The Australian Women's Register

The daughter of Alholstane Chase and Rosina (née Sherrin), Elizabeth Burchill completed her education at the Camberwell State School and the Ladies Business College, Melbourne, as well as at Melbourne and Monash Universities.

Before World War II Burchill worked at the Australian Inland Mission, Innamincka, Labrador, Grenfell Mission, and was a member of the British Ambulance Unit, caring for refugee children during the Spanish Civil War. She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service on 21 December 1939 and was one of the first nurses from Victoria to go to the Middle East with the 2nd Australian Imperial Force in 1940. After the war she combined nursing with writing – particularly about the area in which she had nursed. Her publications include Australian Nurses since Nightingale: 1860-1990, a largely biographical history published in 1992.

On 8 June 1998, Sister Elizabeth Burchill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to nursing, particularly as an historian, author and philanthropist. Also she has won the Jessie Lichfield Annual Award and the Veterans’ Affairs Writers Award.

The daughter of R G and F H Anderson, Margaret Darling was educated at St Catherine’s College Toorak. After serving with the Women’s Royal Australian Navy Service from 1943 to 1945, she married L G Darling and they had four children. A member of the Alexandra Club (Melbourne), Margaret Darling enjoys travel, gardening, music and country pursuits. On 10 June 1991, Margaret Darling was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the National Trust of Victoria.

On 8th June 1992, Sheila Scotter was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the Arts, particularly through fundraising. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 13th June 1970 for services to journalism and commerce.

Helena Marfell was the inaugural national president of the Country Women’s Association of Australia in 1945.

Annie Laidlaw devoted her life to nursing and served in both world wars. She completed her nursing training at the Children’s Hospital (later Royal), Melbourne. In 1917 Laidlaw joined the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and served in military hospitals at Bombay and Poona.

After the war Laidlaw returned to the Children’s Hospital as ward sister. In 1925 she was granted a year of leave to complete midwifery training at the Royal Hospital for Women, Sydney. Returning to Melbourne, Annie became assistant lady superintendent (assistant-matron) at the Children’s Hospital. In 1930 she was promoted to lady superintendent of the hospital’s orthopaedic section at Frankston. She held this position for 12 years.

Selected to head the Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service (RANNS) in 1942 she was in charge of the Flinders Naval Depot hospital as well as being in charge of the RANNS. After her discharge from the navy Laidlaw returned to her position at the Children’s Hospital until 1950.

From 1951-52 she worked in London. On her return to Melbourne she took the position of Matron at the Freemason’s Homes of Victoria, Prahran until her retirement in 1957. Aged 89, Annie Laidlaw died on 13 September 1978 at McKinnon, Victoria.

Marjory Taylor became a Member of the Order of Australia on 9 June 1980 for her service to nursing.

During World War II she served with the Royal Australian Airforce Nursing Service (1944-1946) and worked voluntarily as senior nursing officer with the Girl Guide International Service in the British Zone, Germany, for three years.

From 1950 until 1981 Marjory worked with the Geelong Hospital, first as supervisor of the Maternity Wing and then Director of nursing. For 17 years – two as president – Marjory was a board member of the Intellectually Handicapped (Karingal) and was a founder and Board Member of the Geelong Hospice Care Association.

Mickey Syer enlisted at Claremont, Western Australia, in the Australian Army on 6 February 1941. A member of the Australian Army Nursing Service, she was stationed with the 2/10th Australian General Hospital when captured by the Japanese during the fall of Singapore. Mickey spent three and a half years in Japanese prisoner of war camps in Sumatra.

During October 1945, she returned to Australia and was discharged from the Army on 10 August 1948.

After moving to Canberra with her family in 1926, Jessie Daley became involved with a variety of community associations. She joined the Canberra Society of Arts and Literature, was the first President of the Canberra Ladies’ Choir, became a member (later President) of the Canberra Golf Club Associates as well as being a member of the Canberra Women’s Hockey Club and school associations.

In 1930 Daley became President of the local Girl Guides’ association and was district commissioner (1931-1932).

