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Bella Guerin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bella Guerin
Bella Guerin, c.1910
Born
Julia Margaret Guerin

(1858-04-23)23 April 1858
Died26 July 1923(1923-07-26) (aged 65)
Alma materUniversity of Melbourne
OccupationsEducator, Suffragist
Spouses
(m. 1891; died 1893)
George D'Arcie Lavender
(m. 1909, separated)

Julia Margaret Guerin Halloran Lavender (23 April 1858 — 26 July 1923), known popularly as Bella Guerin, was an Australian feminist, women's rights activist, women's suffragist, anti-conscriptionist, political activist, and schoolteacher.[1]

In December 1883, she was the first woman to graduate from an Australian University, when she graduated B.A. at the University of Melbourne.

Family

[edit]

Julia Margaret Guerin, known as "Bella" was born at Williamstown, Victoria on 23 April 1858.[2] She was the daughter of Julia Marguerite Guerin (1835–1890), née Kearney,[a][3] and Patrick Guerin (1835–1893), sometimes "Guérin";[4][5] both of whom were Irish Catholic immigrants.[6] Her father worked in the penal system, serving as Governor of Ballarat Gaol (1881–1891).[7][8][9] She had an older brother, Marco Guerin (1855–1929), who was born on her family's way to Australia in the Marco Polo (thus, "Marco").[10][b]

She married the former civil servant and poet Henry Halloran (1811–1893), C.M.G. at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on 29 June 1891.[11] Guerin was 33; Halloran was 80. In 1884, Halloran had addressed a "laudatory poem"[6][12] to Bella, after seeing her graduation portrait.[13][14] Halloran died in Sydney on 19 May 1893,[15] leaving Bella with their son, Henry Marco James Halloran (1892–1981), just 5 months old.[6][16][17][18][19][20]

She married her second husband, George D'Arcie Lavender (1887–1961),[21] thirty years her junior, at Christ Church, St Kilda, Melbourne on 1 October 1909.[22][23] The marriage was apparently short lived;[6] and, at the time of his enlistment in the First AIF,[24] at Adelaide on 14 April 1916,[25] Lavender officially declared that he was not married, and that his next of kin was his sister, Mrs. Clara Rowson, of Bendigo.[26][27][28]

Education

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"Educated by her mother, who had had the advantage of many years' schooling in France and Belgium, Mrs. Lavender was a brilliant scholarly woman, and spoke French as fluently and wittily as her mother tongue, and she was very proud of her University Degree, won in the "dark ages", when brainy woman were regarded as undesirable blue stockings, and their presence at the University was frowned upon. She was a writer, and her efforts in the press and on the platform helped in a great measure to secure the suffrage for women."
     Table Talk, 2 August 1923.[29]

In October 1878, from her own study at home, Bella passed in both the Melbourne University's Matriculation Examination and its Civil Service Examination.[30]

University

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Enrolling in 1881,[c] Bella went on to become the first woman ever to graduate from an Australian university,[31][d][e] graduating Bachelor of Arts (B.A.),[32][33][34][35] aged 25,[f] from the University of Melbourne on 1 December 1883.[36][37][38] It was reported that, "after receiving her degree Miss Guerin was enthusiastically cheered by those present".[39][g] Later, she became the first woman to attain a Master of Arts (M.A.) from Melbourne University when she graduated on 5 December 1885;[40][41][42] and on 23 April 1892, "Mrs. Bella Halloran (née Guerin)" of Melbourne, was admitted to the courtesy degree of M.A. ad eundem gradum at the University of Sydney.[43]

Career

[edit]

Teaching

[edit]

Her first teaching position was at Loreto College, Ballarat,[44] where she called for higher-education scholarships for Catholic girls, in order to assist "in the furtherance of a movement, which will place at the disposal of the social reformer, a band of noble, thoughtful women as a powerful influence for good, in the persons of our Catholic girl-graduates."[45] She taught Matriculation classes and University subjects at the Ballarat School of Mines over five years,[h][46][47] from 1887 i.e., upon the School of Mines' official affiliation with the University of Melbourne in 1887[48][49][50][51] until her marriage in 1891.[i][52][53][54][55]

