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From the collection of Melbourne Legacy

3180 Items featured online

Book, Mavis Thorpe Clark, No Mean Destiny. The Story of the War Widows' Guild of Australia 1945-85, 1986

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Historical information

A book published in 1986 about the War Widows' Guild and its founder Jessie Vasey, the widow of Major-General George Alan Vasey.
Book synopsis: 'Jessie Vasey was truly one of Australia’s great women. She brought into being what was to become the most powerful women’s bloc in Australia’s history. Her successful intent was to establish justice and care for Australia’s World War II widows. At the end of the conflict in 1945, this group of bereaved wives were in the same neglected state as had been the widows of World War I in 1918. Jessie herself was widowed only six months before World War II ended. Her husband died in an aircraft accident off the coast of Cairns. She was 48. But the seeds of compassion and caring for the war widows had been sown before her own loss.'
The Victorian War Widows Guild closed in 2021. Some items, including this book, were donated to the Legacy archive for preservation. It was possible for a widow to be members of both Legacy and the War Widows Guild. Both organisations helped war widows in various ways.