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This International Women’s Day, Saturday 8 March 2025, Canberra Museum and Gallery celebrates the achievements of the progressive Tillyard family women, whose collection of clothing, cookbooks and photographs has recently been acquired by CMAG.
Patricia ‘Pattie’ Tillyard (née Craske) was born in 1880 in Kent, England. In 1900, she studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, where she met her future husband, entomologist Robin Tillyard. After moving separately to Sydney, Pattie and Robin married in 1909 and had four daughters: Patience (b.1910), Faith (b.1912), Hope (b.1915) and Honor (b.1919). In the 1920s, the family moved to Nelson, New Zealand, where Robin worked as Chief of the Biology Department at the Cawthorne Institute. While living in New Zealand, Pattie – an accomplished watercolourist – illustrated Robin’s book, The Insects of Australia and New Zealand.
Pattie, Robin and their children with unknown woman (centre), Sydney, c.1920.
In 1928, Robin was offered a job as the Chief of Economic Entomology at the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) and the family moved to Canberra. In the 1930s, they were among the first families to purchase one of the new subdivisions on Mugga Way, Red Hill. After Robin died in a car accident in 1937, Pattie became involved with community organisations and was affectionately known as the ‘Grand Dame of Canberra’ for her committee work during the Second World War, and for the warm welcome she extended to new families in the capital. Pattie was a councillor (1929-1932) and frequent Vice President of the University Association of Canberra and represented it on the Canberra University College Council (1942-45). She was a member of the Canberra Community Hospital Board (1935-37), standing for election because she thought there ‘ought to be women on every governing body’. The Australian Federation of University Women (ACT) erected a memorial at ANU in Pattie’s honour in 1976.
The Tillyard daughters excelled in athletic, creative, and academic pursuits and had distinguished careers at a time when far fewer women attended university. Oldest daughter Patience ‘Pat’ Australie Tillyard (1910-1992) was one of the first people to receive the Canberra University Scholarship to study at the University of Sydney in 1929, where she attained a Bachelor of Arts in 1932. She played hockey internationally and received a Blue Award for her outstanding achievement in hockey at Sydney University. During WW2, Pat drove ambulances in London with her sister Hope. The pair returned to Australia in 1940, and in 1942 Pat joined the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) as a trainee officer. In 1943, she was promoted to Flight Lieutenant in command of 2,000 WAAAF women in Melbourne.
In the mid-late 1940s, Pat returned to Canberra where she was employed as a Research Librarian with the Department of Commerce and later worked at the Australian National University to compile a register for what became the Australian Dictionary of Biography. She co-authored and edited several books and wrote the introduction to Eirene Mort’s Old Canberra: A Sketchbook of the 1920s.
Faith Rachel 'Duchy' Tillyard (1912-2003) was one of the first elected prefects at St Gabriel’s School in Canberra in 1929. She studied science at the University of Sydney and married entomologist Dr John W Evans, who worked with her father. After raising two children, Faith worked in zoology and completed a Master of Science degree. Like her father and husband, she also became an entomologist, taking pride in being the only one of her siblings to follow in her father’s footsteps.
Alison (better known as ‘Hope’) Tillyard (1915-2011) excelled at tennis and hockey and won the Gorman Cup tennis trophy at Telopea Park School in 1931. She won a scholarship to study a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney, and this was followed by a Master of Fine Arts at Sydney Technology College. In 1938, she moved to Paris to study painting under the renowned artist and set designer Jacques Ernotte, but the outbreak of WW2 forced her to return to England, leaving behind her canvasses which had been selected for the prestigious Salon d’Automne.
The Tillyard women were unusual for their time as women who balanced careers and child rearing. After returning to Canberra with her husband Lenox Hewitt in 1953, Hope studied at Canberra University College (now ANU) and attained a Commerce degree from the University of Melbourne. She worked full time while raising four children and was the first woman appointed to teach English at Canberra University College in 1958, where she worked as a Senior Lecturer from 1965-1981. In 1968, she was appointed Deputy Chair of the National Literature Board of Review which succeeded the Censorship Board. She became a supporter of the Canberra Repertory Theatre and lent her family’s antique shawls, fans and dresses to their productions. She was the first woman appointed to the board of the new Canberra Theatre, serving from 1968 to 1976. In addition to her university teaching, she was a theatre critic for The Canberra Times, a book reviewer and a published poet.
Honor Margaret 'Sonny' Tillyard (1919-1995) was a champion swimmer, winning the 50-yards country schoolgirl championship at the Domain Baths in April 1935. In January 1936, The Canberra Times reported that she broke the women’s 50-yard record at the Yass Club swimming carnival. She became Secretary of the Canberra branch of the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) which provided community services for women. From 1942-44, Honor studied nutrition at Otago University in New Zealand and worked as a dietician at Leys College at Cambridge University, England, where she met her New Zealand husband Donald Balfour Joseph. The couple married in 1952 and returned to New Zealand, where they had two children. Her mother Pattie visited the family in New Zealand for extended periods.
The civic-minded Tillyard women were also regularly involved in community work. Pat was heavily involved with St John’s Church, Reid, particularly through the St John’s Women’s Movement. She was one of the founding members of the Canberra and District Historical Society and received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for her 38 years of service to the society. Hope served on the council of Garran College at ANU and contributed to the Canberra community as a hospital volunteer, English teacher to new arrivals and supporter of charities. Honor was an active member of the New Zealand Federation of University Women.
The Tillyard collection
CMAG has acquired a collection of 35 objects as well as digital photographs from Hilary Hewitt, the daughter of Hope Hewitt (née Tillyard) and granddaughter of Robin and Pattie Tillyard. These objects tell the story of the Tillyard family’s life in Canberra in the 1920s and ‘30s as well as their travels to Europe. The collection includes women’s dresses, shawls, gloves and handbags; family cookbooks; an Art Deco Jane R’Onay tea set; and watercolour renderings of the family’s second Canberra home, ‘The Spinney’, at Number 2 Mugga Way, Red Hill.
According to donor Hilary Hewitt,
‘In 1926, Robin and Pattie returned to England for a year to visit their families and for Robin to receive his membership as a Fellow of the Royal Society for his work and publication, The Insects of Australia and New Zealand, a comprehensive book illustrated in part by Pattie who was an accomplished watercolourist. Pattie brought back many souvenirs of this significant trip, among which were some of the dresses and shawls she bought for various events they attended in London, and a Jane R'Onay hand-painted art deco tea set.’
Some of the items in the Tillyard family donation: a Jane R'Onay tea set purchased by the family on a trip to Europe in 1926; two lace shawls; a mesh bag, ivory fan and hat pin belonging to Pattie Tillyard; Pattie's family cookbook. Gift of Hilary Hewitt, 2025.