After her husband's death in 1893, Bella returning to teaching from financial necessity,[6] She taught in Sydney,[56] then Carlton,[57] Prahran,[58] and East Melbourne.[6] From 1898 to 1903, in Bendigo, she operated University College, Bendigo.[6][59] From 1904 to 1917 she taught at Camperdown,[60] and in a succession of small Melbourne schools at South Yarra, St Kilda, Parkville, and Brunswick,[61][62] with diminishing success.[6] According to Farley Kelly, "her increasing political activity and disputes over conditions with the Education Department probably contributed to this outcome".[6]

Labor Call, 15 September 1921.[63]

Women's Political Association

[edit]

From the mid-1890s, whilst running University College, Bendigo, she became involved with suffragist issues, and became an office-bearer in the Bendigo Women's Franchise League.[64] As vice-president of the Women's Political Association (1912-1914) Guerin co-authored Vida Goldstein's 1913 Senate election pamphlet. However, according to Farley Kelly, "[her] dual membership of non-party feminist and Labor Party organizations proved untenable".[6]

In 1914 she began to write, and speak for the Labor Party, the Victorian Socialist Party, and the Women's Socialist League,[65] and was recognized as a "witty, cogent and instructive" commentator on a range of controversial social issues,[66] which included "the rights of illegitimate children",[6] "brotherhood and sisterhood without sex distinction",[6][67] and the "defence of English militant suffragettes".[1][6]

Anti-war

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Mrs. Bella Lavender, M.A. is not well-fitted physically for an out-door speaker. Her figure, tall and slight, would seem more at home in the schoolroom, but the big soul of her rises beyond the physical limitations of nature, defying despotism, defying anything that could come between her and her mission. Who, looking at this courageous woman, could doubt her when she said: "I am of the people; I love the people; and I would gladly suffer martyrdom to-morrow if such a sacrifice would benefit in any way my brothers and sisters the workers of the world."
     The Australian Worker, 14 September 1916.[68]

An ardent anti-war propagandist,[69] and as president of the Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Committee,[70][71][72][73] she led its campaign during the lead up to the 28 October 1916 Australian Conscription Referendum, speaking in Adelaide,[74] Broken Hill,[75] Victorian metropolitan centres,[76] and Victorian country centres,[77] "against militarism" and "in defence of rights of assembly and free speech".[6]

Politics

[edit]

Appointed vice-president of the Australian Labor Party's Women's Central Organizing Committee (W.C.O.C.) in March 1918,[78] she aroused criticism for describing Labor women as "performing poodles and packhorses",[79] "under-represented in policy decisions", and "relegated to auxiliary fund raising roles".[6] From that time, and as a socialist feminist Bella only worked for Labor "so far as it stands for those principles represented by the Red Flag",[80] "believing in the parliamentary system but desiring capitalism's elimination".[6]

A "democratic grub"

[edit]
Labor Call, 17 February 1916.[81]

During her famous speech to a public meeting of the Melbourne branch of the No-Conscription Fellowship, held in the Guild Hall, in Swanston Street on 29 June 1916,[82] Bella alluded to Rob Shaw's recent political cartoon in The Labor Call (RS.1) which depicted Billy Hughes, the current Prime Minister of Australia, as a magnificent "Imperialist" butterfly emerging from a drab "Laborite" caterpillar body and, to great applause, remarked that her own political evolution "was exactly the reverse to that of Comrade Hughes", in that, in her case, she "began as an Imperialistic butterfly and ended up as a democratic grub".[83]

Religion

[edit]

In religion she moved away from her early Roman Catholicism, and moved to rationalism.[6]

