Bate, Zara Kate (1909-1989)

Also known as
Bate, ZaraDickins, ZaraFell, Zara (1909-1989)
Holt, Zara Kate, (Dame) (1909-1989)
Field of activity
Businesswoman and Community worker; autobiographer/memoirist; fashion designer
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-743059

Biographies

HOLT, Dame ZARA KATE (1909-1989), fashion designer and businesswoman, was born on 10 March 1909 at Kew, Melbourne, younger daughter and second of four children of Victorian-born Sydney Herbert Dickins, merchant, and his wife Violet, née MacDonald, from Scotland. She was educated at home before attending Ruyton Girls’ School, Kew (1919-24), and Toorak College (1925). When she was 16 she met Harold Holt, then a law student at the University of Melbourne.

View the full record at Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Zara Bate was appointed Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire for devotion to the public interest on 8 June 1968.

Zara Bate the daughter of Sydney Herbert and Violet (née McDonald) was educated at both Ruyton and Toorak Colleges, Melbourne. In 1925, aged 16, she established her first dress shop in Little Collins Street, Melbourne. Bate with a friend, later opened a salon, called 'Magg', in Toorak Village, Melbourne. The business was sold in 1976. Bate won the Australian Gown of the Year award, in 1961.

From her first marriage to Colonel James Fell, Bate had three sons. She married her second husband Harold Holt, who was to become the 22nd prime minister of Australia, in 1946. After his disappearance in 1967, from a Portsea surf beach in Victoria he was presumed drowned, she married H. J. P. (Jeff) Bate on 19 February 1969. Mr Bate, a former Liberal politician and farmer, died in 1984.

In 1968 Dame Zara wrote a book titled My Life and Harry: An autobiography. Besides her charity work she enjoyed reading, walking, swimming and fishing. Dame Zara Bate passed away on 14 June 1989.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Resources for Zara Kate Bate

Selected resources (16)

