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During ABC Radio National’s summer season, I chanced to hear a Hindsight documentary that I’d somehow missed when it was first broadcast in 2008. What a marvellous find it turned out to be!

Portrait of Violet McKenzie in military uniform (Australian War Memorial, collection record PO1262.001)

The program is about Florence Violet McKenzie (nee Wallace), Australia’s first female electrical engineer and a driving force in establishing the Women’s Royal Australian Navy Service (WRANS).

Violet had a particular interest in signalling, and in the 1930s and during World War II her training school taught thousands of women — and Australian and US servicemen — how to use Morse code for emergency and routine communications. In the radio program, a couple of her former students recall Violet’s teaching method: the students learned by rhythmically chanting the da-da-dits of Morse code. Almost a modern version of Gregorian chant!

The radio program’s synopsis says:

“Florence Violet McKenzie was born in the years which gave rise to the first wave of feminism, apt timing for a woman who, during her long life, distinguished herself in technical fields and opened doors for countless other women to join her.

“But Florence Violet McKenzie’s quiet and independent manner has meant that her remarkable story has slipped through the cracks of history. Apart from a couple of brief biographical references, the name Florence Violet McKenzie is hardly familiar in Australia. This program pays some overdue historical attention to a pioneer in technical education for women.

“Florence Violet McKenzie OBE (nee Wallace), aka ‘Mrs Mac’ (1890-1982) was Australia’s first female electrical engineer, first female amateur radio operator, and founder of the Electrical Association for Women. She is best known for her work during the Second World War. Having founded the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps in 1939, she campaigned successfully to have some of her female trainees accepted into the Royal Australian Navy, thereby originating the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service.

“During the war some 12,000 servicemen passed through her Morse code training school, and after the war her school was a major civilian airline and nautical signal instructional centre. The armed forces and civilian airlines relied on her services right up to the mid-50s. Apart from her successful electrical contracting and wireless supplies business between 1918 and 1934, all her work was voluntary.”

Not mentioned in the synopsis:

• she corresponded with Albert Einstein
• her free school trained more than 10,000 military personnel and civilians
• to become eligible to study electrical engineering, she needed to have a job in a relevant industry — so she set up her own business and got a contract to rewire an acquaintance’s house

My mother’s family probably owes an indirect debt of gratitude to Violet. My aunt Shirley served as a signaller in the Royal Australian Navy during the 1950s, and her brother Keith is a Colonel Commandant in the Australian Army’s Signals Corps.

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References

“Signals, Currents and Wires: the untold story of Florence Violet McKenzie”. This program in the Hindsight series was researched, produced and presented by Catherine Freyne. First broadcast by ABC Radio National on 16 March 2008. When I drafted this post in late January 2009, the program’s web page had a downloadable MP3 audio file. It also provides three photos and a short list of reference books about the WRANS, women and technology.

Florence Violet McKenzie OBE (1892-1982): biography in the Australian Women’s Register, with links and bibliography.

Peter Dunn (2006): Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps in Australia During WWII. Article on Oz At War web site, describing Mrs McKenzie’s involvement in the WESC and the WRANS.

The Australian War Memorial has two photographs:

• Portrait of Violet McKenzie in WESC uniform, undated (1940s or 1950s?) (AWM collection record P01262.001)
• Violet McKenzie aged nearly 90, at a plaque dedication ceremony in her honour, circa 1980 (AWM collection record P02722.003)

Violet is mentioned in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, in an entry about Frances Betty Provan, the first enlisted member of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service. However, there is no ADB entry for Violet McKenzie herself.

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[This post is written especially for Ada Lovelace Day, a PledgeBank initiative by Suw Charman-Anderson. Tip o' the hat to David Weinberger for mentioning the pledge in his JOHO blog.]

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