Gertrude Melville

Gertrude Mary Melville (née Day; 7 October 1884 – 21 August 1959) was an Australian politician of the Labor Party. In 1952 she was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council.

Gertrude Melville (1884-1959) NSW Labor politician, c1952

Life and career

Melville was born Gertrude Mary Day on 7 October 1884 to parents John Joseph Day, a sawyer, and Mary Ann Dunbar in Port Macquarie, New South Wales. She moved to Sydney to attend the St Peter's convent school in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills. In 1903 she married Arthur Melville, a New Zealand labourer, with whom she had five sons.[1]

Melville became a member of the Labor Party (ALP) in 1904 and campaigned extensively with other party members for women and children's rights. In the periods of 1922–26 and 1950–52, she was a member of the party's central executive committee.[1] She stood as an ALP candidate for the Eastern Suburbs district in the 1925 NSW election, but was unsuccessful.[2] She was again unsuccessful in 1932 election for Hurstville.[3][4] Throughout the 1940s, she worked as a justice of the peace, a member of the New South Wales Board of Health, an alderman of the Cabramatta and Canley Vale municipal council, vice-president of the Country Women's Association's Cabramatta branch, and director of Fairfield Hospital.[1] She was Mayor of Cabramatta–Canley Vale from 1945 to 1948.[4]

In 1952 Melville was nominated by Labor to fill a vacancy in the New South Wales Legislative Council caused by the death of Liberal member Ernest Farrar.[5] At the time seats in the council were elected at a joint sitting of both houses of parliament.[6] Melville was re-elected a twelve-year term in 1957.[7] In her five years in the council, she earned a reputation as the "grand old lady of the Labor Party".[4][5] She dedicated her time in parliament to being a "spokesman for the women" and "the little people", supporting equal pay for women, child welfare, housing and hospitals.[1]

She died on 21 August 1959 in Little Bay, Sydney, and was buried in Randwick.[1]

References
  1. Ritter, Leonora (2000). "Melville, Gertrude Mary (1884–1959)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 28 September 2014 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  2. Green, Antony. "1925 Eastern Suburbs". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  3. Green, Antony. "1932 Hurstville". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  4. Alafaci, Annette (1 February 2006). "Melville, Gertrude Mary (1884–1959)". Australian Women's Archives Project Web Site. National Foundation for Australian Women. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  5. "Mrs Gertrude Mary Melville (1884-1959)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  6. "Labour Woman elected As MLC". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 September 1952. p. 4. Retrieved 21 June 2020 – via Trove.
  7. "Public notice: Legislative Council election". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. 25 November 1957. p. 3781. Retrieved 21 June 2020 – via Trove.
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