Jeanette Anne Gilbert

Gilbert was born in 1883 in Red Hill in Brisbane joining ten siblings. Her parents were the Danish born Lucia Christina, (born Peterson) and her Scottish born husband James Gilbert. Her father was a clerk. Gympie State High School was one of the first secondary schools and it opened in 1912 with Gilbert as an early staff member. In the same year she became an external student at the University of Queensland.[1]

In 1917 her five years as a part-time student at the University of Queensland was rewarded when she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts.[1]

In 1918 Gilbert joined Kelvin Grove Teachers College which had been established a few years before. In 1922 she was allowed a year's leave to obtain the University of Melbourne's Diploma of Education which was a rare achievement for a woman. So in 1923 her career path was set. She had excellent skills as a pianist and she was an expert with a needle surprising her students with her dexterity and neatness as she taught them how to make garments, repair a tear and how to create a buttonhole. With her educational qualification she was set to teach teenage trainee teachers educational theory, music, needlework and how to teach.[1] By 1927 she was a class one teacher earning £420 per annum.[2]

She published a guide to needlework, making clothes and how to teach those skills in school in 1934.[3]

Gilbert became a senior lecturess in 1937. She was known for her regal stature and high standards of behaviour. She would abandon the curriculum to lecture her charges about their duties to their employers and to themselves and how they were expected to be an example to their students. She retired in 1944.[1]

Gilbert lived a frugal retirement and died in South Brisbane in 1960.[1]

• biography at ADB