A member of the Canberra Mothercraft Society, Daley was Vice-President from 1930 until March 1935 when she became President. It was at a difficult time for the society with board disharmony and staffing problems. She resigned as President in May 1935 and was not re-elected.

Daley became a member of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), using her expertise to organise social, sporting and cultural activities as a welcome for newcomers to the city and to raise funds for charity. In 1937 she became Vice-President of the YWCA’s Canberra branch and a non-resident member of the national board.

On 4 July 1939 Daley was elected Foundation President of the Australian Capital Territory branch of the National Council of Women. The Council worked with the Canberra Relief Society to assist the needy.

Jessie Daley died of cancer on 10 November 1943 at Mosman.

The eldest daughter of medical practitioner, Percy and Lily (née Johnston) Shelton, Moira Dynon was educated at Presentation Convent, Elsternwick, Loreto Convent, Toorak and the University of Melbourne. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1941, Dynon was commissioned in the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force and assisted Wing Commander R J W Le Fevre with chemical warfare munitions. Following her discharge she became a research officer with the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories and later with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

On 2 December 1950 she married John Dynon and they had five children. At this stage Dynon became involved with community organisations. These included the Catholic Mothers’ Club Federation, the Catholic Women’s Social Guild and the Australian Council of Catholic Women. In 1952 the Dynons established the Malvern branch of the United Nations Australia Association, Victorian division. In 1960 she initiated and ran an appeal to provide secondary education for Japanese children of returned Australian servicemen. Moira Dynon became chairman of the Aid for India and president of its successor Aid India. She also helped with famine-relief campaigns in Bengal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Major Hilda Florence Meyer was appointed Assistant Controller Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) Land Headquarters (L.H.Q) and she served in this capacity from November 1942 until August 1944. She attended the third Australian Women’s Services Administrative School in Melbourne, which was established in 1943, to gain advanced training in Army organisation and administration. Courses were held at the school between October 1943 and July 1945. Major Meyer was appointed Deputy Assistant Controller AAMWS Headquarters, Western Command, to administer the movement and placement of AAMWS in Western Australian medical units between 1944 and 1945.

Hilda was born on 31 December 1899 and died in the year 1989.

Source used to compile this entry: From Blue to Khaki by Betty Mount-Batten p. 48

Before enlisting in the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) in 1960, June Healy was a member of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corp. She attended the 9/60 Officer Cadet Course (OCS) and was then posted as Adjutant/Quartermaster at 31 WRAAC Barrack Melbourne and in 1962 to WRAAC School as Adjutant (CMF).

After her marriage to Major John Healy in 1963, June held an assortment of positions, usually in the area of training and office management, wherever her husband was posted. Also she worked as a volunteer on numerous Army Wives Committees and helped in setting up the first Thrift Shop at the Canungra Land Welfare Centre to assist in the funding of the local Girl Guides. In 1978 Healy became a member of the WRAAC Association and served as the State vice-president and president of the ACT Association. From 1995 until 1999 she was National president. From 1981 Healy was a foundation member of the Defence Widows Support Group. This group assists defence widows whose husbands were not killed during war service, did not die of war caused disabilities and therefore do not qualify for a War Widows’ Pension. On 11 June 1990 June Healy was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to veterans. In 1994 she became a member of the War Widows’ Guild of Australia (ACT) and was State president from 1995 to 1998 and National president from 1998 to 2002.

In October 2002 June Healy joined the Australian Women in War Project representing the War Widows’ Guild of Australia.

Over the course of her life Alice Moss worked with a number of women’s organisations, as well as various education, child welfare and Red Cross societies. Educated at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne, she married I H Moss in 1887 (deceased 1938) and they had two daughters. In 1914 she relinquished her position as vice-president of the Australian Women’s National League to become the only female member of the Victorian recruiting committee for the Armed Services. Later she became the only woman member of the Victorian Centenary Celebrations executive committee (1933-1934). At the same time she was president of the Women’s Centenary Council of Victoria as well as being the first president of the National Council of Women (1931-1936). On 4 June 1934 she was appointed Commander of the British Empire.

