Women’s Auxiliaries have existed since WWI, when female relatives of returned servicemen raised funds to buy land, buildings and furnishings to establish RSL Sub Branches.

In the case of the Lenah Valley RSL Sub Branch - The Mercury (‘RSL Action To Aid Members’) reported on Friday 7 June 1946 that “A women’s auxiliary was formed”.

The auxiliary was an integral part of our Club and raised funds for a variety of projects as well as catering for various functions, including the ANZAC Day breakfast, morning tea and lunch for example.

It finally wound up on 2 May 2014. At the time there were 17 active members.

A number of members served the womens auxiliary for over 30 years. 25 members were awarded life membership. To be nominated for life membership the member must have given at least 15 years continuous membership to the Auxiliary and given at least 10 years outstanding service to the League through their Auxiliary.

A list of important Auxiiary Members follows:

Note 1. R S L Womens Auxiliary Certificate of Merit and Gold Badge, and, R S L Womens Auxiliary Life Membership information provided by Ms Rita Chequer, Secretary R S L WOMEN’S AUXILIARY TASMANIAN STATE BRANCH 04/03/25.

Note 2. The LVRSL Womens Auxiliary was wound up on 2nd May 2014.

ADDRESS BY MARIE KATHRYN KAYS OAM – PRESIDENT LVRSL WOMENS AUXILIARY - 2007

"By rights our auxiliary should be celebrating our 57th AGM today as an Auxiliary was formed in June 1949 with the late Mrs McHugo as President and her daughter Elsie Conlan as Secretary. I joined but from memory only attended one or two meetings as sadly younger ones were not made to feel welcome – we were told “we don’t do this or that and so on”. Of course we were probably thin skinned in those days – I still am for that matter!! So this Auxiliary faded out in 1953 and remaining funds were paid to the Sub-Branch to pay off a piano, the remainder to go to the Sub-Branch building fund (here read extract from minute book)

The following year the Auxiliary re-formed with Mrs Turnbull as president but again sadly came to an abrupt end when the president and secretary had a blazing row and the secretary burnt the books. Mrs Turnbull also was a bit of a martinet – I couldn’t attend meeting but Mrs Turnbull used to send notes home with my husband asking for donations for various fundraisers and advice on coming events.

The present Auxiliary was formed on May 28th 1956 (Minutes on show) and is still going strong today, though now we really only keep going to cater for Anzac Day and to keep up the wonderful comradeship we have between us. I guess over the years there have been a few minor disagreements but overall we have been a very happy and dedicated group of ladies. I was a member of the Auxiliary at Bronte Park when this Auxiliary started up again and didn’t rejoin until 1968.

In the early years like most other Auxiliary’s we catered under extreme conditions, bringing our own cooking utensils, tea towels, tablecloths (mainly sheets) etc. with us until we could afford to purchase the same for the Auxiliary and it saddens us greatly to see how many of these items have apparently got legs and walked in latter years.

Our funds were raised in many and varied ways, such as social evenings in our homes, progressive dinners, fairs, street stalls, cabarets, raffles, regatta stall etc. and of course catering became our main fundraiser with the very popular Caulfield Cup Luncheon only disbanded when the time of the Cup was altered. We catered for Army re-unions, various Club activity dinners, weddings and birthdays and so on. It was always our pleasure to cater for the Annual Sub-Branch Dinners (with up to 150 attendees) and Anzac Day from Dawn till dusk free of charge.

We have entertained Day Centre clients from the Repat Hospital (now the Alice Elliot Day Care Centre) also the Veteran Community from Royal Derwent hospital and Gellibrand House. Over the years we have made various substantial donations to all RSL sponsored organizations such as our own Sub-Branch A.F.O.F., Homes Trust, Comforts fund, Repat Hospital and The Alice Elliot Day Centre and of late to the RSL Women’s Auxiliary Bursary, members have made literally thousands and thousands of poppies.

Here are just a few statistics

28 of our members, some for short periods, some for very long periods, have served on the Repat Hospital (now the A.E.D.C.) Auxiliary – still have four serving members.

We have had two State Presidents – one for two and one for three year terms, three State Secretaries (of whom two were also President), two State Treasurers and one State Vice-President who also served as President and Secretary.

Jean Tope, our continuous longest serving member was our first gold badge recipient (1980), since then many others have received this award, also Auxiliary Life membership and seven members have been made Life members of the Lenah Valley RSL Club.

Long serving office bearers include

Betty Grubb – 18 years Treasurer and 7 years as President.

Betty Coppin – 18 years as Secretary.

Marie Kays – 10 years as President and 8 years as Secretary.

Several members also served on the social committee, which was formed in 1966 and was disbanded about 10 years later with the late Viv Davey serving as Secretary for 8 years and yours truly as Treasurer for five and a half years.

For some years we had in excess of 30 members but time has taken its toll and at present our numbers are down to 17. We have always attended state conferences and had good input with agenda items and on a lighter side have taken part in some hilarious skits.

Over the years we have had an excellent rapport with our State branch and still do so.

On a personal note I am very appreciative of the support and friendship I have received over many years and I can honestly say if it had not been for the experience and encouragement that I have received I could not have gone on to become the first Tasmanian to be elected to the position of National President of The War Widow Guild of Australia.

To end this report I would like to pay tribute to all former and present members of the executive as they have for many years inspired this Auxiliary with their leadership and hard work. Finally a thankyou to all our members

ADDRESS BY MARIE KATHRYN KAYS OAM – PRESIDENT LVRSL WOMENS AUXILIARY - 2007

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