Dame Mary Gilmore

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.

 

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