
Dame Mary Gilmore Portrait
by Adelaide Perry oil on plywood; 45.3 x
35.5 cm PIC R5348 National Library of Australia |
THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S FEDERATION
GATEWAY
GILMORE, DAME MARY (1865-1962)
Born, Mary Jean Cameron, at
Cottawalla, near Goulburn, New South Wales, on 16 August 1865. Poet, author and
journalist. In prose an advocate for cause of women's rights, and rights of
Aboriginal Australians.
In 1890 she moved to Sydney where she moved in
radical and intellectual circles. She became a close friend of Henry Lawson,
and was the first woman member of the Australian Workers' Union. She joined the
New Australia venture in Paraguay in 1895 and married William Alexander Gilmore
in 1897, in Paraguay.
The Gilmore family lived in Victoria from 1902 to
1912. She moved to Sydney in 1912. She wrote for local newspapers, and edited
(1908-31) the women's page in the Australian Worker, campaigning
vigorously on behalf of the Aborigines, old age and invalid pensions, maternity
allowances, child health centres, the rights of illegitimate and adopted
children and other welfare causes.
A foundation member of the
Fellowship of Australian Writers (1928), she was appointed a Dame Commander of
the Order of the British Empire (1937) for services to literature.
Advancing years intensified the impact of her personality. When she
died, on 3 December 1962, she was given a State funeral by the New South Wales
and Australian Governments.
Books of
interest
Brooksbank, Anne. (c1991).All my love: the
Lost Romance of Mary Gilmore and Henry Lawson. Port Melbourne: Minerva
Australia, 1992.
Bayley, William A. (William Alan). (1967). Dame
Mary Gilmore and Silverton Public School. [Silverton, N. S. W.: The
Author]. Gilmore, Mary, Dame. (1963).Old Days: Old Ways: a Book of
Recollections. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Cusack, Dymphna.
(1965).Mary Gilmor : a Tribute. Sydney: Australasian Book Society.
Dame Mary Gilmore's papers are held in the National
Library at MS 1695. |