200 Australian Women

Florence Violet McKenzie (1892-1982), electrician, was born at Hawthorn, Melbourne, daughter of Marie Annie (born Giles) and George Wallace. From Thirroul Public School, New South Wales, she went on a scholarship to Sydney Girls' High School. In 1915 she passed chemistry I and geology I at the University of Sydney. Always interested in electricity, she became Australia's first woman electrical engineer after completion of the Sydney Technical College Diploma course in 1923.

Dorothy Gordon Jenner (1891-1985), journalist and broadcaster, was a daughter of Dora (born Fosbery) and William A. Gordon. Her grandfather was Edmund Fosbery, inspector-general of police. Her father was manager on 'Edgeroi', near Narrabri, and later stock and station agent for the Australian Joint Stock Bank. She was educated at Narrabri, and in Sydney at Ascham and Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School. She visited English relatives in 1911-13 and in 1915 went to Hollywood, where she played minor parts and did stunts for Paramount.

Mary (May) Alice Holman (1893-1939), politician, was born on 18 July 1893 at Broken Hill, New South Wales, first of nine children of Katherine Mary (born Row) and John Barkell Holman, a miner. Her father moved to the Murchison goldfields in Western Australia and the family followed in 1896. May was educated at convents in Dongara and Perth. She was a gifted musician, a licentiate in singing and pianoforte. She organised choirs, performed in concerts, plays and fêtes with flair and enthusiasm, and had her own band, 'The Entertainers'.

Ida Caroline Mann (1893-1983), ophthalmologist, was born on 6 February 1893 at West Hampstead, London, second child of Ellen (born Packham) and Frederick Mann, civil servant. Her childhood was happy though plagued with illness; a tonsillectomy performed under local anaesthetic at home first made her aware of a doctor's skills. She was educated at Wycombe House School, took the Civil Service Girl Clerks' examination and entered the Post Office Savings Bank.

Florence Mary Austral (1894-1968), singer, was born on 16 April 1894 at Richmond, Melbourne, only daughter of Helena Mary (born Harris) and William Wilson, a Swedish carpenter formerly known as Wilhelm Lindholm. After her father died in 1895 her mother set up as a dressmaker. In 1903 she married John Fawaz and Florence took his name. He was a Methodist.

Doris Isabel Beeby (1894-1948), union organiser, was born on 30 July 1894, one of four children of Helena Maria (born West) and (Sir) George Stephenson Beeby, Labor politician and judge in arbitration. Doris was educated at the Church of England Grammar School for Girls, Sydney, and at the University of Sydney as an unmatriculated Arts student. In 1920 following her father's appointment as a judge of the New South Wales Industrial Court of Arbitration and president of the Board of Trade, Doris became his associate.

Louise Lovely (1895-1980), film and vaudeville star, was born at Paddington, Sydney, on 28 February 1895, the illegitimate daughter of Swiss born Elise Lehmann, who had toured Australia with Sara Bernhardt in 1891 before making Sydney her home. In 1905 Louise's birth was re- registered after her mother married Italian musician, Feruccio Alberti.

Mabel Josephine Mackerras (1896-1971), entomologist and parasitologist, was born on 7 August 1896 at Deception Bay, Queensland, daughter of Cecilia Mary Bancroft (born Jones) and Dr Thomas Lane Bancroft, medical naturalist. She was educated at Brisbane Girls' Grammar, University of Queensland (BSc 1918, MSc 1930) and University of Sydney (MB 1924). With a Walter and Eliza Hall Fellowship in economic biology (1918-19) she began research in Queensland on tick resistance in cattle, fly- borne diseases of cattle and horses and fatal epizootics in fresh-water fish.

Mary Tenison Woods (1896-1971), lawyer, was born in Adelaide, daughter of John Kitson. She was educated at St Aloysius College and the University of Adelaide where she was the first woman law graduate (1916). She practised as a barrister with the firm of Poole and Johnston with whom she had served articles, becoming a partner in the reconstituted firm of Johnston, Ronald and Kitson in 1919 after Poole was appointed to the Supreme Court. Her 1921 application to be a public notary forced a change in the law: the existing Public Notaries Act did not include women as 'persons'.

Jessie Mary Vasey (1897-1966), social reformer, was born at Roma, Queensland, on 19 October 1897, the eldest of three daughters of Jessie (born Dobbin) and Joseph Halbert, pastoralist. She shared her father's love of the bush, his interest in horses and in buying and selling real estate. She was a boarder at Moreton Bay Girls' High School until 1911 when the family moved to 'Tarcombe', near Aurel, Victoria, when she attended Lauriston Girls' School and later Methodist Ladies' College, Kew. She graduated BA from the University of Melbourne in 1921.

Enid Muriel Lyons (1897-1981), politician, was born on 9 July 1897 at Duck River, north-western Tasmania, daughter of Eliza (born Tagget) and William Burnell, a sawyer. Her Cornish-born Methodist mother was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, an active Labor supporter and later one of the first women appointed justice of the peace in Tasmania. Enid was educated at Stowport and Burnie State Schools and Hobart Teachers' College.

Persia Gwendolen Crawford Campbell (1898-1974), economist, was born on 15 March 1898 at Nerrigundah, New South Wales, daughter of Beatrice (born Hunt) and Rudolf Campbell, teacher. She was educated at Fort Street Girls' High, Sydney, and the University of Sydney, graduating BA (1918) and MA (1920). On a travelling scholarship to the London School of Economics she studied Chinese coolie emigration for an MSc (1923).

Kate Isabel Campbell (1899-1986), paediatrician, was born at Hawthorn, Melbourne, only daughter and third of four children of Janet Duncan (born Mill), schoolteacher, and Donald Campbell, shipping clerk. Kate was educated at the primary school in Hawthorn and proceeded to the Methodist Ladies' College on a scholarship. Her parents, of Scottish extraction, were keen to see her gain a good education, and her mother particularly ambitious that she have entry to an independent livelihood.

Doris Fitton (1897-1985), founder of the Independent Theatre, Sydney, was born in November 1897 in Manila, the Philippines, where her English father, Walter Fitton, a chartered accountant, broker and manufacturer of cigars, had taken his Australian bride, Janet Cameron, in 1894. In 1902 Doris, her elder sister Janet Ethel, and their mother, returned to Melbourne where the climate and education were considered more appropriate for white children than Manila. Walter Fitton died shortly afterwards.