People Australia

Ethel Withers, n.d.

Education (NSW), 28 July 1965, p 112

Ethel Agnes Withers, née Keys (1905-2005) school teacher and trade union official 

Birth: 1905 in Melbourne, Victoria, daughter of native-born parents Alfred Edward Keys (1868-1953), civil servant in the Department of Health, and his second wife Agnes, née Watson (1879-1959). Marriage: 1930 in Victoria to native-born Leslie Thomas Withers (1905-1992), bank officer. They had two children. Death: September 2005 in New South Wales. 

• Teacher with Victorian Education department prior to her marriage. Moved around country districts in Victoria and New South Wales before her husband was appointed to Petersham, Sydney in 1936.
• Joined NSW Education Department in 1945 as a temporary teacher, becoming an active member of the Temporary Teachers’ Association (TTA). Represented the TTA on the Council of NSW Teachers’ Federation and at federation conferences until 1953.
• TTA president 1950; secretary 1951-1965. Elected correspondence and interviewing officer, NSW Teachers’ Federation, in 1953. Frequent contributor to its journal, Education.
• Worked to safeguard rights of teachers in day-to-day work. Was secretary of Legal Cases Committee, handling many cases involving charges against teachers in relation to discipline, assaults, complaints against teachers, appeals to Crown Employees’ Appeals Board and Workers’ Compensation Commission, developing an extensive knowledge of teachers’ service conditions and problems and a special interest in the problems of teachers in small and remote schools. Was also delegate to Australian Teachers’ Federation.
• Retired in 1965. Late in life lived with her husband in Mowl Village, Galston, NSW.

Sources
Education, 28 July 1965; 23 June 1976, p 182, and 21 November 2005, p 7.