The Australian Women's Register

The AIF Women’s Association was established in 1940, by the wives of six service officers. The main purpose was to bring together, in fellowship and understanding, the womenfolk of the men on active service so that they could help each other in time of need. The Melbourne City Council provided rent-free premises at 437, and later 435A, Collins Street Melbourne. Here the women could seek assistance or advice, have a cup of tea or leave a child while attending the doctor, dentist or an urgent appointment.

Katherine Carter was educated at the University of Melbourne, graduating with a BA. She held senior positions on the staff of Clyde Girls’ School, Woodend and the Methodist Ladies’ College, Hawthorn and was for a short time headmistress of St Mary’s Church of England School for Girls, Perth. In 1948 she was appointed headmistress of Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School, where she was to remain until her retirement in 1964. During that time her innovations included the introduction of the house system, the formation of the Parents’ and Friends’ Association, debating and hockey. She also enjoyed writing plays and wrote a new play each year to be performed by the girls as part of the Christmas festivities. This later developed into an annual Inter-House Drama Competition, with an award of the Katherine Carter Drama Trophy for Best Production. She was appointed MBE – Member of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) – 12 June 1965, for her contribution to education in Queensland as Headmistress – Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School.

Margaret McClelland pursued a successful career as an anaesthetist in Melbourne after qualifying in her specialty in London in 1942. She completed her initial medical training at the University of Melbourne in 1931 and took up an appointment as resident medical officer from 1932-1933 and later, medical superintendent, from 1934 at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, Melbourne. From there she moved to Sydney in 1936 to assume the position of medical superintendent at the Prince Henry Hospital. During World War II she worked as senior anaesthetist at the Central Middlesex Hospital London from 1941-1946 and returned to Melbourne to work as anaesthetist at the Royal Melbourne and St Vincent’s Hospitals. In 1955 she took up the appointment of director of anaesthetics at the Royal Children’s Hospital. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 31 December 1979 for her services to medicine.

Winifred Kennan graduated as MB BS from the University of Melbourne in 1920 and specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology. She had a long association with the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital Melbourne as its medical superintendent from 1921-1923 and later as honorary consultant obstetrician. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to medicine on 11 June 1977.

During World War I Alice Ross-King (as she was then known) was a Sister in the Australian Army Nursing Service. Mentioned twice in despatches, she was awarded the Military Medal on 28 September 1917 and the Royal Red Cross Medal on the 4 June 1918. She married Lieutenant-Colonel Sydney T Appleford of the Australian Army Medical Corps on 21 August 1919. They had four children. She assisted her husband in establishing a first-aid military unit and during the 1930s became involved with the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments. Appleford enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service during World War II. She was promoted to the rank of Major in September 1942 and awarded the Florence Nightingale medal by the International Red Cross in 1949.

Alice Appleford died on 17 August 1968 at Cronulla, Sydney and is buried in Fawkner Cemetery, Melbourne.

Sybil Irving was the founder and Controller of the Australian Women’s Army Service. On 2 January 1939 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for social welfare services in Victoria. Throughout her life Irving was a faithful member of the Church. Her Funeral Service on 30 March 1973, and a Memorial Service on 23 February 1975 were held in Christ Church, South Yarra, Victoria.

After being educated at the Church of England Girls’ Grammar School (CEGGS) North Sydney, Edith Shaw completed her nurses training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Women’s Hospital (Melbourne) and Tressillian Infant Welfare, Sydney. Shaw nursed at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, London, and was matron of the Melbourne District Nursing Society before joining the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service in 1946. During World War II she was matron of the 2/2 Hospital Ship Wanganella and principal matron of the Victorian Line of Command 1941-1943 and 1943-1946. On 14 June 1945 Lieutenant Colonel Edith Shaw was awarded the Royal Red Cross for her service with the Australian Army Nursing Service in the South West Pacific. Following the war Shaw became lady superintendent at the Alfred Hospital Melbourne (1946-1952) as well as principal matron of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service Headquarters Southern Command (1950-1952).

Freda Thompson, a pioneer aviator, was the first Australian woman to fly solo from the United Kingdom to Australia. She completed the journey in a Gypsy Moth Major in 39 days flying time. After qualifying for her private pilot licence in 1930 and her commercial licence two years later in 1932, she became the first woman instructor in the British Empire on gaining her instructor rating in 1933. Finally, in 1934 she obtained the Great Britain Air Ministry Private Pilot Certificate, which enabled her to ‘fly all types of machines’. During the 1930s she became the first woman president of the Royal Victorian Aero Club and was made a life member in 1941. She was a foundation member of the Australian Women Pilots’ Association. Thompson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1972 for services to aviation.