After her husband’s death in 1896 Jessie White commenced general nursing training at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Victoria. She completed her midwifery training at the Women’s Hospital (later Royal) in 1901. Five years later she was in charge and running her own private hospital as well as serving as a reservist in the Australian Army Nursing Service.

When war broke out in 1914, she enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service, rising through the ranks to be appointed Principal Matron of the Australian Army Nursing Service in December 1915.

On 15 March 1941 Peg Cockburn (later Utting) was one of ‘The Original Mob’ who enrolled in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) at the No 1 RAAF Recruit Centre. After completing a ‘rookie training’ course she was employed as a teleprinter operator and trainer during World War II. Peg Utting was one of the servicewomen that the WAAAF used for recruiting photographs.

The daughter of former Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, and wife of public official Herbert Brookes, Ivy Brookes played an active part in Australian political life. She occupied a central role in the National Council of Women; the Housewives’ Association; the International Club of Victoria; the Women’s Hospital; and in various boards and committees at the University of Melbourne. A talented musician, she won the Ormond Scholarship for singing in 1904, and played first violin for Professor Marshall Hall’s Orchestra at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Jean Crittenden began nursing in 1937 as a Bush Nursing Sister. Crittenden then served with the Australian Army Nursing Service between 1940 and 1946. Assistant Matron at the Repatriation General Hospital in Heidelberg from 1946 to 1955, she then became matron of Queensland’s Anzac Hostel and the Kenmore Sanatorium. Following this, from 1958 until 1971, Crittenden was Matron of the Repatriation General Hospital in Hobart from 1958 to 1971. In 1966, she received the honour of being appointed a Member to the Order of the British Empire.

Marj Oke’s first job was as a teacher in a one-room school. Upon her marriage in 1942, as was the policy of the time, she was suspended from teaching. Working at the Australian Jam Company, she encountered very poor working conditions. This experience propelled her to join the Food Preservers’ Union and become active in the Australian Labor Party. She stood as a candidate for the Australian Labor Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of St Kilda under her maiden name, Bennett, at the Victorian state election, which was held in 1943. In 1950, Oke became a founding and lifelong member of the Union of Australian Women. After returning to teaching in Moe, she campaigned for equal pay for women teachers, the abolition of the marriage bar and access to superannuation. Additionally, Oke formed a branch of the Aboriginal Advancement League and became, in 1992, a founding member of the Network for Older Women. On 10 June 1991 she was awarded an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) for service to aged people, particularly women. Oke was included in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in March 2002.

After being exposed to ‘sweated labour’ conditions while working in the Melbourne clothing industry during the 1880s, Jean Beadle was inspired to dedicate her life to the betterment of conditions for women and children. Known as the ‘The Grand Old Lady of the Labor Party,’ she was a founding member of the Women’s Political and Social Crusade and the Labor Women’s Organization in Victoria (1898), Fremantle (1905) and Goldfields (1906). She was also a delegate to the Eastern Goldfields District Council of the State Australian Labor Party. Beadle was one of the first women appointed as a Justice of the Peace in Western Australia, sitting for many years on the Married Women’s Court. She was later appointed to serve as an honorary Justice on the bench of the Children’s Courts. An official visitor to the women’s section of the Fremantle Prison, Beadle also was instrumental in the building of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women. She was secretary, of the King Edward Memorial Hospital Advisory Board, from 1921 until her death. In recognition of her dedicated service the hospital annually awards a Jean Beadle scholarship.

The second woman member of the House of Representatives, Doris Blackburn successfully won her late husband’s Federal seat of Bourke as an Independent Labor candidate in 1946. In an electoral redistribution the seat of Bourke was abolished and Blackburn contested the new seat of Wills at the 1949 and 1951 elections, but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

She was involved in the Free Kindergarten movement and numerous campaigns for better education, playgrounds and crèches. Blackburn was a member of the Women’s Political Association in Victoria, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Women’s Prison Council and the Save the Children Fund. In 1957, with Doug Nicholls, she was a co-founder of the Aboriginal Advancement League and the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement.

In 1935 Jessie Bage became the first woman appointed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital Management committee. Educated at Melbourne Church of England Girls Grammar School Bage was a member of the school council. Jessie Bage House, which accommodates Year 12 students boarding at the school, is named in her honour. For her service with a number of social welfare associations Jessie Bage was appointed an Officer to the Order of the British Empire on 2 January 1956.

