Florence Cardell-Oliver

Dame Annie Florence Gillies Cardell-Oliver, DBE (11 May 1876 — 12 January 1965) was a Western Australian politician and political activist, often known publicly as simply Florence Cardell-Oliver.^[1] She was the longest-serving female State Parliamentarian in WA, being a member of parliament from 15 February 1936 to 7 April 1956, until her record was broken in September 2011 by Liz Constable.^[2]

Background/Family

Born Annie Florence Gillies Wilson to Johnston Wilson and Annie Thompson, she married, firstly, David Sykes Boydan. They travelled to England, where David Boydan died on 5 September 1902. Later she remarried, to Arthur Cardell-Oliver and they had two sons. The family migrated to Western Australia and Arthur Cardell-Oliver registered as a doctor in 1912. During the First World War she spoke at recruitment meetings for the armed services.

Her husband, an honorary captain in the Army Medical Corps Reserve, joined the Australian Imperial Force, and served in England before requesting his appointment be terminated. He then set up a medical practice in South Melbourne and retired in 1924 due to ill health. The family travelled to England where he died on 15 September 1929.

Political career

Cardell-Oliver unsuccessfully stood for the federal seat of Fremantle against John Curtin in 1934. In 1936 she was elected as the Nationalist member for Subiaco in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, and in 1949 became the first Australian woman to attain full cabinet rank when she was made Minister for Health (she had been an "Honorary" Minister for Supply and Shipping since 1947). She was a women's activist in Western Australia between 1936 and 1956 and a party organizer from 1936 to 1956.

Notes

External links

• Campaign against John Curtin
• Australian Dictionary of Biography profile
• Cardell-Oliver, Annie Florence Gillies in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia