• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: PR00535

Freeman, May B

(1900 – 1988)
  • Born 18 August, 1900, Geelong Victoria Australia
  • Died 18 September, 1988, GeelongGeelong Victoria Australia
  • Occupation Community worker, Sunday school teacher

Summary

May Freeman was born into a privileged Geelong, Victoria, family. Her great and lifelong contribution to her local community was as a committed volunteer leader and member of community organisations. May was a Sunday School teacher, and was involved in the Guides and Brownies from their earliest days in 1925 until her death.  She was a committee member of the Girls Unity Club, which provided education, recreation and support for Geelong’s working girls, and was a member of Rotary, the YWCA, the Red Cross, the Victoria League, The Royal Commonwealth Society Women’s Group and the Trefoil Guild.

Details

May Freeman attended The Hermitage (Geelong Church of England Grammar School). Her diaries, from 1917 to 1983, document the full attendant lifestyle of social calls, sports, and involvement at church.  Upon leaving school at the end of 1918, she commenced work in an office, typing and preparing trial balances. She was a member of a number of recreational groups: her school’s Old Girls Association, and Reading Circle, as well as, in later years a Film Society. For six and a half decades, her diaries reflected her commitment to a large number of community organisations, primarily, but not exclusively, centred on the Girl Guides, the Presbyterian Church and the YWCA. She made a trip to England in 1936, to attend events hosted by the English patrons of the Guides. May never married, and died in September 1988, aged 88.

Read

Published resources

  • CD ROM
  • Microform
    • Geelong Eastern Cemetery, Funeral Service Deceased Listings, Geelong Cemeteries Trust, 1996
  • Newspaper
    • Geelong Advertiser 19-21 September 1988
  • Resource

Archival resources

  • Geelong Heritage Centre
    • Geelong Girls Unity Club
    • Geelong Kindergarten Girl Guides Company
    • Girl Guides Association of Victoria. Aberdeen Street, Geelong, Vic. Branch
    • Freeman, May - Collection

Related entries


  • related
    • Girl Guides Australia (1926 - )
    • Young Women's Christian Association Victoria (Y.W.C.A. Victoria) (1999 - )
  • Member
    • Geelong Girls' Unity Club (1924 - 1965)