. Besides her charity work she enjoyed reading, walking, swimming and fishing. Dame Zara Bate passed away on 14 June 1989.

Books

• Holt, Zara, Dame, My life and Harry: an autobiography Dame Zara Holt, The Herald, Melbourne, 1968, 256 pp. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

• National Archives of Australia, 'Zara Holt', in Australia's Prime Ministers, http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/meetpm.asp?pmId=17&pageName=wife. [ Details... ]
• National Archives of Australia, 'Primary description of person CP 717; Dame Zara Kate Holt DBE', http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/SearchOld.asp?Number=CP+717. [ Details... ]

See also

• James, Caron, 'Women Federation', Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Magazine, 31 December, pp. 4-11, 24. [ Details... ]
• Langmore, Diane, Prime Ministers' Wives, McPhee Gribble, Ringwood, Vic., 1992, 342 pp. [ Details... ]
• National Library of Australia, 'Papers of Harry Maurice Miller (1934- ) ', in Finding Aids Manuscripts, http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms7981. [ Details... ]