Melville, Gertrude Mary (1884-1959)

Also known as
Day, Gertrude (1884-1959)
Field of activity
Housewife and Politician; feminist; labour party organiser; labour politician; local government councillor; Member of Upper House
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-719090

Biographies

MELVILLE, GERTRUDE MARY (1884-1959), housewife and politician, was born on 7 October 1884 at Hamilton Saw Mills, Port Macquarie, New South Wales, second child of native-born parents John Joseph Day, sawyer, and his wife Mary Ann, née Dunbar. Gertrude attended St Peter's convent school, Surry Hills, Sydney, run by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. At St Patrick's Catholic Church, Sydney, on 2 December 1903 she married Arthur Melville, a 33-year-old labourer from New Zealand; they were to have five sons after 1915.

View the full record at Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

A tireless worker for the rights of women, children and ‘the little people’, Gertrude Melville became known as the ‘grand old lady of the Labor Party’. She was their candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Elections for the Eastern Suburbs in 1925 and for Hurstville in 1932 (Federal Labor party). Gertrude Melville was finally elected to parliament as a Member Legislative Council in 1952 to 1958. Prior to her attempts to enter parliament, she was Alderman in the Cabramatta-Canley Vale Municipal Council from 1944 to 1948, including a period as Mayor (1945-48).

Gertrude Melville was educated at St Peter’s Convent Surry Hills, Sydney. She married Arthur Melville, in Sydney on 2 December 1903 and they had five sons. She died in 1959. Her portrait by Miriam MacRae is held by the NSW Legislative Council.

Gertrude joined the Labor Party in 1904 and was a member of Central Executive 1922-26, and 1950-52. She was president of ALP Central Women’s Organising Committee 1947-52. Child endowment in NSW is said to have originated from a motion she moved at her local branch, Randwick, in 1918. She ran unsuccessfully against Millicent Preston Stanley [please link] in 1925. Gertrude Melville joined Federal Labor after the Lang split and campaigned against Lang in 1932 election. She said that Lang’s withholding of the payment of child endowment and widows’ pensions made her decide to contest the seat of Hurstville in 1932. Later she opposed the industrial groups in the Labor upheavals of the 1950s.

She was elected by both houses to fill a casual vacancy in the Legislative Council in 1952, under the reconstructed constitution (1934-78). She served one term. In 1958 she was involved in a public controversy about police corruption.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Resources for Gertrude Mary Melville

Selected resources (5)

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Australian Women's Register

  1. Melville, Gertrude Mary (1884 - 1959)Australian Dictionary of Biography Online : Melville, Gertrude Mary (1884 - 1959)
    Ritter, Leonora
    [2006]
    Published: Australian National University
    Series: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150411b.htm
  2. HERstory: Australian Labor Women in Federal, State and Territory Parliaments 1925-1994
    [1994]
  3. Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches: Women Candidates for the New South Wales Parliament
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2006]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
    Series: http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/pssb/home.html
  4. Women in Australian Parliaments and Local Governments, Past and Present
    Smith, A. Viola
    [1975]
    Published: Australian Local Government Women's Association

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  1. Melville, Gertrude Mary (1884-1959)
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  1. [Biographical cuttings on Gertrude Mary Melville, former MLC, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals]
    [ Published : 1900-1990 ]
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    [ Unpublished : 1982 ]
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    Himmelfarb, Gertrude
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