The Australian Women's Register

Dame Marjorie Parker was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 31 December 1976 for distinguished community service. She was first honoured for her charitable work in Launceston (Tasmania) with an MBE on 2 January 1950 and later an OBE on 16 June 1970. The City of Launceston granted her the ‘Freedom of the City’ in 1984.

At age 19 in 1882 Pattie Browne married Alfred Deakin who became the youngest ever cabinet minister in Australia, in 1883. He was Prime Minister of Australia in 1903-1904, 1905-1908, and 1909-1910. Throughout her married life, Pattie devoted herself to her family and charity work, especially in the area of child welfare.

After World War I, Pattie refused to accept an honour for her philanthropic work. Her husband Alfred Deakin also declined all honours and honorary degrees during his political life. But just prior to her death on 30 December 1934 Pattie accepted the award of the order of Commander of the British Empire (civil), which was awarded to her posthumously in January 1935.

Eileen Joyce was taught the piano at St Joseph’s Convent at Boulder where her prodigious talent was first recognised. She went on to establish a career in England where her concert performances in glamorous gowns, and studio recordings, would make her one of the most popular pianists of her time.

The Joyce family moved to Western Australia and settled in Boulder where Eileen had her first music lessons at St Joseph’s Convent. Because of her prodigious talent, a fund-raising committee in Kalgoorlie-Boulder assisted her to take up a scholarship at the Loreto Convent in Perth.

Hearing her play the renowned musicians Percy Grainger and Wilhelm Backhaus recommended she should study abroad. In 1926, after a tour of country towns and a farewell concert at His Majesty’s Theatre in Perth, Eileen went to Leipzig in Germany, then London to study and where her stellar career was launched.

In 1933 she made the first of many studio recordings in London. She was so successful her record sales during the 1940s are reputed to have rivalled those of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, amongst others. She returned to Australia in April 1936 for a national tour and a series of concerts for the ABC. On the Easter Saturday she gave a recital at the Kalgoorlie Town Hall, and the following day played for the nuns at St Joseph’s.

During the war Eileen played for the troops, and in the bombed out cities of England with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, all helping to endear her to the people. Eileen always dressed the part of the glamorous concert pianist. She commissioned her gowns from leading fashion designers, the most famous being Norman Hartnell who designed the coronation gown for Queen Elizabeth II.

In later life Eileen was awarded many honours for her contribution to music, receiving an Honorary Doctor of Music from the Universities of Cambridge (1971), University of Western Australia (1979), and the University of Melbourne (1982). In 1981 she was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and Saint George at Buckingham Palace.

Mary Daly, nee MacMahon, was acknowledged as an interested and hardworking member of a range of Catholic and other charitable organisations. Educated at Loreto convents in both Normanhurst, New South Wales and Ballarat, Victoria, she maintained her Catholic links throughout her life. In January 1923, she married Dr John Joseph Daly, a nephew of the founder of St Vincent’s Hospital, Mother Berchmans Daly. They had two children, John and Marie. Dr Daly was appointed to the staff of St Vincent’s Hospital. Mary Daly served on the St Vincent’s Hospital auxiliary as honorary secretary and was acting president for a period of three years from 1933-1936. She was president of the Catholic Welfare Association from 1941, a member of the National Council of the Australian Red Cross Society, and executive member of the Council of the Victorian Division. She was the author of four children’s books, one of which was published by the Yooralla Hospital School, another of her charitable causes. Her services to social welfare were acknowledged with her appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1937, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1949, and Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 7 June 1951. The Catholic church awarded her the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 1951. She was also awarded a long service medal from the Red Cross Society in 1940 and honorary life membership in 1971.

For her services to literature, Mary Gilmore was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 1 February 1937. The major themes of her work covered nationalism, the spirit of pioneering, motherhood, women’s rights, history, Aboriginal welfare, treatment of prisoners, health and pensions.

