Journalist, lecturer, musician and broadcaster Aileen Alpen reported on European issues from Poland during the 1930s.
Matron Lucy Applewhaite Hicks
March is Women’s History Month! Lucy Applewhaite Hicks was matron of both the Immigrant Depot and Destitute Asylum at Hyde Park Barracks for 25 years, later settling at Woodrising, 13 Vernon Street Strathfield.
Soprano, Rosina Pinhey
Soprano, Rosina Pinhey of Strathfield studied with Madame Marchesi in Paris and went on to have a career on the stage in Paris, Italy and the USA.
The Weatherly Sisters
Gaga and Toots Weatherly travelled the world as vaudeville and circus performers with their family, finally settling in Strathfield.
The Curious Case of Constance Kent
When Ruth Emilie Kaye died, aged 100, at the Loreto Convalescent Home in Strathfield in 1944, nobody knew the secrets of her dark past. In 1860, aged just 16, she had murdered her three year-old half brother at home in England.
The Barefoot Bushwalker: Dorothy Butler
The ‘barefoot bushwalker’ Dorothy Butler (nee English) grew up in Homebush, where she roamed the paddocks and climbed everything, including the giant crane at the Chullora Railway Yards. She went on to climb, bushwalk and cycle all over the world. She even taught a young Edmund Hillary in New Zealand.
Suffragette, Katharine Gatty
Suffragette, Katharine Gatty died in the Loreto Convalescent Home in Albert Road in 1952. Before WWI she had been an active member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in London and had been imprisoned nine times for civil disobedience. She had also been force-fed during her hunger strikes.