Alice Isabel Chisholm

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[1]Dame Alice Isabel Chisholm DBE (3 July 1856 – 31 May 1954), known as Mother Chisholm, née Alice Isabel Morphy, was an Australian woman who provided canteen services for soldiers in Egypt and Palestine during World War I.

Alice Morphy was probably born near Goulburn, New South Wales, where she was raised by her mother's parents and educated at home. In 1877 she married pastoralist William Alexander Chisholm. They had three sons and two daughters.

During the First World War her son Bertram was wounded at Gallipoli. She travelled to Egypt to be closer to him; when she arrived she noticed the lack of facilities for the troops and established a canteen in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis largely at her own expense.[2]

She opened a second canteen in Egypt at Port Said, and a third in Kantara for troops fighting near the Suez Canal with fellow Australian Verania McPhillamy and a New Zealander known as Miss Rout. The Kantara canteen was very popular and expanded to include dormitories and dining-rooms and eventually had the capacity for handling thousands of men.[3] Profits from the canteens were used to provide the troops with comforts for their journey home.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1918 and promoted to Dame Commander (DBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours. When she returned to Australia she continued working within the community, she helped found the Returned and Services League of Australia in Goulburn and she was active in the CWA and RSPCA. She died at the age of 97 in 1954.

A street in the Canberra suburb Cook is named in her honour.Upon her return to Australia she lived in a house called "Boldrewood" in the Sydney North West suburb of Cherrybrook. This house still stands today.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Source: Patrick, Trevor G. 1994, Street Names of Pennant Hills and Surrounding Suburbs of Beecroft, Cheltenham, Cherrybrook, Thornleigh, Westleigh, and West Pennant Hills, Silicon Quill, Hornsby, p.9.
  2. ^ Hill, A. J. Chisholm, Dame Alice Isabel (1856 - 1954), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, p. 642.
  3. ^ Australian War Memorial. Dame Alice Isabel Chisholm (née Morphy), DBE (1856–1954)