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Enid Lyons: Leading Lady to a Nation
This is the story of an extraordinary woman - mother of twelve, Prime Minister's wife, first woman member of the House of Representatives and the first women in a Federal cabinet, radio broadcaster, newspaper columnist, author of three boos - Enid Lyons was for many years the best known woman in Australia.
356 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2008
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About the author
Anne Henderson
8 books1 followerWriter, Deputy Director of The Sydney Institute, editor of The Sydney Papers and co-editor of The Sydney Institute Quarterly.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 26, 2023
‘Who would have imagined that a woman born in 1897, married at seventeen, and the mother of twelve children, would be an achiever ahead of her time?’
Dame Enid Muriel Lyons (1897-1981) was born on 9 July 1897 at Duck River (Smithton) in Tasmania. She was the second of four children born to Eliza (née Taggart) and William Burnell. In this book, Ms Henderson raises the possibility that Dame Enid’s real father may have been Aloysius Joyce, the son of a wealth landowner in the Burnie district. I found this possibility difficult to reconcile with the character of Eliza Burnell contained in the book, but I guess it is possible. Does it matter? Not to me: Dame Enid has long been a hero of mine.
Moving beyond Dame Enid’s parentage, Ms Henderson describes her childhood and upbringing. Later, when the family moved to Cooee (now a western suburb of Burnie) where Eliza opened a store and a post office, Enid attended the Burnie State School. Enid and her older sister Nell attended Teacher Training College in Hobart and it was in Hobart at the age of 15 that Enid first met Joseph Aloysius Lyons, then the Labor member for the Tasmanian state seat of Wilmot. They married in Wynyard, on the 28th of April 1915: Joe was 35 and Enid 17.
And so began a partnership, which ended when Joe Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, died in office on 7 April 1939. Joe and Enid had twelve children, the youngest of whom was born in 1933. Enid and Joe had been effective partners in life and politics: they supported each other.
On 21 August 1943, Enid Lyons was elected member for the Tasmanian federal seat of Darwin (now Braddon). She was the first female member of the House of Representatives. In her maiden speech on 29 September 1943, she spoke about social security, the declining birth rate, and the need for an extension of child endowment. She also spoke about the family, about housing and the need to look ahead to policies for the post-war period.
Ms Henderson covers in detail Enid Lyon’s life and legacy. After she left politics in March 1951, she remained active: including writing three books of her own, as well as serving as a commissioner of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
On moral issues Dame Enid was conservative, in keeping with her Catholic faith. Some of her children described her as remote. But it is clear that Dame Enid worked hard, and in her first parliamentary term could take some credit for the extension of child endowment and free medical treatment for pensioners.
This is the second time I have read this book. In between reads I have visited both Home Hill (the Lyons family home in Devonport) and the small cottage in Stanley where Joe Lyons lived with his aunts. Joe and Enid Lyons were a formidable team.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about Enid and Joe Lyons and their achievements.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Dame Enid Muriel Lyons (1897-1981) was born on 9 July 1897 at Duck River (Smithton) in Tasmania. She was the second of four children born to Eliza (née Taggart) and William Burnell. In this book, Ms Henderson raises the possibility that Dame Enid’s real father may have been Aloysius Joyce, the son of a wealth landowner in the Burnie district. I found this possibility difficult to reconcile with the character of Eliza Burnell contained in the book, but I guess it is possible. Does it matter? Not to me: Dame Enid has long been a hero of mine.
Moving beyond Dame Enid’s parentage, Ms Henderson describes her childhood and upbringing. Later, when the family moved to Cooee (now a western suburb of Burnie) where Eliza opened a store and a post office, Enid attended the Burnie State School. Enid and her older sister Nell attended Teacher Training College in Hobart and it was in Hobart at the age of 15 that Enid first met Joseph Aloysius Lyons, then the Labor member for the Tasmanian state seat of Wilmot. They married in Wynyard, on the 28th of April 1915: Joe was 35 and Enid 17.
And so began a partnership, which ended when Joe Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, died in office on 7 April 1939. Joe and Enid had twelve children, the youngest of whom was born in 1933. Enid and Joe had been effective partners in life and politics: they supported each other.
On 21 August 1943, Enid Lyons was elected member for the Tasmanian federal seat of Darwin (now Braddon). She was the first female member of the House of Representatives. In her maiden speech on 29 September 1943, she spoke about social security, the declining birth rate, and the need for an extension of child endowment. She also spoke about the family, about housing and the need to look ahead to policies for the post-war period.
Ms Henderson covers in detail Enid Lyon’s life and legacy. After she left politics in March 1951, she remained active: including writing three books of her own, as well as serving as a commissioner of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
On moral issues Dame Enid was conservative, in keeping with her Catholic faith. Some of her children described her as remote. But it is clear that Dame Enid worked hard, and in her first parliamentary term could take some credit for the extension of child endowment and free medical treatment for pensioners.
This is the second time I have read this book. In between reads I have visited both Home Hill (the Lyons family home in Devonport) and the small cottage in Stanley where Joe Lyons lived with his aunts. Joe and Enid Lyons were a formidable team.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about Enid and Joe Lyons and their achievements.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
May 27, 2017
I really loved this book. It is a wonderful insight into a life style long gone and a woman of contradictions who achieved an incredible amount for a girl from an isolated place such as Tasmania was then. Us locals should educate ourselves more about our own locals who have left us with the fortunate place we now live in.
March 19, 2025
Although I'm over a week late for #IWD International Women's Day, I finally got round to reading a biography I've been meaning to read for a long time. Enid Lyons, Leading Lady to a Nation (2008) by Anne Henderson has been on my NF TBR since the year it was published, and although at times I made heavy weather of it, I wish I'd featured its subject Enid Lyons for #IWD long before this.
