BGGS Annual Review 2024

Occasional Address Thursday 14 November 2024

Helen Penrose Managing Director, HistorySmiths

Historian and author of Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s history book, Helen Penrose, delivered the following Occasional Address at the School’s Annual Speech Day and Distribution of Prizes 2024.

education for boys. Some girls around the world today still have little or no access to education. These historical understandings, for women everywhere, might inspire many of us to action. Josephine and others like her were also beneficiaries of an education at Brisbane Girls Grammar School. At that time, such an education could not yet be taken for granted because some members of Parliament, and many in the Department of Education, had been determined to close the school in 1899. It was a vital turning point after the controversy surrounding the departure of Principal, Eliza Fewings, because the School did not close. Tenaciously, the new Head Mistress, Milisent Wilkinson, the staff and Trustees rebuilt the School’s academic reputation. Milisent Wilkinson also showed great courage during her 13 years in guiding the School to a brighter future. She also eloquently stated her support for a liberal education.

Good afternoon students, parents, staff, Trustees and Principal. One of my favourite stories in the book I have written on the history of your School is about Josephine Bancroft. She completed her schooling at Brisbane Girls Grammar School in 1914, then went on to finish tertiary qualifications at The University of Queensland. She became an entomologist—a specialist on insects. Many of her collections were displayed at the Queensland Museum. I have selected a photograph of her for the book that I think is quite remarkable for its time. At the age of about 20, she is standing in the bush, wearing a long dress typical of the era, with a broad-brimmed hat and carrying a shotgun because she was stalking snakes for her research into blood parasites. The image, to me, is all about the hard work and courage she showed to be able to pursue that career. Much later on, during World War Two, she enlisted in the Australian

Imperial Force (AIF) in 1942 as a doctor in the Medical Research Unit with the rank of Major to work on anti-malarial drugs. Hers was a remarkable career. Josephine’s story inspires me because her pathway in life was, then, so highly unusual for a young woman. Very few completed school. Even fewer went on to tertiary education and, until 1911, could not complete that tertiary education in Queensland because the state’s very first university, The University of Queensland, did not open until then. I invite you to imagine how optimistic women must have felt when that university opened. Think how it also enhanced women’s success in the long struggle they had experienced to be allowed to vote in Australian parliamentary elections. Women won the right to vote in federal elections from 1902 and in Queensland elections from 1905. Consider what it was like when, until the 1960s, the community did not value girls’ education as much as it valued

‘I invite you to listen carefully to the voices of the past and bring what you learn across the imaginary bridge to the present.’ —Ms Helen Penrose

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Brisbane Girls Grammar School

Annual Review 2024