72 Facts About Enid Lyons

Enid Lyons was notable as the being the first woman to be elected to the House of Representatives and to serve in the federal cabinet.

Enid Lyons grew up in various small towns in northern Tasmania, and trained as a schoolteacher.

At the age of 17, she married politician Joseph Enid Lyons, who was almost 18 years her senior.

Enid Lyons followed her husband into the new United Australia Party following the Labor split of 1931.

Enid Lyons was one of the best-known prime minister's wives, writing newspaper articles, making radio broadcasts, and giving open-air speeches.

At the 1943 federal election, Enid Lyons successfully stood for the UAP in the Division of Darwin.

Enid Lyons retired from parliament after three terms, but remained involved in public life as a board member of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and as a social commentator.

Enid Lyons was born on 8 July 1897 at Leesville, a small sawmilling settlement outside Smithton, Tasmania.

Enid Lyons's birth was registered just over one month later.

Enid Lyons was the second of four children born to Eliza and William Burnell.

Enid Lyons's father, a sawyer and talented musician, was born in Devon, England, and grew up in Cardiff, Wales, before immigrating to Australia at the age of 17.

Enid Lyons's mother was born in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, to an English immigrant father who had drawn by the Victorian gold rush.

Enid Lyons's mother supplemented the family's income by mending and laundering clothes and delivering meals to itinerant workers, taking a particular interest in well-educated visitors and those from overseas.

Enid Lyons intended that her daughters would enter the teaching profession, which at the time provided the only opportunity for girls to gain a state-funded secondary education.

Eliza Burnell introduced her 15-year-old daughter to Joseph Enid Lyons, a rising Tasmanian Labor politician.

Enid Lyons was an active member of the ALP in her own right, appearing as a women's branch delegate at the 1918 state conference where she successfully amended one motion and co-sponsored a motion for compulsory military training with Edmund Dwyer-Gray.

In October 1923, Enid Lyons' husband was unexpected appointed premier of Tasmania following the collapse of the incumbent Nationalist government.

Enid Lyons was expected to undertake various social engagements on his behalf, although she had to meet her own expenses and usually had to rely on public transport.

In 1924, Enid Lyons gave birth to her seventh child, the first born to an incumbent Tasmanian premier.

Enid Lyons was bedridden with mumps for two months in mid-1925, shortly after which her infant son died of meningitis.

Enid Lyons stood in the Hobart-based seat of Denison, where it was hoped she would draw votes away from female voters supporting independent candidate Edith Waterworth, while her mother stood in the seat of Darwin which included her home town of Burnie.

Enid Lyons opened her campaign at the Hobart Town Hall, standing on a platform that included increased government funding of education and health, clearance of Hobart's slums, and government control of milk distribution and the saw-milling industry.

Enid Lyons appealed primarily to female voters and frequently used domestic metaphors in her speeches, while attacking the Nationalist opposition for financial mismanagement.

The ALP ultimately won its first majority government in Tasmania, with Enid Lyons finishing around 60 votes short of election in Denison.

In 1931 Joseph Enid Lyons left the Labor Party and joined the United Australia Party, becoming prime minister at the subsequent election.

Enid Lyons was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in the Coronation Honours of 1937.

Joseph Lyons died in April 1939, aged 59, the first Australian prime minister to die in office, and Dame Enid returned to Tasmania.

Enid Lyons bitterly resented Joseph Lyons' successor as leader of the UAP, Robert Menzies, who had, she believed, betrayed her husband by resigning from the cabinet shortly before Joseph's death.

Enid Lyons suffered from "nervous exhaustion" in the period immediately after her husband's death.

Enid Lyons fainted or collapsed on a number of occasions and spent several weeks in hospital, initially at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, and later at Mercy Hospital for Women, Melbourne.

Enid Lyons had some requests to stand for his seat at the resulting by-election, including from Jessie Street, but declined.

In December 1939, Enid Lyons began a series of weekly Sunday evening broadcasts for 7LA Launceston, which were syndicated on the Macquarie Broadcasting Network.

Enid Lyons turned down other offers, including from the ABC and from Keith Murdoch's 3DB.

Enid Lyons's mother died in January 1941, a few months after Lyons had become a grandmother for the first time at the age of 43.

Enid Lyons had left Melbourne after only a brief period and returned to Devonport, staying out of public life for a few years.

Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1943 federal election, joining Senator Dorothy Tangney as one of the first two women in federal parliament.