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Australian Women's Register

  1. Primary description of person CP 717; Dame Zara Kate Holt DBE
    National Archives of Australia
    Series: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/SearchOld.asp?Number=CP+717
  2. My life and Harry: an autobiography Dame Zara Holt
    Holt, Zara, Dame
    [1968]
    Published: The Herald
  3. Zara HoltAustralia's Prime Ministers National Archives of Australia : Zara Holt
    National Archives of Australia
    Published: National Archives of Australia
    Series: http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/meetpm.asp?pmId=17&pageName=wife
  4. Papers of Harry Maurice Miller (1934- )Finding Aids Manuscripts National Library of Australia : Papers of Harry Maurice Miller (1934- )
    National Library of Australia
    Published: National Library of Australia
    Series: http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms7981
  5. Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2003]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
    Series: http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/honours/honours.html
  6. Women FederationSunday Telegraph Sunday Magazine 4-11, 24 : Women Federation
    James, Caron
    [2000]
  7. Prime Ministers' Wives
    Langmore, Diane
    [1992]
    Published: McPhee Gribble
  8. National Archives of Australia, National Office: Audio-visual material relating to Harold Edward Holt and Mrs Zara Holt (c. 1 December 1921 - 26 September 1981)
    This series consists of about 195 photographs, four sound recordings and four films relating to Prime Minister Harold Edward Holt and his wife, Mrs Zara Holt (later Dame Zara). The material mainly covers the period when Holt was Prime Minister (1966-1967), although many of the photographs relate to his earlier career, particularly as Minister for Immigration (1949-1956). Several items relate specifically to Mrs Holt. The photographs include official portraits, family photographs, Australian News and Information Bureau and other official photographs covering a wide range of Holt’s official engagements both in Australia and overseas. A number of the photographs relate to Mrs Zara Holt as wife of a senior political figure, both before and after Holt’s death. A few relate to the first year of her subsequent marriage to another politician, H J P (Jeff) Bate and to her fashion business ‘Magg’. Two of the sound recordings relate to Holt. One of these includes the speeches made at the historic Commonwealth Parliamentary Association luncheon given in Westminster Hall, London in May 1953, when Holt was Chairman of the Association, and the other is a recording of the speech he gave at the 36th Session of the International Labour Conference the same year. The other two recordings are the song ‘Dame Zara’, by the group ‘The Wheelbarrow’, and a cassette tape of Mrs Holt responding to ‘Dorothy Dix’ questions.
    M4297
  9. National Archives of Australia, National Office: Audio-visual material relating to Harold Edward Holt and Mrs Zara Holt (c. 1 January 1920 - 31 July 1986)
    This series consists of about 380 photographs, one 45 rpm record and six films relating to Prime Minister Harold Edward Holt and his wife, Mrs Zara Holt (later Dame Zara). The material mainly covers the period when Holt was Prime Minister (1966-1967), although many of the photographs relate to his earlier career, particularly as Minister for Immigration (1949-1956) and later, Treasurer (1958-1966). The photographs include official portraits, family photographs, Australian News and Information Bureau and other official photographs covering a wide range of Holt’s official engagements both in Australia and overseas. A smaller number of photographs relate to Mrs Zara Holt, including her childhood, early fashion business in Melbourne, as wife of a senior political figure and after Holt’s death.
    M4294
  10. National Archives of Australia, National Office: Personal papers of Dame Zara Holt (8 October 1946 - 29 December 1997)
    This series consists of the personal papers of Dame Zara Holt, wife of former Prime Minister Harold Edward Holt. These mainly cover the period 1946 to 1989, although several items were accumulated subsequently by her eldest son Nicholas. Correspondence, newspapers, press cuttings and magazines account for most of the records in the series. Many of these items relate to the death of Holt in December 1967 and his memorial services in Melbourne a few days later and in Westminster Abbey, London in January 1968. Some include complete issues of major daily Australian newspapers and press cuttings from US newspapers, collected by the Australian News and Information Bureau in New York. The correspondence includes two files of condolences addressed to Nicholas Holt, one relating to Holt’s death and the other to Dame Zara’s death in June 1989. Another file includes a list of Holt’s personal papers deposited in the National Archives by the Prime Minister’s Department in 1968 and an inventory of his personal effects. Other items in the series relate to an overseas visit the Holts made in 1957, social engagements, fashion (including Dame Zara’s fashion business ‘Magg’) and to members of the Holt family in more recent years.
    M4300
  11. National Archives of Australia, National Office: Personal papers of Dame Zara Holt (31 December 1949 - 20 June 1989)
    This series consists of a small number of items associated with Mrs Zara Holt (later Dame Zara), wife of former Prime Minister Harold Edward Holt. It includes roneod copies of travel diaries and letters written for distribution to family and friends when she accompanied Holt on his overseas visit (mainly 1957-1960), some personal correspondence, financial papers, unused stationery and other items of ephemera including the order of service on her death in June 1989.
    M4296
  12. National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection: Papers of Dame Zara Holt (1934 - 1977)
    1. Appointment diaries, 1957 and 1962. 2. Correspondence, 1956-1968. 3. Harold Holt's diary, 1957-1962 (photocopy of typescript). 4. Zara Holt's diary of a trip to Cambodia and Laos and of trips to Australia by Marshall Ky and President Lyndon Johnson (photocopy of typescript) 5. Itineraries of official visits, 1966-1967. 6. Two photographs of Harold Holt taken at the time he stood unsuccessfully for the federal seat of Yarra in 1934. 7. Miscellaneous photographs, 1951-1967. 8. Printed material, 1937, 1950-1968. 9. Christmas card lists, 1967. 10. Miscellaneous papers, 1957-1977. 11. 35 mm reel of film "Holt Memorial Broadcast", 1967
    MS 8431
  13. National Library of Australia Newspaper Microcopy Reading Room: [Biographical cuttings on Dame Zara Bate, socialite and author]
  14. National Library of Australia Newspaper Microcopy Reading Room: [Biographical cuttings on Zara Holt]
  15. National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection: Papers of Harry M. Miller (1958 - 1983)
    Correspondence, press clippings, programmes, photographs, posters, financial records, contracts, music scores, scripts, administrative files, stage management reports and other papers dealing with the numerous concert tours, stage musicals and theatrical productions promoted by Miller from the late 1950s to the late 1970s. These include such artists as Louis Armstrong, Arthur Rubinstein, Roy Orbison and the Rolling Stones; such musicals as Hair' and Jesus Christ Superstar'; theatrical productions such as The Boys in the Band' and The Secretary Bird'. The collection also includes material on individuals managed by Miller including Graham Kennedy, Barry Humphries, Dame Zara Bate and Sir John Kerr. Also present are papers of an autobiographical nature such as those relating to Miller's trials and imprisonment on fraud charges in the early 1980s.
    MS 7981

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