Joan Montgomery was educated at Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC), Melbourne and spent most of her teaching career in private schools in Victoria. She returned to her old school as principal in 1969 and remained there until her retirement in 1985. Her first teaching appointment was at Frensham School, Mittagong New South Wales from 1949-1951 and she spent time in London from 1952-1954 and 1958-1959. She taught also at Tintern Church of England Girls Grammar School, in Ringwood East, from 1955-1957, and was principal of Clyde School Woodend, from 1960-1968, before moving to PLC. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 12 June 1976 for her services to education.

Marianne Rawson gained distinction as a Victorian nursing sister who served in the Boer War and was one of the three Australian nurses to be awarded the Royal Red Cross medal for service in that conflict. She was the lady superintendent of the ten Victorian nurses who sailed for South Africa with the Third (Bushmen’s) Contingent on the Euryalus on 10 March 1900. They went to Rhodesia and served at Salisbury, Fort Charter, Bulawayo, Hillside, Mafeking, Springfontein and Tuli. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross medal on 26 June 1902 for her outstanding work and courage in the care of patients and was Mentioned in Dispatches on 29 July 1902. The Governor of Western Australia presented her with her RRC medal in Kalgoorlie in 1903.

Margaret Henderson, a consultant physician to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1981, was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 12 June 1976 for her services to medicine. She enjoyed a long association with the Royal Melbourne Hospital in the capacity of honorary physician from 1947-1975 and specialist physician from 1976-1981. She was also consultant physician at the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women from 1959. During World War II she served as a captain in the Australian Military Forces from 1941-42. She completed her medical training at the University of Melbourne, graduating MB BS in 1931 and MD in 1941. She was a Fellow of Janet Clarke Hall, at the University of Melbourne from 1966.

With her husband, Thomas Baker, and her sister, Eleanor Shaw, Alice Baker co-financed a major biochemistry laboratory at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, now known as the Baker Institute.

Margaret McPherson, educated in private schools in Adelaide and Melbourne, completed her tertiary education at the University of Melbourne and the Institute of Education London. Her teaching experience, included appointments at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne as Assistant mistress from 1943-48 and later as Head of the History Department from 1952-55. She spent the years 1950-51 teaching at the Girls’ High School Slough, England. She was appointed principal of Clarendon PLC Ballarat, Victoria in 1956 and remained there until her appointment as principal of Korowa Church of England Girls’ Grammar School in 1970. In addition to her duties of school administration, she served as president of the Association of Headmistresses of Independent Schools of Australia from 1970-73 and also as president of its Victorian counterpart from 1970-74. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1978 for services to education.

Joan Carden was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on 13 June 1988 and an Officer (Civil) of the Order of the British Empire on 31 December 1981 for services to opera.

Jean Littlejohn, educated in Melbourne at the Presbyterian Ladies’ College and the University of Melbourne, made an outstanding contribution to ear, nose and throat surgery as honorary consultant, ear nose and throat, at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. She was the first woman elected to the Medical Faculty at the University of Melbourne in 1947. Her work was acknowledged initially with her appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire in June 1962 for services to the deaf in Victoria, and again as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in June 1975 for services to medicine.

Helen MacKenzie, a child of Presbyterian missionaries, completed her medical degree at the University of Melbourne in 1938 with the intention of going to Korea to work as a missionary in 1941. With the interruption of World War II she instead remained at the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne, from 1940-1944, where she went to ‘learn something of women’s problems’ as she described her time there in a biography of her father entitled MacKenzie, man of mission. She later worked as superintendent of the Australian Presbyterian Mission Hospital in Pusan Korea from 1952-1975, where her sister Catherine was matron, and was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1962 in recognition of her devoted services to medicine.

Lilian Scantlebury, née Whybrow, was a leader of the Australian Red Cross Society (ARCS) in the Victorian Division and at the national level. Her efforts were acknowledged with her appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1959 for her services to the Red Cross Society. Educated at Ruyton Girls’ School in Kew and the University of Melbourne, she was a member of the Red Cross Society from 1914. She spent two years in London during World War I working at the Australian Red Cross wounded and missing bureau with Vera (Deakin) White, who also became an influential member of the ARCS in Victoria. Leon Stubbings, in his history of the Australian Red Cross entitled Look what you started Henry, claimed that because these two women ‘had experienced the real meaning of Red Cross during the First World War, dedication was demonstrated by hard work throughout their life’. Lilian Scantlebury married Dr G C Scantlebury in April 1920 and had one daughter. She was vice-chairman of the National Council of the Australian Red Cross Society, Melbourne, from 1951 and earlier had assumed the position of honorary director of the Wounded and Missing Enquiry at Burwood, Victoria from 1940-1947. Her other interests included membership of the committee of Janet Clarke Hall and Trinity College, University of Melbourne, from 1926-1961 and she was its chairman from 1939-1961. She also served on the Council of St John Victoria from 1954-1958.

