Kew Historical Society Monthly Meeting: 8 April 2015 Phyllis Hore Room, Rear Kew Library 8pm Kew Historical Society Inc. takes pleasure in presenting two speakers who will speak to members and guests about aspects of the home front in the First World War, and in particular the role of the Red Cross in supporting the war effort. Judith Smart and Carol Woods are both distinguished members of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Topic: Red Cross Women at War: Leadership on the Victorian Home Front 1914-‐1918 Speaker: Carole Woods The Australian Red Cross provided wartime leadership positions for women, largely denied by the Australian government, at home and abroad. Lady Helen Munro Ferguson masterminded a vast network of Red Cross services from Federal Government House, Melbourne, and her colleague, Lady Stanley, conducted three major fund-‐raising campaigns. Madame Melba captivated audiences at patriotic concerts and led the Lilydale Red Cross, which was one of nearly 900 branches in Victoria, mostly organised by women. Carole Woods, an independent historian, is a fellow and honorary secretary of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. A local history specialist, she has been a long-‐time judge of and advocate for the Victorian Community History Awards. Carole was the curator of the popular exhibition ‘The Australian Red Cross in the Great War’ held at the RHSV in 2014. She is the author of Beechworth: a Titan’s Field, Vision Fugitive: the Story of David Allen and the forthcoming ‘Vera Deakin and the Red Cross Enquiry Bureau’. Topic: Women Waging War on the Home Front 1914–19 Speaker: Judith Smart Women’s organisations in Victoria were subject to tensions that both reflected and differed from those in the community at large during the Great War; many opened into bitter division that lasted well into the postwar period, though co-‐operation on others (such as drink and public morality) provided the basis for a renewed sense of common purpose from the mid-‐1920s. This paper will focus on some of issues that divided member organisations within the National Council of Women of Victoria, with particular attention devoted to the battles between feminist pacifists and imperial pro-‐war loyalists over recruitment and conscription, and between middle-‐class and working-‐class housewives over the most effective means of reducing the cost of living. Judith Smart holds honorary positions at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University, and is a councillor and fellow of the RHSV. She has published articles on the homefront in Melbourne during World War I and on Australian women’s organisations, religion and political protest in the first half of the 20th Century. She is a past editor of Australian Historical Studies and the Victorian Historical Journal. She is writing (with Professor Marian Quartly, Monash University) a history of the National Council of Women of Australia 1931–2006, and has recently coedited (with Professor Shurlee Swain, ACU) an online encyclopedia of women and leadership in 20th-‐century Australia. Inquiries
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