Cheryl Williss: Miss Marryat’s Circle
Posted on: Mon 7 May 2018
In 1915, the second year of the Great War, Mabel Marryat, granddaughter of South Australia’s first colonial chaplain Charles Howard, joined the newly formed League of Loyal Women. Mabel was active in the League’s emergency corps: ‘women who are prepared to give their service in any need that may arise’. It wasn’t long before Mabel was appointed Honorary Supervisor of the Red Cross Depot at the Keswick Military Hospital: No. 7 AGH. After the war, the hospital was renamed RGH Keswick. Here Mabel stayed for 30 years.
Sixth generation South Australian, historian and author Cheryl Williss’s newly published book, Miss Marryat’s Circle, gives voice to the women of South Australia’s first 110 years of European settlement and an opportunity to reflect on the changing position of women in society. But the spotlight shines on Mabel. Her long and devoted community service – particularly to her ‘Diggers’ – was extraordinary.
Interviewer Fiona White
A young Mabel Marryat. Photo courtesy of State Library of South Australia (B 25302) Public Domain.
Book cover provided by the Publisher, Wakefield Press
