Maggie Alice Grant (1873-1962) shop assistant, first aid worker and chief president of the Australasian Women’s Association
Birth: 1873 at Heathcote, Victoria, daughter of Irish-born parents Samuel Grant (1839-1905), an engine driver, and Jane, née Yule (1845-1915). Unmarried. Death: 22 November 1962 in her home at 10 Chestnut Street, Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria.
- In the 1890s she worked as a shop assistant. Later she described her long working hours: “Saturday was her longest working day – 9 a.m. to 10 pm”.
- In electoral rolls from 1903 to 1954 Grant lived at Richmond; her occupation in early years given as “saleswoman”. From about 1909 until her death — her occupation given as home duties — she lived at 10 Chestnut Street, South Richmond, sharing the house with her mother (until 1915) and with her bachelor brother Samuel John (1869-1939), a clerk, until he died. She also took in a boarder from 1919 to 1936.
- In 1903 Grant joined the Australasian Women’s Association, a friendly society founded in November 1900. Sponsored by the Australian Natives’ Association, the AWA provided health care, unemployment benefits and funeral benefits to working women and their families. Grant was president of the Richmond branch of the AWA for a number of years and prominent on the Victorian board of directors.
- A member of the Metropolitan Nursing Division of the St John Ambulance Association, she secured the certificate, medallion and label of that association. From the outbreak of World War I she conducted first aid classes and trained many young women for ambulance work.
- She was elected chief vice president of the AWA in Victoria in March 1916. From March 1917 to March 1918 she was chief president. She remained a member of the board of the AWA for more than forty years. She was also active in Red Cross work in Richmond.
- Cause of death: coronary occlusion (instantaneous), coronary atherosclerosis (years) and congestive cardiac failure (months).
Sources
J. E. Menadue, A Centenary History of the Australian Natives Association 1871–1971, (Melbourne, 1971).
Citation details
Chris Cunneen, 'Grant, Maggie Alice (1873–1962)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/grant-maggie-alice-35258/text44685, accessed 13 January 2026.