People Australia

Anna Rennie, 1952

Messenger (Port Adelaide, SA), 24 April 1952, p 2

Anna Moir Rennie, née Rogers (Rogasch) (1899-1987) nurse, political activist and mayor

Birth: 12 July 1899 at Mingary, near Burra, South Australia, eighteenth of nineteen children of Johann Christian Paul Rogasch (Paul Rogers) (1854-1941), a railway ganger, born at Güntersberg, East Brandenburg, Prussia [Germany] and Margaret Ann, née Julian (1857-1922), born at Burra, South Australia. Marriage: 22 August 1923 at the Methodist Manse, Brighton, Adelaide, South Australia, to George How (Scotty) Rennie (1891-1959), a labourer, born at Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland. They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 26 June 1987 in hospital at Woodville, Adelaide; usual residence Langham Place, Port Adelaide. 

• Her father was known as Paul Rogers from at least his marriage in 1875, before he formally changed his name by deed poll in April 1925. The youngest surviving of eighteen children, Anna moved with her family to Broken Hill, New South Wales, then to Quorn, South Australia.
• Her brother Francis Perrier Rogers (1893-1916), a railway employee, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 26 August 1915 and was killed in action serving with the 50th Battalion at Villers-Bretonneux, France, on 16 August 1916.
• Anna lived at Port Adelaide from 1923 after her marriage.
• Active on school committees in the 1920s. Joined the Australian Labor Party in 1926. With her husband, she became active in campaigns for food and rent relief for local unemployed during the Great Depression of 1930s. President of SA Labor Women's Organisation 1936-1937, campaigning for equal pay, medical benefits and a national insurance scheme.
• In 1936 she suffered a serious road accident in which her back was badly injured.
• She did clerical work in the Munitions Department and delivered radio talks during World War II. Her husband stood unsuccessfully for the Port Adelaide Council several times.
• In July 1950 Rennie was elected councillor for South Ward on Port Adelaide Council. Was defeated in 1952, but re-elected in 1953 retaining the position until 1964 when she successfully contested the mayoral election, becoming SA's first women mayor of a metropolitan municipality.
• As mayor, she worked to provide women's rest rooms, meals on wheels for pensioners, pensioner's flats and a kindergarten for Port Adelaide. Retired from mayoralty in 1969.
• Elected Woman of the Year by Messenger Newspapers Ltd in 1963. Commissioned justice of the peace.
• Cause of death” brainstem cerebro vascular accident (3 days).

Sources
On Women, March-May 1965.