Margaret Scott was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 13 June 1981 for services to ballet. She had previously been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 31 December 1976.

Dame Mary Hughes was awarded the Order of the British Empire – Dame Grand Cross – Civil, on 31 December 1921 for public services to Australia during World War I. It was the highest award a woman could obtain, and she was the first Australian to receive it. Mary Hughes was the wife of the 13th prime minister of Australia, William Morris (Billy) Hughes (1915-1923), one of Australia’s longest serving parliamentarians.

On 1 January 1954, Pattie Menzies was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (Civil). The official citation, conferring the GBE to her under her married name, Mrs R. G. Menzies, read: “In recognition for her years of incessant and unselfish performance of public duty in hospital work, in visiting, addressing and encouraging many thousands of women in every State of Australia, including very remote areas, and in the distinguished representation of Australia on a number of occasions overseas.”

Rita Buxton was interested in many philanthropic societies. She was closely associated with St Vincent’s Hospital, serving as a member of the Advisory Council and as general president of all working committees. She was educated at Sacre Coeur in East Malvern, Victoria and married Leonard Raymond Buxton in 1922. They had three daughters. In recognition of her philanthropic services, she was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1955 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 14 June 1969.

Hedwig Benz was the first full time interpreter at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital – a hospital for women – in Melbourne. Benz was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1972 in recognition of service to migrants in Victoria, for her work at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital. She played a valuable role in removing the responsibility from English-speaking children of migrants in liaising about their mother’s illness with hospital staff.

Ruby Foster was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1958 for social welfare services in Gippsland in Victoria. She was heavily involved with the Red Cross in Gippsland and Maffra, serving as president of the Maffra branch from 1941.

Elizabeth Govan was recognised by her peers as having ‘played a big part in the expansion of the social studies courses and social welfare work in Australia’ from her time in Australia (1939-1946) at the New South Wales Board of Social Study and Training in Sydney and later Sydney University. (Sydney Morning Herald, 15 March 1945)

Edith Morgan was the first social worker appointed by the Collingwood Council (1972), and worked to improve services such as childcare, community health and housing. She received the Order of Australia medal for service to the community in 1989 and was later recognised for her service as an advocate for social justice, women and the disadvantaged.

Jessie Hockings (nee Miller) was a child when her family migrated to Australia from England. After leaving London on 31 July 1909, they arrived in Brisbane on 20 September 1909. They then travelled to a property at Dulacca in the Western Downs region of Queensland.

In February 1923, at the age of 23, Jessie Miller married Frank Hockings and almost immediately moved to Thursday Island, where Frank and his brother ran the Wanetta Pearling Co. World War 2 interrupted those operations and the family moved backed to continental Queensland to run a dairy farm at Springbrook, which they purchased in 1945. Sadly, Frank passed away in 1952, but Jessie remained on the farm for another thirteen years. She moved down to the coast at Southport in 1965.

Regardless of where she lived, the Queensland Country Women’s Association (CWA) was a constant feature of Jessie Hocking’s life. She was a member for roughly sixty years, maintaining a tradition that ran in the family. Her mother, Jessie Strathearn Miller, was president of Dulacca (Qld) CWA and a younger sister was the secretary-treasurer of the same branch. Jessie was a founding member of the Springbrook CWA in 1957 and a three-time president during the 60s to 80s. She was secretary-treasurer of the Thursday Island branch during her time up there.

As well as the CWA, Jessie volunteered at the Red Cross, an aged care residence, and the local hospital ladies’ auxiliary.

In 1982, a British Empire Medal for Meritorious Civil Service, which she received on her 82nd birthday, acknowledged Jessie’s community work, which she continued to do until well into her 80s.

Jessie Hockings passed away in 1991 and is sadly missed by her family and friends. Her legacy lives on in an educational bursary awarded every year by the Springbrook-Mudgeeraba CWA. Since 1992 the branch has presented a local primary school student with the Jessie Hockings Encouragement Award. The $200 bursary aims to help a family ease the financial burden of their child transitioning to high school. It represents her prevailing belief in the importance of a good education.

