People Australia

Edith Mannion, n.d.

Edith Mannion, née Carthew, late Collett (1870-1943) boarding-house keeper and Labor activist

Birth: 1 April 1870 at Moonta, South Australia, daughter of Thomas Henry Carthew (1840-1914), mine manager, born at Redruth, Cornwall, England, and Elizabeth, née Jones (1842-1916), born at Hindmarsh, SA. Marriages: (1) 1888 at Broken Hill, New South Wales, to native-born Joseph Harris Collett (1867-1901), miner. They had two daughters and two sons. (2) 1913 at Boulder, Western Australia, to John Francis Mannion (1864-1925), a widowed miner, born in Galway, Ireland. Death: 25 May 1943 at East Fremantle, WA. Religion: buried with Methodist forms. 

• Spent her childhood in Broken Hill, New South Wales.
• Widowed in her twenties when her first husband, a gold miner, died at Gwalo, Rhodesia, in South Africa on 21 August 1901 before he could arrange his family’s transfer from Australia.
• With her family of four, Edith moved from Broken Hill to Boulder to join her brothers during the Western Australian gold rush of the 1890s. At Boulder she established a boarding house, which maintained her family for many years.
• Joined Eastern Goldfields Labor Women’s League in 1904; elected president same year. Participated in initial Labor Women’s Conference, in 1912.
• To Norseman gold field, WA, as organiser, where she organised a branch of the Labor League and met and subsequently married F. Mannion. Represented Norseman at league’s Kalgoorlie District Council.
• Was an ardent anti-conscriptionist during World War 1 and delegate to a special state-wide conference on conscription issue, Both her sons enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force during the war. Subsequently she lost one son through war injuries.
• Supporter of Red Cross and Fremantle District Hospital. Appointed justice of the peace for Eastern Goldfields in 1916.
• Moved with her husband to Fremantle in 1920. In same year, with Cecelia Shelley, she revitalised the Fremantle Labor Women’s Organisation, assuming the presidency on several occasions.
• Regularly attended conferences of WA Labor Women from 1927. Joined Labor Women’s Central Executive (LCWE) in 1928. Subsequently was LWCE president and vice-president.
• Delegate to first Labor Women’s Inter-State Conference, in Melbourne in 1929, and was a member of Labor Women’s Inter-State executive.
• Served as Justice of the Peace at Fremantle Police Court, with special interest in Children’s Court matters.
• Cause of death: cerebral arteriosclerosis, cardiac failure and exhaustion (years).

Sources
Westralian Worker, 30 April 1937, 23 October 1942, 26 May 1943; WA ALP, Labor Women’s Central Executive, Souvenir, 1933.