Image right: Margaret (Peg) Dircks of Strathfield by photographer, Harold Cazneaux, a family friend, taken during WWII. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
March is Women’s History Month!
Margaret (Peggy) Dircks was born in Marrickville in 1917, the eldest child of Hugh and Helen Dircks. The family had settled at Wirruna, 133 Homebush Road Strathfield by the mid 1920s when only son, Alexander was born after four daughters. A bright student, Peggy graduated from Sydney University with a degree in Science in 1937 and took a job researching the manufacture of textiles. World War II erupted in 1939. In July 1941 she was featured in a Daily Telegraph article about the wartime demand for female scientists. By this time Peggy had taken a job in the laboratories of J. Kitchen & Sons (later Lever Brothers), working on soap, margarine and tallow.[1]
Daily Telegraph 3 July 1941 p.9 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247500171
According to family members, in early 1942 Peg joined the Strathfield 800 branch of the Voluntary Aid Detachment. VADs served mostly as nursing orderlies in convalescent and rest homes, troop trains and canteens. Most received some medical training but were not qualified nurses. Peggy became one of the first two women to volunteer as ambulance drivers. Her family recalled that she had borrowed a David Jones delivery truck to practise driving until she felt confident for the role. In February 1941 the Daily Telegraph reported on the activities of the Strathfield VAD noting that the group had collected more than 28 lb of silver paper and 16 lb of milk bottle tops for recycling for the war effort during the previous six months.[2] That month the first annual meeting of the Strathfield VADs was held in Strathfield Town Hall led by Strathfield commandant, Mrs Edith Monk. A field day was held at Strathfield Park on 1 March 1941.[3]
By July 1942, Edith Monk had a personnel of 50 ladies who worked at the dental hospital at Inglewood, in Burwood, and at the showground.[4] They also assisted with the local diptheria immunisation program of Winter 1942.[5]
Twin sisters, both members of the Strathfield VADs, were married in a double ceremony at the Strathfield Methodist Church during November 1943. Doris and Joyce Costain McCarthy married Arthur Rickard and Gunner Arthur Wylie respectively.[6]
VAD parade, Centennial Park 11 Nov 1945. Courtesy State Library of NSW
Edith Monk received the Red Cross long service medal from Lady Gowrie during July 1944.[7] In 1954 she received a second bar to her Queen’s bar brooch by which time she had served more than 40 years in the VADs through two world wars and beyond.[8]
Margaret (Peg) Dircks' watch. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
In 1944 Peggy married David Kenneth Caird Williamson, whom she had met at university, and settled in Alexandra Street Concord where she raised her family. Peggy Dircks’ wristwatch and VAD identity card were donated to the Australian War Memorial by family members. You can see them at: https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search?query=dircks+margaret&collection=true&facet_type=Heraldry
By J.J. MacRitchie
Local Studies Advisor
References
[1] Daily Telegraph 3 July 1941 p.9 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247500171