People Australia

Enid Joan Lander, née Mortimer (1904-1992), president of Country Women’s Association of New South Wales

Birth: 24 October 1904 at Stanley, Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, only child of Walter Ernest Mortimer (1879-1956), yeoman farmer, later grazier, and Tasmanian-born Lylyas Laura, née Lewis (1877-1954), and great-grand-daughter of David Lewis (1821-1886), sometime mayor of Hobart and colonial treasurer of Tasmania. Marriage: 8 February 1927 at St Matthew’s Anglican church, Manley, NSW, to widower John August Lander (1887-1953), a grazier with one son and one daughter. The couple had three daughters and three sons. Death: 17 March 1992 in a nursing home, Narrandera, New South Wales. Religion: Anglican.

• Her maternal great-great-grandfather Richard Lewis (1789-1867) was a prominent auctioneer, merchant and banker in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) from 1815 to 1867. His son David Lewis (1821-1886), was sometime mayor of Hobart and colonial treasurer of Tasmania. Her mother moved to England about the turn of the century.
• Joan arrived in Australia with her parents about 1912. The family lived at Wiseman’s Ferry where her father was postmaster. After her marriage she lived at Boondilla, Darlington Point, near Leeton, NSW.
• Having previously been a member for 23 years of the Country Womens’ association of New South Wales, and sometime president of the Sturt group, on 11 April 1956, three years after being widowed, Mrs Lander was elected State president. In the following three years she became well-known by travelling NSW in a Volkswagen “beetle” owned and driven by her friend Mrs Joan Hamilton.
• During her term of office, the Australian Council of Countrywomens’ associations staged its first Pan-Pacific regional conference, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Mrs Lander led the Australian delegation. At the completion of her term she was succeeded in 1959 by Mrs Thelma Bate.
• Mrs Lander was also a founding vice-president of the State government’s Children’s Medical Research Foundation and in 1966 was appointed to the new advisory committee for Cultural Grants. Previously a member of the Institute of Political Science, she was also appointed to its Australian Committee and wherever possible attended the institute’s schools in Canberra.
• She was appointed OBE for services to the community on 15 June 1974.

Sources
Helen Townsend, Serving the country: the history of the Country Women’s Association of New South Wales (Sydney, 1988).