User:AdaWoolf/Margaret Evelyn Stanley
Lady Margaret Evelyn Stanley | |
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| Born | Margaret Evelyn Evans Gordon August 27, 1875 Hampshire, England |
| Died | 12 April 1964 (aged 88) Westminster, Middlesex, London, England, United Kingdom |
| Known for | Founder and inaugural President of the Victorian division of the Australian Red Cross |
Lady Margaret Evelyn Stanley (born Margaret Evelyn Evans Gordon, 1875 – 12 April 1964) was the founder and president of the Victorian division of the Australian Red Cross.
Early life
[edit]Stanley was born on the 27th August 1875 to Mary Theodosia Sartoris and Henry Evans Gordon in Hampshire, England.[1][2] One of four children, she grew up at Prestons in Ightham, Kent. She had a sheltered upbringing, with strict moral values, but in a family that mixed in intellectual and artistic social circles.[2]
Career
[edit]When World War I broke out in August 1914, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson appointed Stanley as a member of the central branch of the Australian Red Cross, which Ferguson had formed in response to the war. Ferguson also invited Stanley to form and preside over the Victorian division as its president.[3] She was the first president of the Victorian division of the Australian Red Cross.[4]
Stanley's husband had been appointed the Governor of Victoria in 1913, Stanley and her family moved to Australia in early 1914, and took up residence in Stonnington mansion, which served as the State Government House. At that time, Canberra had not been established as the federal capital, so the Australian Governor General resided in Government House, Melbourne.[2] As Munro Ferguson had chosen the wives of the Governors of each state to found and preside over their states division, they were able to use the large state government house buildings as headquarters of their divisions. However, as the wife of the Australian Governor General, Munro Ferguson was using her own residence as the headquarters of the National Red Cross Headquarters. Instead, Stanley ran the state division headquarters from the Old Treasury Building on Spring Street.[3]
Death
[edit]Stanley died in Westminster, London, England on 12 April 1964 aged 88.
References
[edit]- ^ "Hampshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1921". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
- ^ a b c Lubbock, Adelaide (1977). People in Glass Houses: Growing up at Government House. West Melbourne, Australia: Thomas Nelson (Australia) Ltd. ISBN 0170051919.
- ^ a b Oppenheimer, Melanie (2014). The power of humanity: 100 years of Australian Red Cross 1914-2014. Sydney, NSW, Australia: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7322-9485-4.
- ^ Heywood, Anne (14 February 2019). "Stanley, Margaret". Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 2024-08-17.