The Australian Women's Register

Born Jean Agnes Robertson, daughter of Clarence Victor and Agnes Stella Robertson, Jean Battersby graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts degree with first class honours in 1947. She undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Melbourne and was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1949, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in French literature in 1954 and then undertook further study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

She hosted several television series on HSV-7 in the 1950s and Woman’s World for ABC Television in Melbourne in the late 1950s and 1960s. From 1966 to 1968 she was project officer to HRH Duke of Edinburgh’s Third Commonwealth Study Conference. In 1968 she was appointed as Executive Officer to the Australian Council for the Arts and remained in this position until 1983 when she became a special advisor on cultural policy in the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs and Environment. From 1987 she advised corporate clients such as News Corporation and Telstra on their art collections.

She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1986.