Sue Chilly is a staunch member of the Aboriginal rights movement, progressing reform both as an activist of groups such as the Australian Black Panthers, and as a field officer of the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs.

Marlene Cummins is one of Australia’s foremost blues musicians, a lifelong Aboriginal rights activist and the subject of Rachel Perkin’s 2014 documentary Black Panther Woman .

Jan Marsh is a significant member of the trade union movement in Australia, arguing many of the Australian Council of Trade Union’s submissions in national wage and industry cases. Throughout her career she has advocated not only for the improvement of women’s opportunities in the labour movement, but also for more equal representation within Australia’s trade unions themselves.

Lesley Hall was a feminist and disability advocate who worked throughout her life to empower low income and indigenous people, and people with disabilities, to attain and assert their human rights. She dramatically increased the policy involvement of people with disabilities in Australian and international disability issues. On behalf of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO) she represented and involved people with disabilities in the consultation, lobbying and campaign to successfully achieve the National Disability Strategy and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

Lesley Hall is well known for a radical form of activism in 1981, when she and other activists stormed the stage of the St Kilda Town Hall during the Miss Australia Quest. The act has been described as ‘the first public act to place disability as a feminist issue on the agenda’.

Janet Cosh was the only child of Dr John and Louise Cosh (née Calvert). Janet attended the University of Sydney, where she studied English, History and the Classics. She moved to the Southern Highlands in 1934, where she took a keen interest in local history and the natural environment. In her late sixties, Janet devoted her life to the study of the native flora of the Southern Highlands, New South Wales and became a highly respected amateur botanist. After Janet’s death, her bequest to the University of Wollongong provided funds and botanical resources which were used to establish the Janet Cosh Herbarium.

Vera Addison was awarded the British Empire Medal for her services to the community of Kangaroo Ground, in Eltham, Victoria, in 1968. She served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) worker in England during the First World War and was a volunteer and later Honorary General Secretary of the Victoria League of Victoria for 25 years.

Pat Lahy trained in physical education and established the first formal training course in counselling for people with disabilities in Australia. She was the first woman to hold the position of Dean of Arts at the University of Sydney.

Judy Hall (nee Baillie) was born into a musical family in West Gippsland in 1922. Although she did not begin formal piano training until she was twelve, she has been an inspiring and influential piano teacher for over seventy years. Her focus and expertise has been on the foundations of good technique and she has been an authoritative voice in music education across Australia. Her teaching and commitment to music education has been recognised through a number of awards and honours including an OAM in 1996.

Much like the online exhibition She’s Game: Women making Australian sporting history, this entry ‘pays tribute to the many Australian women over time and across the country who have played, coached, volunteered, administered and supported sport, at all levels.’

Kathleen Commins completed a Bachelor of Arts at Sydney University in 1931 and a Bachelor of Economics in 1934. During her time at university she was very active in the community. Kathleen was both secretary and president of the Women Evening Students’ Association, a member of the students’ representative council and director of the University Women’s Union. In 1931 she was appointed the first female editor of Sydney University’s magazine Hermes.

Kathleen began her freelance career in journalism in 1934 as a reporter of women’s sport, and in 1948 she was appointed assistant to the chief of staff. Kathleen retired from this position in 1969, having been employed by The Sydney Morning Herald for 35 years.

In addition, Kathleen was also an incredible sportswoman. She captained and managed the New South Wales women’s cricket team and also represented the state ‘in the junior division of the Australian lawn tennis championships at Kooyong.’

Kathleen Magill was a founding member and honorary secretary of the Australian Women’s Ski Club and a member of the Ski Club of Victoria.

Ethel Anna Stephens was the first female member of the Council of the Art Society of New South Wales and also the preisdent of the Society of Women Painters.