She really was a remarkable woman. Along with Dorothy Tangney, (1907-1985) who was elected to the Senate in 1943 and served four terms for a total of 25 years, Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives in the same year. She served three terms, after retiring due to ill health, but remained in public life as a board member of the ABC (1951–1962) and as a public speaker and social commentator.
The biography is mostly chronological in form, but it begins with the sudden death of Joe Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, in 1939. Lyons and his wife Enid were the golden couple of Australian politics, much loved by conservatives but probably not so much by the Labor Party, which Lyons had left in order to spearhead the formation of the now defunct United Australia Party (1931-1945, a conservative party but definitely not to be confused with its contemporary namesake). About to enjoy an Easter family reunion at the family home in Stanley Tasmania, Enid had to make a nightmare journey from her sister's house in Burnie, to reach her husband's bedside in Sydney:
It's easy to forget just how time-consuming travel used to be... later in the bio we learn about Enid's arduous journey by ferry from Tasmania and by train to Canberra via Sydney when she took up her seat as the first female MP in 1943, and how she initially refused a government offer of travel by plane because she thought she should not receive 'special treatment'.
After this dramatic beginning the biography begins with the usual family history stuff (including some previously unknown aspects of the 'family closet' which are contested by son Peter Lyons). The book covers some detail of the romance, one that might ring alarm bells today because Enid was a teacher trainee aged only 17 and Joe was 35. But it seems that in that sectarian age there was more angst about religious differences and her decision to convert to Catholicism, than about the age difference. Henderson also mentions some indiscretions that tabloids might have relished. Once elected to the House and Minister for Education, he wanted Enid to be transferred closer to him. But all that was forestalled by her prompt marriage and resignation from teaching, Joe Lyons paying out her bond to the Tasmanian education department so that she could be free.
What makes Enid Lyons remarkable as a role model for women in politics was that she had so many children. Twelve, all of whom survived to outlive her except for Garnet who died of meningitis at ten months old. Yet this large family and the responsibility it entailed did not prevent her from having a career in public life.
Henderson acknowledges that Enid achieved what she did with family and paid help including live-in domestic help in Tasmania and at The Lodge. While the older children often had significant responsibilities in caring for younger ones, the children were also often left with friends and family when political commitments took precedence. As the family moved about both within Tasmania and on the mainland, their schooling was disrupted. Some were sent to boarding school while others changed from school to school as needed. There are hints here and there that there was some resentment about the way things were, and it is noted that the oldest Desmond (b.1916) did not attend his mother's funeral. No explanation is given, and there may have been a reasonable one, but the juxtaposition of this absence from the funeral with some comments from the youngest child Janice (b.1933) leaves the reader to draw her own conclusions.
TO read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/03/20/e...
She really was a remarkable woman. Along with Dorothy Tangney, (1907-1985) who was elected to the Senate in 1943 and served four terms for a total of 25 years, Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives in the same year. She served three terms, after retiring due to ill health, but remained in public life as a board member of the ABC (1951–1962) and as a public speaker and social commentator.
The biography is mostly chronological in form, but it begins with the sudden death of Joe Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, in 1939. Lyons and his wife Enid were the golden couple of Australian politics, much loved by conservatives but probably not so much by the Labor Party, which Lyons had left in order to spearhead the formation of the now defunct United Australia Party (1931-1945, a conservative party but definitely not to be confused with its contemporary namesake). About to enjoy an Easter family reunion at the family home in Stanley Tasmania, Enid had to make a nightmare journey from her sister's house in Burnie, to reach her husband's bedside in Sydney:
Enid was needed, and quickly. However, to retrace her steps and then some with the added journey to Sydney was impossible in less than two days. The only plane from northern Tasmania to the mainland would leave Launceston, some four hours' drive away, before she could be there. The ferry from Devonport would not return to Melbourne until that evening and the train journey from Melbourne to Sydney would take another twelve hours but only if she made the morning connection. (p.2)
It's easy to forget just how time-consuming travel used to be... later in the bio we learn about Enid's arduous journey by ferry from Tasmania and by train to Canberra via Sydney when she took up her seat as the first female MP in 1943, and how she initially refused a government offer of travel by plane because she thought she should not receive 'special treatment'.
After this dramatic beginning the biography begins with the usual family history stuff (including some previously unknown aspects of the 'family closet' which are contested by son Peter Lyons). The book covers some detail of the romance, one that might ring alarm bells today because Enid was a teacher trainee aged only 17 and Joe was 35. But it seems that in that sectarian age there was more angst about religious differences and her decision to convert to Catholicism, than about the age difference. Henderson also mentions some indiscretions that tabloids might have relished. Once elected to the House and Minister for Education, he wanted Enid to be transferred closer to him. But all that was forestalled by her prompt marriage and resignation from teaching, Joe Lyons paying out her bond to the Tasmanian education department so that she could be free.
What makes Enid Lyons remarkable as a role model for women in politics was that she had so many children. Twelve, all of whom survived to outlive her except for Garnet who died of meningitis at ten months old. Yet this large family and the responsibility it entailed did not prevent her from having a career in public life.
Henderson acknowledges that Enid achieved what she did with family and paid help including live-in domestic help in Tasmania and at The Lodge. While the older children often had significant responsibilities in caring for younger ones, the children were also often left with friends and family when political commitments took precedence. As the family moved about both within Tasmania and on the mainland, their schooling was disrupted. Some were sent to boarding school while others changed from school to school as needed. There are hints here and there that there was some resentment about the way things were, and it is noted that the oldest Desmond (b.1916) did not attend his mother's funeral. No explanation is given, and there may have been a reasonable one, but the juxtaposition of this absence from the funeral with some comments from the youngest child Janice (b.1933) leaves the reader to draw her own conclusions.
TO read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/03/20/e...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews