Edith Lawrie

Edith was born in Robe, South Australia, to John Archibald Graham Little and his wife Matilda Cecily (nee Johnston). She first went to school in Semaphore, a northwestern seaside suburb of Adelaide, followed by matriculation and university in Sydney. Her father was deputy sheriff, superintendent and senior inspecting officer in the Post and Telegraph Department of the Northern Territory. Edith met and married her husband John Joseph Lawrie, manager of the English, Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank in the Catholic Church, Darwin on 28 February 1892. John managed the Palmerston Branch of the bank for about nine years and they had three sons and two daughters. Their daughter, Mary Blackwell, was born in Walkerville in 1893 and Cecily Edith was born in Mount Gambier. Their three sons were born in Palmerston: John Graham on 26 July 1895; William Archibald on 18 January 1898 and Robert Graham was born 9 March 1900.In 1895 when Edith was 28, she was one of the 82 women who enrolled to vote after the franchise was granted to South Australian and Territory women in 1894. Her occupation was listed as "married woman". The couple moved to Mount Gambier with the bank before 1904 where Edith received her commission as a Justice of the Peace; she was the first woman to be appointed in a country district in South Australia. They were taken off the Palmerston roll in 1904. Edith was appointed Vice President of the southeastern district of the Red Cross Society until the signing of the armistice. The family moved to Adelaide following her husband's sudden death in 1921. Edith died in South Australia in 1956 aged 88.BusinesswomanMusicia