Valerie Fisher was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on Australia Day 1995 for service to raising the status of women in developing countries through the organisation ‘Associated Country Women of the World’. She had been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for service to women’s affairs on 31 December 1981.

Professor Enid Campbell, a leading Australian scholar in constitutional law and administrative law, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 16 June 1979 for services to education in the field of law. Campbell, who was the first female dean of a law faculty in Australia, was bestowed with the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the University of Tasmania in 1990.

Winifred Hilliard was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire on I June 1977 for ‘Aboriginal welfare’. She was later awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia on the Queen’s birthday list, 1989, for ‘service to Aboriginal welfare, particularly the Pitjantjatjara people’.

On 12 February 1942 the Empire Star sailed from Singapore harbour. The ship which normally had an allocation of space for 20 passengers was carrying over 2100 people. While on route to Batavia, the ship came under enemy fire and received three direct hits. During one of the raids, two of the Australian nursing staff on board, Sister Vera A Torney and Margaret Anderson came on deck to attend to the wounded. They protected their patients by covering them with their bodies. Staff Nurse Vera Torney was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military) on 22 September 1942 for her work with the Australian Army Nursing Service. Staff Nurse Margaret Anderson received the George Medal.

Doris Mary Robb was born in 1890 at Armadale Victoria, the daughter of Arthur Thomas and Ethel Gertrude (née Richardson) Robb. On 20 November 1913 she married Rupert Major Downes (later Major-General and director of Medical Services, 2nd Australian Army Melbourne) at St John’s Church Toorak. They had three children. As Doris Downes she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 4 October 1918 for work among soldiers’ families through the Friendly Union of Soldier’s Wives. She died in 1981 aged 91 years.

Born Lilian Edith Lewers, the daughter of Alexander and Rebecca (née McFarland) Lewers in 1867 at Creswick, Victoria, Lillian married medical practitioner David Grant in 1892. She was a council member of both the Australian and Victorian Red Cross Societies as well as a member of the Junior Red Cross Committee. From 1915-1926 she was chairman and secretary of the Home Hospitals Committee. Chairman of the Committee for Blinded Soldiers, Lilian Grant was also an original member and honorary treasurer of the Victoria League Club.

From 1917-1918 Lilian Grant was president of the Alexandra Club. She was also involved with the establishment of the club library, and for many years was its acquisitions officer. During the First World War she changed her buying policy from purchasing novels to that of buying books about war and illustrated newspapers. On 19 October 1920, Lilian Grant was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for service to the Red Cross Society. She died in 1941 aged 74.

Jessie Mary Johnston, the daughter of Brigadier-General Walter John and Mary Euphemia (née Johnston) Clark, was born at St Kilda in 1889. Educated privately in Tasmania during World War I she became a member of the Red Cross Society (Tasmania). On 3 December 1923 Jessie Clark married her maternal cousin Dr William Johnston (later Sir) and they had two sons. From 1939-1952 Jessie Johnston was a member of the Red Cross Centenary Council, and from 1940-1942 a member of the Executive Committee of the Australian Imperial Forces Women’s Association. When Johnston was appointed Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Commissioner for War Services, she resigned from the presidency of the Alexandra Club but remained a member of the Committee. In 1951 Johnston became President of the YWCA of Australia, a post she held until 1957. On 1 January 1958 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for service to the community. Lady Jessie Johnston died in 1984, aged 94.

Catherine King was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the community on 11 June 1966.

Raelene Boyle represented Australia at four Olympic games as a sprinter. She was appointed a Member of the British Empire on 15 June 1974 for services to athletics, and was named ABC Sportsperson of the Year in 1974. Named by the National Trust as one of ‘100 Living Treasures in 1998’, Raelene Boyle was an Olympic torchbearer at the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.

Appointed Lady Superintendent of the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1934, Helene Grey remained in the position for 38 years. One of seven children born to Charles (a police magistrate) and Mabel Grey, Helene Grey helped raise her siblings after her father died. In 1919 she commenced nursing training at the Melbourne (later Royal) Hospital and graduated in 1924 receiving the Forest Gold Medal. Following her appointment as Sister Tutor of the Preliminary Training School in 1927, Helene Grey became matron of the Caulfield Convalescent Hospital. Grey was a president of the Australian Nursing Federation and Royal Victorian College of Nursing, and also a member of the Nurses Board of Victoria. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 10 June 1948.