Description
Description: War Widow’s Guild of Australia – Membership Badge 8510- circa late 1940s.
Maker’s Name: KG Luke, Melb
Condition: Very Good
Comments: War Widow’s Guild of Australia – Membership Badge 7443.
The Guild was originally established in Victoria in November 1945 by a war widow, Mrs Jessie Mary Vasey OBE CBE, whose husband Major-General George A Vasey CB CBE DSO and bar, was killed on active service during World War II. The Guild was established in NSW in June 1946 and by the end of 1947 there were Guilds in each state and the Guild became federated.
The Guild’s origins were as a craft guild to help widows to learn skills that would help them to support themselves and their children financially, given the meagre war widows pension paid as compensation to widows.
Mrs Vasey was President of the National Guild from its inception until her death in 1966. By that time the Guild had grown into an influential national lobby group, recognized and respected by governments as an organization which advocated strongly for war widows.
