Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Red Cross: Vice-regal Leader and Internationalist in the early Twentieth Century
Melanie Oppenheimer
Abstract
This chapter examines the leadership role played by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, the wife of Australia’s sixth Governor-General, in the formation, administration and direction of the ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ branch of the British Red Cross Society from August 1914. With her familial and lifelong experiences of philanthropy and female citizenship and as a vice-regal woman in Australia, Lady Helen provided positive leadership to ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ women during a period of significant upheaval and war. Her connections with Australia continued long after leaving as she represented ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Red Cross at the League of Red Cross Societies until the mid-1930s. The article muses on the need to reassess the roles of vice-regal women on the development of women’s leadership and democracy in Australia in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Keywords
ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Red Cross, philanthropy, vice-regal women; ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ women’s history; women and leadership
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