Margaret Doyle (announcer)

Margaret Trevor Doyle (later Henderson) (1920 – 25 February 2002) was the first woman newsreader and national radio announcer in Australia.[1][2][3] She commenced work with the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1941 and her voice is preserved on the earliest surviving news item contained in the broadcaster's archive, which is a 1941 radio story on protecting active servicemen in World War II from creditors.[4]

Margaret Doyle at 18, photographed for The Bulletin by Noel Rubie

Radio career

Doyle had previously worked as a librarian and hostess at the Pickwick Book Club in Sydney before responding to an advertisement for radio announcers. Following an audition which included reading a weather report and a paragraph of news, she was appointed from a pool of 500 applicants. The choice of a female radio announcer was a deliberate wartime measure to enable men to leave employment and participate in World War II and had already been enacted by the British Broadcasting Commission.[5]

Personal life

Doyle was the eldest daughter of Trevor Mervyn Doyle (born 26 April 1883) of Tamworth and Winifred Amy Doyle (née Szchille) (died 11 February 1957) of Sydney.[6][7][8]

She married the pastoralist George Wallace Henderson (died 2002) on 8 April 1941 and they lived on their property 'Rannoch', near Blayney. They did not have children.

Philanthropic work

The Hendersons were generous philanthropists and patrons of the arts, especially opera and music. They were involved in numerous scholarships and donations.[9]

In 1993, the Margaret Henderson Scholarship was established at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music from personal donations made by Doyle and, in 1996, she founded the Margaret Henderson Music Trust in Orange. Prior to her death in 2002, music students from the conservatorium would regularly visit to perform for Doyle in her nursing home in Kings Cross.[10][11]

The couple bequeathed sixteen million dollars to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was the largest donation ever made to an Australian performing arts institution.[12][13][14][15]

References
  1. "WHO IS THE GIRL ON THE A.B.C.?". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 32, 169. New South Wales, Australia. 4 February 1941. p. 4 (Women's Supplement). Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. "ABC Celebrates 80 years". Australian Broadcasting Commission. 29 June 2012. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  3. "ABC History". Australian Broadcasting Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  4. "Backstory: 1958 TV news bulletin is oldest preserved in ABC archive". Australian Broadcasting Commission. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  5. "WHO IS THE GIRL ON THE A.B.C.?". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 32, 169. New South Wales, Australia. 4 February 1941. p. 4 (Women's Supplement). Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "ENGAGED". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 32, 206. New South Wales, Australia. 19 March 1941. p. 5. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Country Romances". The Farmer and Settler. Vol. XXXVI, no. 8. New South Wales, Australia. 27 March 1941. p. 14. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "Trevor Mervyn Doyle". Discovering Anzacs. National Archives of Australia. 7 May 1999. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  9. "Scholarships". University of Sydney. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  10. "Pastoralist gives $16m to make music". 25 May 2005. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  11. "Scholarships". University of Sydney. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  12. "Noteworthy bequest that will change people's lives". Sydney Morning Herald. 27 May 2005. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  13. Ackland, Richard (2 November 2012). "Being nice to students has its rewards". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  14. "WEDDING WAS A SURPRISE". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 32, 224. New South Wales, Australia. 9 April 1941. p. 26. Retrieved 19 January 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. "Margaret Henderson Music Trust". Music Trusts. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
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