Personal life

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"She saw herself as a 'national idealist' and an 'incorrigible militant', promoting women's participation in public life".[6] She was regarded as an orator of "unique talents".[6]

Guerin's son, Marco (M.B. B.S.), who conducted a general practice in Adelaide from 1915, described her as "the kindest and most gentle of women".[6]

Death

[edit]

She died of cirrhosis of the liver,[6] aged 65, at her son's residence in Norwood, South Australia on 26 July 1923,[84] and was buried in the Catholic section of the West Terrace Cemetery on 28 July 1923.[85][6][86]

Legacy

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Works

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Her publications on a wide range of subjects included the following items:

See also

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Notes

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  1. Some sources (e.g., JK.2) have inadvertently followed the error made during the digitization of the hand-written Victorian Births Deaths and Marriages record of Bella's birth (6138/1858), which mis-read a poorly written capital "K" in the original document as "Th": thus "Thearney". The original (March 1854) entry in the Irish Parish Register of her Marriage to Patrick Guerin (image at ancestry.com.au) clearly shows that her family name was Kearney.
  2. Note that in its brief (31 August 1923) obituary, an Adelaide newspaper (AN.1) mistakenly asserted that "Mrs. Guerin-Lavender was a daughter of the late Dr. Ray, of Collins street [viz., Dr. Robert Ray (1828–1883)], and a sister of the present Dr. Ray, who practises in Melbourne [viz., Dr. William Robert Ray (1859–1937)]. Mrs. A. Scott Broad, of Hyde Park, is a sister [viz., Emmeline Fanny Ray (1861–1933), the wife of Alfred Scott Broad (1854–1929)]." (Another Adelaide newspaper (AA.1) supplied the same erroneous details in its brief obituary.)
  3. In 1880, Melbourne University declared that women were to be admitted to study at the University on equal terms with male students, and in 1881, declared that women could be awarded degrees (KD.1).
  4. On 19 March 1881 (PC.1), Mary Gaunt (aged 20), Bella Guerin (23), Lydia Harris (24), and Henrietta Hearn (29), the daughter of Professor Hearn, were the first women to enrol in the Arts Faculty of the University of Melbourne. Mary Gaunt withdrew from the degree in the first year, and Henrietta Hearn, having passed First Year Arts, did not continue her studies. Miss Lydia Amelia Harris (1857–1944), later, Mrs. Charles Henry Barbour, was the second Melbourne female B.A., graduating just four months after Guerin, in April 1884 (Melbourne University, The Ballarat Star, (Monday 21 April 1884), p. 3). Regardless of whenever her successful completion of her academic studies might have occurred, according to established world-wide tradition, Harris could not legally claim M.A. status until she had officially graduated in virtue of having the award of the degree conferred upon her at one of the university's formal graduation ceremonies.
