P01262.001
Image copyright: Copyright expired - public domain
- ID number
- P01262.001
- Object type
- Black & white
- Physical description
- Black & white
- Collection
- Photograph
- Description
- Sydney, NSW. Portrait of Mrs Florence Violet McKenzie, the founder of the Women's Emergency Signallers Corps (WESC), part of an album of portraits of early members of WESC put together by Mrs McKenzie. Mrs McKenzie was the first woman in Australia to graduate in electrical engineering. In July 1938 she joined the Australian Women's Flying Club in Sydney, becoming an instructor in Morse code. She formed WESC, foreseeing that Australian defence would need wireless telegraphists and signallers. Mrs McKenzie became impatient waiting for the RAAF to recruit women and offered her trainees to the RAN, fourteen of whom were accepted, forming the nucleus for the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS). In May 1941, the RAAF appointed Mrs McKenzie as an honorary Flight Officer in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) in appreciation of her services. In 1950, she was awarded an OBE. (Donor E. Murrell)