Born Mary Wilson at Richmond, Victoria, she was also known by her stepfather’s name, Fawaz, before adopting the name of her country as a stage name prior to her debut in 1922 at Covent Garden. Known as one of the world’s greatest Wagnerian sopranos Florence Austral married the Australian virtuoso flautist John Amadio in 1925 and toured widely with him in America and Australia. After the Second World War she returned to Australia almost completely paralysed with multiple sclerosis. She nevertheless taught until her retirement in 1959. Austral died at a nursing home in Newcastle on 16 May 1968.

Born into a musical family, soprano Amy Castles made her Melbourne, Victoria, debut at the annual meeting of the Austral Salon in 1899. She studied in Paris with Madame Marchesi and then Jacques Bouhy before appearing with Ada Crossley and Clara Butt at St James’s Hall, London in 1901. After completing further study Castles sang at the Queen’s Hall concerts in London and gave a command performance before King Edward VII in 1906. Castles then appeared in Hamlet at Cologne, Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet and Faust. She also took part in the Harrison tours of Great Britain and sang with conductors Hans Richter, (Sir) Henry Wood and Landon Ronald. Following her tour of Australia for J & N Tait, in 1909, Castles performed in the Australian premiere of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly for J C Williamson before returning to Europe. At the outbreak of war Castles returned to Australia where she completed a tour of the capital cities. She made her American debut at Carnegie Hall, New York in 1917 as well as giving concerts for sick and wounded soldiers and opening her Manhattan home to visiting Australians. With the Williamson Grand Opera Company Castles toured Australia in 1919 and again in 1925 on a concert tour managed by her brother George and including her sister Eileen.

Contralto singer Madame Ada Crossley studied piano under Mrs Hastings of Port Albert and later Signor Zelman. She then sang with Madame Fanny Simonsen of Melbourne. Prior to leaving Australia in March 1894, to study in Europe, she gave farewell concerts in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. With Percy Grainger a member of her entourage, she toured Australia and New Zealand, returning to England via South Africa (1903-1904). Crossley returned to Australia for a series of concerts in 1908-1909. Once again Grainger was a supporting artist. During the First World War she sang at benefit concerts. After the war she reduced her professional engagements. Ada Crossley died on 17 October 1929 at Woodlands Park, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

Mrs Aeneas Gunn was the author of The Black Princess, published in 1905, and We of the Never Never, published in 1908. During and after World War I she worked tirelessly to support the servicemen of Monbulk, Victoria who she referred to as “my boys.” She was awarded an OBE in 1939, “in recognition of her services to Australian Literature and to the disabled soldiers and their dependents.” In 1948 she began to work on a book recording all the details of the volunteers from Monbulk who had served in the Boer War, the Boxer Rebellion and World War I. Gunn presented her completed manuscript to the Monbulk RSL in 1953 and the book, My Boys – A Book of Remembrance, was published for the first time in 2000.

Betty Jeffrey was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 8 June 1987 for service to the welfare of nurses in Victoria and ex-service men and women. Jeffrey was one of the members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Incarcerated in Japanese prisoner of war camps for three and a half years, after the war she wrote about the experiences in White Coolies (1954) which was later the basis for the film script Paradise Road (1999). After her return to Melbourne, and spending some time in hospital, Jeffrey and fellow survivor Vivian Bullwinkel travelled throughout Victoria raising funds towards a memorial for military nurses. The Nurses Memorial Centre was opened on 19 February 1950 and Jeffrey was appointed its first administrator. In 1986 she became the Centre’s patron.

Margaret Lang was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 8 June 1950 for service with the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service. Lang was the founder and Matron-in-Chief of the Service during World War II. She had completed her training at Wangaratta District Hospital and the Women’s Hospital (later Royal), Melbourne. During World War I Lang served in Salonika with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Other positions she held included being a Matron of a number of Victorian country hospitals, the Police Hospital and the Talbot Epileptics Colony in Clayton, Victoria.