  5. The University of Adelaide was the first Australian university to admit women as graduating students (in 1876), the University of Melbourne was the second (in 1881), the University of Sydney was the third (in 1882), and the University of Tasmania was the fourth (on its inception in 1890) (JK.1). Bella Guerin, who graduated B.A. from the University of Melbourne in December 1883, was the first woman to graduate from any Australian University; and, in December 1885, she was the first woman to graduate M.A. from any Australian University. In May 1885, Isola Florence Thompson, (B.A.) and Mary Elizabeth Brown, (B.A.), who had both enrolled in 1882, were the first women to graduate from Sydney University (IN.1); and, in May 1887 (DT.1), Thompson was the first woman to graduate M.A. from Sydney University. In December 1885, Edith Emily Dornwell, B.Sc. was the first woman to graduate from Adelaide University (PA.1). Eliza Helen Wilson (1869–1933), who graduated B.A. from the University of Tasmania in December 1896, was the first woman to graduate from the university of Tasmania (HM.1). She went on to graduate M.A. in April 1903 (TN.1). Maude Ethel Leggett (1876–1911) (B.A., Tasmania, 1897) was the first woman to graduate M.A. from the University of Tasmania, in November 1899 (HM.2).
  6. Note that a number of contemporary accounts (The Ballarat Courier, 8 December 1883, The Illustrated Australian News, 24 December 1883, etc.) report that Bella was only 19 at the time of her graduation, mistakenly asserting that she had been born, at Williamstown, on 29 March 1864.
  7. "The first degree yet conferred upon a lady [by the University of Melbourne] was so conferred on Saturday, and her name is Bella Guerin, and the occasion served for a great deal of exuberant demonstration by the undergraduates. No doubt the young lady was gratified at the compliment paid her, but it is questionable if the sex generally are not justified in regarding the applause as but left-handed kind of praise, as if it were a wonderful thing for a woman to possess an understanding at all." (SH.1)
  8. In 1890, The Ballarat Courier (News Item, 29 April 1890) reported that two Ballarat students (News Item, 10 December 1887) — both of whom had been "exclusively trained ... by Miss Bella Guerin ... at the School of Mines university courses" — had graduated Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) at Melbourne University: Miss Johanna Elizabeth Kennedy (1871–1956) (graduated 30 March 1889), and Mr Charles William Wilson (1870–1949) (graduated 26 April 1890), (News Item, 8 December 1888), (News Item, 23 January 1890). Johanna Elizabeth Kennedy, later Mrs John Daniel Smyth, passed both the Matriculation and Civil Service examinations in 1884 (News Item, 26 June 1884), at the age of 12, having been a student of Bella Guerin at Loreto Convent (News Item, 12 July 1884). Having gained a Licentiate in Theology (L.Th.) in 1906, Wilson went on to become Canon Charles William Wilson, Rector of St James Church of England, in New Town, Tasmania (Obituary, 30 April 1949).
  9. "Since the formation ... [of] the University classes ... at the School of Mines ... in 1886 by Miss Bella Guerin. M.A., 186 students have been enrolled. Of these two have been enabled to complete the full course of the B.A. degree, three have passed the first or first and second years from the classes proceeding to the University to finish their course, over 20 have passed matriculation, nine public service, 11 to the preliminary pharmacy, and at the Education Department, and minor examinations, the classes have been correspondingly successful. The University classes have thus had so far a wonderfully successful career, especially when it is remembered that they have been in existence for little more than five years." (The Ballarat Star, 28 January 1893).

