Couchman, Elizabeth May Ramsay (1876-1982)

Also known as
Couchman, Elizabeth May Ramsay, (Dame) (1876-1982)
Tannock, May (1876-1982)
Field of activity
Politician; liberal/conservative party organiser; schoolteacher; women's activist
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-743087

Biographies

COUCHMAN, Dame ELIZABETH MAY RAMSAY (1876-1982), political organiser and activist, was born on 19 April 1876 at Geelong, Victoria, second surviving child of Scottish-born parents Archibald Tannock, confectioner, and his wife Elizabeth, née Ramsay. The family was of limited means, but May’s education to matriculation at Geelong prepared her for employment as a teacher at Methodist Ladies’ College and Tintern Girls’ Grammar School. Her political interests, aroused early by discussions between her mother and grandmother, drew her to the politically conservative Australian Women’s National League in 1910. Ambitious to pursue further study, May left for Perth in 1913 to enrol at the University of Western Australia (BA, 1916), where tuition was free. She founded the Educational Association, of which she was also president, and returned to teaching. On 9 January 1917 at St George’s Cathedral, Perth, she married Claude Ernest Couchman (d.1931), an architect and engineer with the Victorian Public Works Department, and a widower with one adult child.

View the full record at Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Elizabeth Couchman, widowed after ten years of marriage, and without children, devoted her life to working in the public sphere. She was president of the Australian Women's National League from 1927 until 1945, when it merged to form the Liberal Party of Australia. She made three unsuccessful attempts to be pre-selected for the Senate. She eventually gained Liberal Party pre-selection for the safe Labor seat of Melbourne in the 1943 election, but was unsuccessful. She worked in the Liberal Party organisation as a member of the state executive and state council and served as Victorian vice-president of the party from 1949-1955. Her major contribution lay in providing a political base for women and increasing their role and effectiveness in political life. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 31 December 1960 for public and patriotic services.

Elizabeth Couchman was the daughter of Elizabeth Mary (née Ramsay), and Archibald Tannock, Confectioner. She grew up in Geelong, and was educated to matriculation level at the Girls' High School. She matriculated in 1895. After a period of teaching at the Methodist Ladies' College and Tintern, another independent girls' school, she moved to Perth in 1916 to complete a BA at the University of Western Australia, which offered free education. Her major interests were political science, constitutional law and economics.

In 1917, at the age of forty-one, she married businessman Claude Couchman, but had no children. He died ten years later. On his death she decided to devote the rest of her life to the pursuit of public interests, which included voluntary work and the duties of a Justice of the Peace.

Her major focus however, was the Australian Women's National League (AWNL), a conservative women's organisation established in 1904 to support the monarchy and empire, to combat socialism, educate women in politics and safeguard the interests of the home, women and children. During the inter-war years it claimed 40,000 members and was the largest continuing non-labour organisation, but those numbers dwindled to approximately 12,000 by 1944.

Couchman was elected president in 1927 as an acknowledgement of her political astuteness, knowledge and administrative skills. She was the first female to be appointed to the Australian Broadcasting Commission from 1932-1940, and was a member of the Australian delegation to the League of Nations in 1934.

Couchman was influential in the formation of the Liberal Party of Australia in 1944, as the AWNL merged with the old United Australia Party to form the new organisation. She insisted on structural equality for women in the Liberal Party; in particular equal representation of women and men at all levels of the Victorian division, and was involved in establishing the branch structure of the party. She was a member of the state executive and state council and Victorian vice-president from 1949-1955.

Like many politically active women of her generation, she was denied the opportunity to gain a safe seat in the national parliament. She sought pre-selection for the Senate on three occasions, but was unsuccessful. She eventually gained pre-selection to stand in the safe Labor seat of Melbourne in the 1943 election, but lost. Nonetheless, she mentored others such as Margaret Guilfoyle, who came after her and who was elected to the Senate in 1970. Couchman wanted women to be able to participate fully in the political process; to run for office and to do much more than the 'political housework'.

She was appointed as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 31 December 1960 for public and patriotic services.

