Nancy Bernice Russell
Nancy Bernice Russell (1908 – 2003).
West Australian
Monday 24 April 2023
Several weeks ago the Subiaco City Council put together a list of names for new roads in Subiaco that would be created around a new development near the Subiaco Oval.
The names of 10 women were put forward and included Subiaco-born Adelaide Ilya Chugg and Nancy Russell. Both Adelaide and Nancy became teachers. Dame Cardell-Oliver, who was a Member of Parliament for Subiaco in 1936 who went on to become the first woman in Australia to become a government cabinet minister.
Nancy Russell was awarded an M.B. E., studied at Perth College, graduated in Arts from the University of U.W.A and gained a Diploma in Education. She taught at schools around Australia and overseas and served in the British Y.W.C.A. in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Nancy regularly visited her family in Western Australia where she gave talks about her experiences serving in the Y.W.C.A. which were reported in various newspapers. After the war Nancy returned to Australia where she returned to teaching. She was responsible for setting up services such as Meals on Wheels for the Aged and Sick that involved providing hot meals at lunch time and a program for pensioners and young people to interact.
The City of Subiaco Agenda – Council Agenda Briefing Form (11 April, 2023) supplied this biography of Nancy Russell although it does not provide her connection to Subiaco…
“Nancy Russell, 1908 – 2003. Although Nancy Russell’s mother, Mary Russell, taught her daughter’s primary education at home, she later attended Perth College (Anglican School for Girls In Perth) for her secondary education, and went on to study at the University of Western Australia. She had a long and distinguished career as a High School teacher in Queensland, South Australia (Walford House) and Colombo, Sri Lanka (6 years).
After war service in the Middle east and Mediterranean and service in south east Asia, assisting with the repatriation of prisoners of war, Nancy Russell returned to Perth. She was Headmistress of Kobeelya Girls’ School in Katanning for several years then established the Meals on Wheels service in Perth. She returned to teaching at Armadale, Cyril Jackson and Mt. Lawley High Schools and retired in 1963. She was an active member of the Karrakatta Club.
She was awarded the MBE in 1946. Born Geraldton, December 1908, died June 2003. Obituary published in ‘Excellence and Enlightenment: Nancy Bernice Russell’, The West Australian, 12 July 2003…”
Nancy loved music and was actively involved in performing in the Perth social scene.