Dame Eadith Campbell Walker DBE (18 September 1861 - 8 October 1937) was an Australian heiress and philanthropist.
Dame Eadith Campbell Walker DBE (18 September 1861 - 8 October 1937) was an Australian heiress and philanthropist.
Eadith Campbell Walker was born at The Rocks, Sydney, the only child of Scottish parents, Thomas Walker, a merchant, and his wife Jane (née Hart). The family moved to their home, Yaralla, an Italianate mansion on the Parramatta River in Concord West, an inner-western suburb of Sydney. Following the death of her mother, she was raised by her paternal aunt, Joanna Walker. [1]
She and her father carried out numerous charitable works in Australia. When the First World War came she took a special interest in returned soldiers suffering from tuberculosis, and had 32 of them at "The Camp" in the grounds of Yaralla Estate from 1917 to 1920. From April 1917 to December 1922 she lent another home at Leura for the same purpose, and paid the entire cost of maintenance. It was afterwards made a children's home. She built cottages for elderly men at Yaralla, and provided an endowment fund for their upkeep, and also supported sporting clubs and religious, educational and health institutions, and after the First World War, returned soldiers. [1]
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1917) and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (4 June 1928) for philanthropic and charitable services. [2]
Dame Eadith died on 8 October 1937, aged 76, unmarried. She was cremated at the chapel in Rookwood, and her ashes were buried in the family grave at St John's Ashfield. [3] [1] She left an estate of £265,000. After providing for many legacies to relations, friends and employees, one-third of the residue of the estate went to the Returned Soldiers' and Sailors' Imperial League of Australia, and the real estate to the Red Cross Society. [4]
After her death, two-thirds of the income from £300,000 of her father's estate was set aside for the upkeep of the Thomas Walker Hospital, which had been built from 1891-93 with money provided by her father's will. Another £100,000 was used to turn Yaralla into the Dame Eadith Walker convalescent home for men, and one-third of the income from another sum of £300,000 was set aside for its maintenance. Both Yaralla and the Thomas Walker Hospital (now known as Rivendell Child, Adolescent and Family Unit) are now listed on the Register of the National Estate. [5]
Caroline Chisholm was a 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her support of immigrant female and family welfare in Australia. She is commemorated on 16 May in the calendar of saints of the Church of England. Her path to sainthood within the Catholic Church has commenced; she had converted to Catholicism around the time of her marriage and reared her children as Catholic.
Concord Repatriation General Hospital, commonly referred to as Concord Hospital, is a district general hospital in Sydney, Australia, on Hospital Road in Concord. It is a teaching hospital of Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney, where it is referred to as Concord Clinical School, and a major facility in the Sydney Local Health District and the former Sydney South West Area Health Service. The NSW Statewide Severe Burn Injury Service and the Bernie Banton Centre, an asbestos diseases research institute, are located there.
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The following lists events that happened during 1937 in Australia.
Concord West is a suburb on the periphery of Sydney's inner-west, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Concord West is located 16 km west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay. Concord is a separate suburb, to the east.
Thomas Walker was a New South Wales colonial politician, merchant banker and philanthropist. At the time of his death, he was one of the wealthiest and most influential colonialists in New South Wales.
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The following lists events that happened during 1861 in Australia.
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The Yaralla Estate, also known as the Dame Eadith Walker Estate and now home to the Dame Eadith Walker Hospital, is a heritage-listed hospital at The Drive, Concord West, City of Canada Bay in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Grace Margaret Wilson was a high-ranked nurse in the Australian Army during World War I and the first years of World War II. Wilson was born in Brisbane, and completed her initial training as a nurse in 1908. After the outbreak of World War I she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and subsequently transferred to the First Australian Imperial Force. From 1915 until 1919 she was the principal matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital. She served as the temporary matron-in-chief in the AIF Headquarters, London from late 1917 until early 1918. Wilson returned to Australia in 1920 and left the AIF to work in civilian hospitals. She was appointed the matron-in-chief of the AANS in 1925, and in September 1940 joined the Second Australian Imperial Force. She served in the Middle East until August 1941, when she returned to Australia due to ill health. She left the Army the next month, but from September 1943 worked in the Department of Manpower Directorate (Victoria)'s nursing control section.
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Margaret Coen was an Australian artist, known for her watercolours, paintings of flowers, landscapes and still life works. Her paintings and personal papers are held in national collections.
The Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital Buildings are a heritage-listed complex which formed the former Thomas Walker Convalescent Hospital, located at Hospital Road, Concord West, City of Canada Bay, New South Wales, Australia. The site is now used for the Rivendell Child, Adolescent and Family Unit. The buildings were designed by Sir John Sulman and built from 1890 to 1893 by Alexander M. Allen. It includes the former Joanna Walker Convalescent Hospital. The property is owned by the New South Wales Department of Health. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
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Mary Kate Barlow was an Australian Catholic lay leader, philanthropist, editor, and women's advocate. Born in Ireland, she settled in Australia in 1884. She served as president of the Catholic Women's Association in New South Wales for twenty years. She chaired the women's conference at the International Eucharistic Congress of 1928 in Sydney. In recognition of her service to the Catholic Church, she was awarded the Leo Cross, and was made a Dame of the Holy Sepulchre, the female equivalent of a knighthood.