Dame Elizabeth Couchman died in Melbourne on 18 November 1982 at the age of 106.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Australian Women's Register

Resources for Elizabeth May Ramsay Couchman

Selected resources (15)

Australian Dictionary of Biography Online

Australian Women's Register

  1. Elizabeth Couchman200 Australian women Heather Radi 250 : Elizabeth Couchman
    Sawer, Marian
    [1988]
    Published: Women's Redress Press Inc
  2. Couchman, Dame Elizabeth May Ramsay, DBEWho's who in Australia 1974 : Couchman, Dame Elizabeth May Ramsay, DBE
    [1974]
    Published: Herald and Weekly Times
  3. So Many Firsts: Liberal Women from Enid Lyons to the Turnbull Era
    Fitzherbert, Margaret
    [2009]
    Published: The Federation Press
  4. 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
  5. Liberal women : Federation to 1949
    Fitzherbert, Margaret
    [2004]
    Published: Federation Press
  6. Australian Women's National LeagueAustralian feminism: a companion Barbara Caine 607 : Australian Women's National League
    Smart, Judith
    [1998]
    Published: Oxford University Press
  7. Women of influence: the first fifty years of women in the Liberal Party
    Sydenham, Diane
    [1996]
    Published: Women's Section, Liberal Party of Australia Victorian Division
  8. Out of the doll's house; women in the public sphere
    Encel, Sol and Campbell, Dorothy
    [1991]
    Published: Longman Cheshire
  9. A woman's place: women and politics in Australia
    Sawer, Marian and Simms, Marian
    [1984]
    Published: George Allen and Unwin
  10. 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology
    Radi, Heather
    [1988]
    Published: Women's Redress Press
  11. State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection: Couchman, Elizabeth May Ramsay, Dame [Papers and history] (1920 - 1969)
    Comprises papers of the Australian Women's National League, 1920-1945, collected by Dame Elizabeth Couchman, and history entitled "The Australian Women's Naitonal League, 1904-1945" by Elizabeth Couchman, 14 February 1969.
  12. National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection: Couchman, Elizabeth May Ramsay, Dame Papers, [manuscript] 1913-1970
    E.M.R. Couchman, Hopes of Australian women. Copy of account of women's views as supplied to the Ministry of Information by request (1945); The Australian Women's National League (1904-1945) (Historical notes, with addendum). Autobiographical notes (1970). Federal election campaign leaflet (1941) for endorsed U.A.P. candidate for Melbourne, Mrs E.M.R. Couchman; Australian Women's National League records: Explanatory leaflet (1937); programme for Empire Day Celebration (1945); statement authorized by the Executive (1945); Newspaper cuttings ca. 1934-1945; Photograph of delegates at the Liberal party of Australia Inaugural Conference, Albury, Dec. 1944.
    MS 2752
  13. National Library of Australia, Reading Room: Couchman, Elizabeth May Ramsay, Dame
    Biographical cuttings on Dame Elizabeth Couchman, former first vice-president of the Liberal Party
    Cuttings Files BIOG
  14. National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection: Papers of various Australian women
    Manuscript drafts of biographical papers on the following: Anderson, Mary (11 p.); Brennan, Jennie (7 p.); Couchman, Dame Elizabeth May Ramsay (13 p.); Deakin's daughters, Brookes and Ivy Deakin; Rivett, Stella (Deakin) Lady; White, Vera (Deakin) Lady (14 p.); Goldstein, Vida (21 p.); Holman, May (16 p.); James, Britomarte (23 p.); Lyons, Dame Enid (17 p.); Rich, Ruby (19 p.); Rischbieth, Bessie Mabel (36 p.); Sweet, Georgina (22 p.); Waterworth, Edith (16 p.); Woinarski, Gertrude Zichy- (10 p.); Young, Jeanne (10 p.).
    MS 842

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  1. The speeches of Sir Robert Menzies. Dinner in honour of Dame Mary Couchman, March 18, 1960
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  1. PERSONAL VICE-REGAL
    The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Saturday 13 December 1941 p 12 Article
    ... Excellent Order of the British Empire to Mrs. Eliza- beth May Ramsay Couchman, Flying Officer Clyde ... Commander Hugh Malcolm Ramsay, R.A.N. (retd.), and Edward Charles Rigby, Esquire. Insignia of an Officer of ... Christ- mas" Club, at the Australian Hall, Elizabeth Street, yesterday evening. ... 548 words
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    Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954) Wednesday 1 January 1941 p 5 Article
    ... Allan Hepburn, Melbourne; j Mr John William Ashton, of Sydney ; "j Mrs Elizabeth May Ramsay Couchman. ... Ramsay, Melbourne. Officers of the military division of I tho Order of the British Empire I I (O.B.E.) ... 821 words
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    Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954) Thursday 2 January 1941 p 4 Article
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