Enid Lyons faced two male competitors, conservative farmer John Wright and businessman John Leary, with the nomination committee eventually deciding to endorse three candidates in the seat with the hopes of appealing to different demographics.

Enid Lyons campaigned in remote areas and made frequent use of radio broadcasts, specialising in late-night talks she described as "bed-time stories".

Enid Lyons gave her maiden speech to the House of Representatives on 29 September 1943, later repeating her speech for radio broadcast as it was several years before the advent of live parliamentary broadcasts.

Enid Lyons began the speech by making reference to the historic nature of the occasion and her status as an outsider.

Enid Lyons concentrated on policy matters, advocating for social welfare schemes, child endowment, and the need for post-war training schemes for those involved in the war effort.

Enid Lyons accused striking coal miners of disloyalty and placing their own interests above those of the nation during World War II, and opposed the Curtin government's 1944 referendum proposal to increase government powers.

Enid Lyons devoted a chapter to this debate in her 1972 autobiography, calling it "one of the most disturbing experiences I was to know as a member of parliament".

Enid Lyons voted against Menzies in the 1943 UAP leadership ballot and allied herself with his rivals Billy Hughes, Archie Cameron and Percy Spender.

Enid Lyons was close to Country Party MPs Earle Page, Arthur Fadden and Larry Anthony.

Enid Lyons joined the new Liberal Party of Australia upon its formation in 1945 and was elected to the federal policy committee, where she credited herself with gaining support for free medical treatment for pensioners and child endowment as official party policies.

Enid Lyons was initially ambivalent about re-contesting her seat at the 1946 election.

Enid Lyons was re-elected with an increased majority, although her friend and colleague Allan Guy was defeated in the neighbouring seat of Wilmot.

Enid Lyons had thyroid-related health issues in the lead-up to the 1949 federal election.

Enid Lyons spent four weeks in hospital recovering, during which time her father died.

Enid Lyons made only a last-minute appearance at a rally to condemn an opponent who had accused her of seeking a "sympathy vote".

Enid Lyons again increased her majority at the election and was widely expected to be appointed to the ministry in the new government, with newspapers speculating she would be offered the immigration or social services portfolios.

Enid Lyons was ultimately appointed Vice-President of the Executive Council, a largely honorary position that she described as "toothless", observing that "they only wanted me to pour the tea".

Enid Lyons was disappointed not to be offered a substantive ministerial portfolio and believed that Menzies "did not want her in the ministry but seemed to have been pressured into giving her some sort of spot".

Enid Lyons did however acknowledge that her poor health would have limited her ministerial capabilities and that there was intense competition for cabinet positions following the Coalition's landslide victory.

Enid Lyons was sworn in to office with the fourth Menzies Ministry on 19 December 1949, the first woman to serve in cabinet.

Enid Lyons continued to have poor health, requiring another surgery in 1950 for an ulcer on her nose that developed into skin cancer, and experiencing side-effects from her thyroid medication.

Enid Lyons was "disturbed" by cabinet's decision to commit Australian troops to the Korean War.

Enid Lyons resigned from cabinet for health reasons on 7 March 1951.

Enid Lyons was a newspaper columnist, a commissioner of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and remained active in public life promoting family and women's issues.

Enid Lyons published three volumes of memoirs, which embarrassed the Liberal Party by reviving her complaints about Menzies' 1939 behaviour towards her husband.

Enid Lyons was made a Dame of the Order of Australia on Australia Day 1980, the second woman to receive this honour after Alexandra Hasluck.

Enid Lyons was the first Australian woman to receive damehoods in different orders.

Enid Lyons died at Ulverstone on 2 September 1981, aged 84.

Enid Lyons was accorded a state funeral in Devonport before being buried next to her husband at Mersey Vale Memorial Park.

Enid Lyons was posthumously inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Enid Lyons had all the qualities of a successful member, for she was not only a clear, lucid and logical speaker but she had an instinctive sympathy, and a wonderful sense of fun.

Enid Lyons had beautiful manners and gave everyone the impression that she was happy to see them when she greeted them.

In 1943 to commemorate Enid Lyons' entering of parliament, artist Justine Kong Sing painted a miniature portrait of Enid Lyons that is held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.

Enid Lyons first fell pregnant a few months after her marriage, but miscarried just after her 18th birthday.

Enid Lyons suffered a second miscarriage the following year, and in her memoirs recounted having to watch on as a nurse threw the remains of the foetus into a bedside fireplace.

Enid Lyons's son Garnet, born in 1924, died from meningitis at the age of 10 months.