People Australia

Eveline (also known as Evelyn) Thorpe, née Goldberg (1875-1961) school teacher and trade union official

Birth: 1875 at Chelsea, London, England, daughter of Henry Goldberg, tailor, and Jenny, née Groves Wright or Noon. Marriage: 27 September 1899 at Wembley, London, Middlesex, to William Henry Thorpe (1859-1922), club secretary, later painter, a widower with five children by his first marriage. They had three daughters and one son. Death: 4 May 1961 in her usual residence at Glebe Road, Glebe. Religion: Anglican. 

• Trained as a teacher in England. Following her husband, who had come to Australia in December 1910, Eveline and her four children arrived in Sydney aboard the Matatua on 19 December 1911. The children of William’s first marriage remained in England; three of his sons served in World War I, and two of them, George Frederick Thorpe (1890-1917) and Norman Leslie Thorpe (1895-1917), were killed in action in France.
• In Australia, William Thorpe worked as a painter and the family lived at Glebe. Eveline returned to teaching to support her family following her husband’s illness (1916) and death (1922). She was commissioned justice of the peace by 1928.
• She was employed in the NSW Education Department as a temporary teacher. Joined NSW Teachers’ Federation (NSWTF) in 1922. Was a foundation member of the Temporary Teachers’ Association (TTA) 1923. She was elected president of the TTA that year and held the position a number of times, including 1927, 1928, 1932 (when she was teaching in the Boys’ Department of the Annandale Public School), 1936, 1941 and in 1951-1954 (apparently after she had retired).
• She campaigned for improved job security for temporary teachers, successfully increasing the term of appointment from four weeks to one year and was a  strong advocate for equal pay for women teachers.
• Also worked for the repeal of the 1932 Married Women (Lecturers and Teachers) Act.
• Retired in 1940 but continued to work as a casual teacher until 1951. Honorary life member of NSWTF, 1947. She was reported in 1958 as still attending the meetings of the TTA as an observer.
• Took a great interest in humanitarian projects such as Stewart House preventorium, South Curl Curl, which opened in January 1931 and with which she was associated in the early struggles of the institution to continue its work.
• Cause of death: mitral regurgitation (10 years), cardiovascular disease (15 years) and senility.

Sources
Education, 24 January 1948, 31 May 1961, 26 May 1976.