Jeannie Gilruth

Jeannie McLean, nee McLay, married Dr John Anderson Gilruth on 20 March 1899 in Dunedin, New Zealand. Gilruth was then employed as New Zealand's chief veterinarian and government bacteriologist. Jeannie went with her husband to Melbourne in 1908 when he took up a position as the first Professor of Veterinary Science at Melbourne University. In April 1912, Jeannie travelled to Darwin with her husband, children Jean, Margaret and Ian and companion, Elsie Masson, where her husband, Scots born scientist and academic, was to take up a post as first Administrator of the Northern Territory. While in Darwin, during the period of the First World War Jeannie established branches of the Red Cross and Royal Empire Society and in 1918 she was one of the first Australian women to be awarded an OBE. Gilruth was recalled in 1919 because of an inability to resolve industrial and civil unrest in Darwin.Jeannie and her family left the Northern Territory and moved back to Melbourne and eventually Gilruth became the first chair of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Jeannie continued her voluntary work and in 1924 served as Honorary Secretary for the Queen Victoria Hospital Auxilliary. She remained active on the Committee for more than two decades. Jeannie was predeceased by her husband, who died at the family home in South Yarra in 1937 and their son, Ian, in 1949. She died in 1965 aged 89. In her time in Darwin she urged women living in the Territory, 'to make the effort to adjust to the tropical climate and dress accordingly'.Community ServiceScottis