Annabelle Rankin
Dame Annabelle Jane Mary Rankin DBE (28 July 1908 – 30 August 1986) was an Australian politician and diplomat. She was the first woman from Queensland elected to parliament, the first woman federal government minister, and the first Australian woman to be appointed head of a foreign mission.
Dame Annabelle Rankin DBE | |
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High Commissioner of Australia to New Zealand | |
In office 1971–1974 | |
Prime Minister | William McMahon Gough Whitlam |
Preceded by | Ted Hicks |
Succeeded by | Brian Clarence Hill |
Minister for Housing | |
In office 26 January 1966 – 22 March 1971 | |
Prime Minister | Harold Holt John McEwen John Gorton William McMahon |
Preceded by | Les Bury |
Succeeded by | Kevin Cairns |
Government Whip in the Senate | |
In office 11 June 1951 – 8 March 1966 | |
Prime Minister | Robert Menzies |
Preceded by | Reg Wright |
Succeeded by | Malcolm Scott |
Senator for Queensland | |
In office 1 July 1947 – 24 May 1971 | |
Succeeded by | Neville Bonner |
Personal details | |
Born | South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | 28 July 1908
Died | 30 August 1986 78) South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | (aged
Political party | Liberal |
Relations | Colin Rankin (father) |
Rankin was born in Brisbane, the daughter of state MP Colin Rankin. A member of the Liberal Party, she was elected to the Senate at the 1946 federal election, taking her seat the following year. She was the second woman elected to the Senate, after Dorothy Tangney. Rankin was the Liberal Party's chief whip from 1947 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1966; she remains the longest-serving whip in the party's history, in either chamber of parliament. In 1966, she was made Minister for Housing in the Holt Government, becoming the first woman to hold a ministerial portfolio. She held that position until her retirement from politics in 1971. As High Commissioner to New Zealand from 1971 to 1974, she was the first woman to head an Australian mission overseas.
Early life
Rankin was born on 28 July 1908 in South Brisbane, Queensland. She was the older of two daughters born to Annabelle Davidson Rankin (née Thomson) and Colin Dunlop Wilson Rankin. Her father, born in Scotland, was a sugar grower and Boer War veteran who served in the Queensland Legislative Assembly (1905–1918).[1]
Rankin grew up on her father's sugarcane farm on the Isis River near the small town of Childers. In 1919, her father replaced his deceased brother as managing director of Queensland Collieries Company, necessitating a move to Howard.[1] The family lived in Brooklyn House, which is now heritage-listed.[2][3] Rankin attended the local state schools in Childers and Howard before completing her education as a boarder at the Glennie Memorial School in Toowoomba.[4]
As an unmarried woman from a wealthy family, Rankin was not expected to enter the workforce. She involved herself in various community organisations, teaching Sunday school and founding a local unit of the Girl Guides.[1][5] She was encouraged by her father to travel overseas, visiting China and Japan soon after leaving school. She visited Europe in 1936, working in the slums of London and with refugees from the Spanish Civil War; while in Gibraltar she witnessed the bombing of La Línea de la Concepción.[4]
After her father's death in 1940, Rankin began working as a clerk for the Union Trustee Company of Australia. She was the commandant of a Brisbane-based Voluntary Aid Detachment during the war. She was also state secretary of the Girl Guides in 1942 and assistant state commissioner of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) the following year. She was responsible for the organisation's work around the welfare of servicewomen, in which capacity she travelled to military bases in North Queensland. In 1946, she was offered a position in Greece with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, but declined in order to enter politics in Australia.[1][4]
Politics
Rankin was elected to the Senate in the 1946 election, as a representative of the Liberal Party. Her term began on 1 July 1947. She was the first woman appointed as Opposition Whip in the Senate and, following the election of the Menzies government in 1949, also served as Government Whip in the Senate.
On 26 January 1966, Prime Minister Harold Holt appointed her Minister for Housing in his first ministry, responsible for the Department of Housing. She was the second woman to reach ministerial rank in the Federal Parliament.[6] After 1968 she was the equal longest-serving senator, alongside Bert Hendrickson and Justin O'Byrne. She resigned from the Senate in 1971 and was made High Commissioner to New Zealand, a post she held to 1974. Following her retirement she returned to Brisbane where she continued to be involved in voluntary organisations.[7]
Death
Rankin died in Brisbane aged 78, on 30 August 1986.[5] She was cremated following a State funeral at St John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane.
Honours
Annabelle Rankin was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on 13 June 1957 for political and public services.[8] In 1977 Rankin was made a Life Member of the Queensland Branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia.
Legacy
The Electoral Division of Rankin, which came into effect at the 1984 election, is named in her honour. The Dame Annabelle Rankin Award was inaugurated by the Queensland Branch of the Children's Book Council of Australia in her memory.
Notes
- Marchant, Sylvia (2010). "Rankin, Dame Annabelle Jane Mary (1908–1986)". The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. 3.
- "Howard". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
- "Brooklyn House" (PDF). Fraser Coast Local Heritage Register. Fraser Coast Regional Council. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
- Coltheart, Lenore (2012). "Rankin, Dame Annabelle Jane (1908–1986)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. 18.
- "Rankin, Annabelle Jane Mary (1908-1986)". Australian Women. National Foundation for Australian Women. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
- "Suffrage without violence". The Canberra Times. ACT. 10 July 1968. p. 17.
- Coultheart, Lenore. "Rankin, Dame Annabelle Jane (1908–1986)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
- It's an Honour
External links
- Rankin, Annabelle Jane Mary in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Annabelle Rankin. |
Political offices | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Les Bury |
Minister for Housing 1966–1971 |
Succeeded by Kevin Cairns |
Diplomatic posts | ||
Preceded by Ted Hicks |
Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand 1971 – 1974 |
Succeeded by Brian Clarence Hill |