Footnotes

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  1. 1 2 AW.1.
  2. Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Birth Registration no.6138/1858.
  3. Deaths: Guerin, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 30 September 1890), p. 2.
  4. Deaths: Guerin, The Geelong Advertiser, (Friday, 17 March 1893), p. 1.
  5. (News Item), The Geelong Advertiser, (Monday, 20 March 1893), p. 2.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 FK.1
  7. Melbourne, The Ballarat Courier, (Saturday, 9 July 1881), p. 3.
  8. (News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Thursday, 26 February 1891), p. 2.
  9. (News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 14 March 1893), p. 2.
  10. Deaths: Guerin, The Age, (Saturday, 16 November 1929), p. 13.
  11. A Melbourne Wedding, Freeman's Journal, (Saturday, 11 July 1981), p. 15.
  12. HH.1.
  13. "Miss Bella Guerin: First Female University Graduate at the Melbourne University" (Portrait), The Illustrated Australian News, (Monday, 24 December 1883), p. 204.
  14. Our University's First Woman Graduate: Late Mrs. Bella Lavender, B.A., M.A., The (Melbourne) Herald, (Thursday, 21 February 1924), p. 10: includes Guerin's (1884) B.A. graduation photo.
  15. Mr. Henry Halloran, C.M.G., Australian Town and Country Journal, (Saturday, 3 June 1893), p. 32.
  16. Births: Halloran, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 1 November 1892), p. 2.
  17. "Bella Guerin and son, 1895" (photograph), Federation University Historical Collection.
  18. Commencement Day: Granting of Degrees, The Argus, Monday, 19 April 1915), p. 13.
  19. Personal, The (Adelaide) Daily Herald, (Thursday, 28 October 1915), p. 4.
  20. Henry Marco James Halloran, p. 95 in "Who's Who": South Australia Centenary, 1936, Adelaide: Amalgamated Publishing, 1936.
  21. Births: Lavender, The Bendigo Advertiser, (Saturday, 29 October 1887), p. 7.
  22. Marriages: Lavender—Halloran, The Prahran Telegraph, (Saturday, 23 October 1909), p. 1.
  23. Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Death Registration no.8193/1961.
  24. Mrs. Bella Lavender's Husband Enlists, The (Broken Hill) Barrier Miner, (Thursday, 19 October 1916), p. 2.
  25. First World War Nominal Roll: Private George D'Arcie Lavender (378), Australian War Museum.
  26. First World War Embarkation Roll: Private George D'Arcie Lavender (378), collection of the Australian War Memorial.
  27. First World War Service Record: Private George D'Arcie Lavender (378), National Archives of Australia.
  28. DL.1.
  29. Celia, "Ladies' Letter", Table Talk, (Thursday, 2 August 1923), p. 32.
  30. University of Melbourne, The Argus, (Wednesday, 1 January 1879), p. 5: P.T. = "private tuition".
  31. BA.1.
  32. "First Year Arts", The University of Melbourne: Ordinary Examination—October Term, 1881, The Australasian Sketcher, (Saturday, 10 December 1881), p. 11.
  33. "Second Year Arts", The University of Melbourne, The Australasian, (Saturday, 2 December 1882), p 4.
  34. "Third Year Arts", Melbourne University, The Australasian, (Saturday, 24 November 1883), p 20.
  35. FN.1.
  36. Sweet Girl Graduates, Table Talk, (Friday, 11 December 1885), pp. 89.
  37. "The First Lady Bachelor of Arts: Conferring the Degree" (illustration), The Australasian Sketcher, (Wednesday, 19 December 1883), p. 224.
  38. The First Lady Bachelor of Arts: Conferring the Degree, Supplement to Adelaide Edition of The Australasian Sketcher, (Wednesday, 19 December 1883), p 219.
  39. The Melbourne University, The Illustrated Australian News, (Monday, 24 December 1883), p. 211.
  40. The University of Melbourne, The Argus, (Friday, 27 March 1885), p. 10.
  41. Master or Mistress, Melbourne Punch, (Thursday, 2 April 1885), p. 9.
  42. The Melbourne University, The Geelong Advertiser, (Monday, 7 December 1885), p. 3.
  43. The Sydney University, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, (Tuesday, 26 April 1892), p. 4.
  44. SL.1.
  45. Guerin, "Higher Education of Women" (1886), p. 8.
  46. (News Item), The Ballarat Courier, (Wednesday, 11 March 1889), p. 2, col.F.
  47. (News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Friday, 25 December 1891), p. 2, col.G.
  48. (News Item), The Argus, (Tuesday, 3 May 1887), p. 9.
  49. Ballarat School of Mines, The Ballarat Star, (Friday, 22 July 1887), p. 4.
  50. Ballarat School of Mines, The Argus, (Tuesday, 8 November 1887), p. 6.
