Mary Booth (physician)

Mary Booth OBE (1869–1956) was an Australian physician, clubwoman and welfare worker.

Mary Booth

OBE
Dr Mary Booth, OBE, by J.S. Watkins (c.1930)[1]
Born(1869-07-09)9 July 1869
Burwood, Sydney
Died28 November 1956(1956-11-28) (aged 87)
Sydney, New South Wales
Educationmedicine
Occupation(s)physician, clubwoman and welfare worker
Political partyWomen's Party (1920)

Early life and education

Mary Booth was born on 9 July 1869 at Burwood, Sydney.[2][3][4]

Booth educated in private, at Airlie School and then graduated in Arts from the University of Sydney. She studied medicine at the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women (graduating in 1899).[2][3][4][5][6]

Career

Booth taught at girls' secondary schools and worked as a lecturer for the NSW Department of Public Instruction.[3][4] In 1910-12 she established the Victorian school for medical service.[2][3][4]

Booth was the office bearer and founder of many patriotic associations, including the Friendly Union of Soldiers' Wives and Soldiers' Club in Sydney.[7]

Booth stood unsuccessfully for North Shore as an Independent candidate in 1920.[3][4] She then failed to gain the nomination in 1922 for the Senate election. She published a monthly magazine Boy Settler; founded the Anzac Fellowship of Women in 1921; and involved in the Dreadnought Scheme.[2][3][4][6]

Awards and honours

Booth was awarded an OBE in 1918 for her charitable work.[7]

Death and legacy

Booth died in 1956. After her death and the sale of her property, the funds were used to initiate the scholarship for women economic students at the University of Sydney.[3][4][8] In 1961 the Mary Booth Lookout in Kirribilli was named in her honour.[9] Booth Crescent, in the Canberra suburb of Cook, is named for her.[10]

References
  1. Jimmy Watkins died in 1942
  2. Roe, Jill, "Booth, Mary (1869–1956)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 20 March 2019
  3. Melbourne, The University of. "Booth, Mary - Woman - The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia". www.womenaustralia.info. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  4. "Booth, Mary (1869-1956) - People and organisations". Trove. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  5. BROOKES, BARBARA (April 2008). "A Corresponding Community: Dr Agnes Bennett and her Friends from the Edinburgh Medical College for Women of the 1890s". Medical History. 52 (2): 237–256. doi:10.1017/s0025727300002374. ISSN 0025-7273. PMC 2329860. PMID 18458784.
  6. Centre, The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research. "Booth, Mary - Biographical entry - Encyclopedia of Australian Science". www.eoas.info. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  7. "Order of the British Empire". British Medical Journal. 2 (3015): 417. 12 October 1918. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3015.417. ISSN 0007-1447. S2CID 220232947.
  8. Tuchman, Arleen (2006). Science Has No Sex: The Life of Marie Zakrzewska, M.D. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807830208.
  9. Hoskins, Ian (2008). "Kirribilli". The Dictionary of Sydney. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  10. "AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY National Memorials Ordinance 1928–1959". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Australia. 2 October 1969. p. 5791. Retrieved 16 December 2020 – via Trove.
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