  51. (Editorial), The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 24 January 1888), p.2.
  52. (News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Wednesday, 30 March 1887), p. 2, col.F.
  53. Education Classes: School of Mines, Ballarat, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 28 June 1887), p. 3.
  54. A Successful Ballarat Student, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 5 November 1889), p. 4.
  55. (News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Friday, 12 June 1891), p. 2, col.F.
  56. Educational: Mrs. Bella Guerin-Halloran, M.A. (Advertisement), The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 13 January 1894), p. 13.
  57. Educational: Carlton Ladies' College (Advertisement), The Argus, (Monday, 28 January 1895), p. 7.
  58. Special Advertisements: University College, St. Matthew's Schoolroom (Advertisement), THe Prahran Chronicle, (Saturday, 16 May 1896), p. 4.
  59. Scholastic, The Bendigo Advertiser, (Monday, 11 April 1898), p. 2.
  60. Educational: Church of England Grammar School, Camperdown (Advertisement), The Camperdown Chronicle, (Thursday, 2 August 1906), p. 1.
  61. (News Item), The Coburg Leader, (Saturday, 23 January 1909), p. 1.
  62. Educational: High School for Girls (Advertisement), The Age, (Monday, 19 April 1909), p. 12.
  63. Labor Call (Thursday, 15 September 1921), p.10.]
  64. Bella Halloran, 23 August 1900.
  65. Sunday Night Meeting at the Socialist Hall: Ma! The Great White Mother: Lecture by Mrs. Bella Lavender, M.A., The Socialist, (Friday, 23 September 1921), p. 1; Bella was responding to: 'L', ""Ma": The White Mother", The Age, (Saturday, 10 September 1921), p. 4.
  66. Party Chronicles, The Socialist, (Friday, 24 May 1918), p. 3.
  67. Should Wives Obey?" Women say "No", The (Brisbane) Telegraph, (Wednesday, 18 March 1914), p. 8.
  68. MT.1.
  69. JK.2.
  70. "Over three hundred Labor women met at the Old Trades Hall on Wednesday, September 13, and formed the Women's Anti-Conscription Committee, to work in conjunction with the National Executive to fight against the introduction of conscription in Australia." (Women's Anti-Conscription Committee,The Labor Call, p. 7)
  71. Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Committee: Officials (photograph), The Labor Call, (Thursday, 30 November 1916), p. 3.
  72. Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Committee: General Committee (photograph), The Labor Call, (Thursday, 30 November 1916), p. 3.
  73. "Labor Women’s Anti-Conscription Committee (From 1916 – 1917)", at The Australian Women’s Register.
  74. Points from the Speeches of Mrs. Lavender, The Socialist, (Friday, 8 September 1916), p. 4.
  75. Mrs. Bella Lavender at Broken Hill, The Socialist, (Friday, 8 September 1916), p. 4.
  76. Labor Women's Meeting: Mr. Hughes and English Women, The Age, (Thursday, 14 September 1916), p. 8.
  77. Mrs. Lavender's Meetings, The Warrnambool Standard, (Wednesday, 25 October 1916), p. 4.
  78. Women's Central Committee, The Labor Call, (Thursday, 28 March 1918), p. 10; Women's Labor Conference, The Socialist, (Friday, 29 March 1918), p. 1
  79. "Woman in the Labor Party: Poodle or Packhorse?": Full Report of Mrs. Lavender's Critical Address, The Socialist, (Friday, 14 June 1918), p. 3.
  80. Sunday Night Meeting at the Socialist Hall: What's the Matter with Labor: Mrs. Bella Lavender's Endorsement and Criticism, The Socialist, (Friday, 21 November 1919), p. 1.
  81. RS.1.
  82. (Public Notice), The Labor Call, Thursday, 29 June 1916), p. 6.
  83. HM.3.
  84. Deaths: Guerin-Lavender, The Argus, (Saturday, 28 July 1923), p. 17.
  85. Funeral Notices: Lavender, The (Adelaide) Register, (Monday, 30 July 1923), p. 2.
  86. Death of Mrs Bella G. Lavender, M.A., The Labor Call, (Thursday, 23 August 1923), p. 4.
  87. "Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Periodic (National : 1977 - 2011) - 15 May 1987 - p3". Trove. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  88. "Bella Guerin". State Government of Victoria. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
  89. In the first eight years of the competition the Melbourne men's team won the Edmund Barton trophy twice, whilst the Melbourne women's team won the Bella Guerin Trophy on all eight occasions.
  90. The Late Rabbi Goldreich: Tribute by the Rev. B. Lenzer, The Ballarat Star, (Thursday, 6 July 1905), p. 3.

References

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