Florence Violet (Granville) McKenzie O.B.E. (abt. 1890 - 1982)

Born about 28 Sep 1890 in Melbourne, Victoria. [uncertain]

Wife of Cecil Roland McKenzie — married 31 Dec 1934 (to about 1958) in Auburn, New South Wales, Australia

Died 23 May 1982 at about age 91 in Greenwich, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Florence (Granville) McKenzie O.B.E. is Notable.

Florence Violet Granville was born in 1890 though some record suggest it may be as late as 1892. Her father is believed to have been English-born James Granville a miner, and his wife Marie Annie, née Giles. In 1894 Florence's mother now a widow married commercial traveler, George Wallace, and Violet subsequently adopted her step father's surname.

Florence Violet McKenzie OBE (née Granville) affectionately known as "Mrs Mac", was Australia's first female electrical engineer. She was the founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) and lifelong promoter for technical education for women.

At St Phillip’s Church of England, Auburn, Sydney on 31 December 1924, Florence Violet Wallace married Cecil Roland McKenzie, an electrical engineer with the Sydney County Council.

In early in 1939, Florence Violet McKenzie aided by her husband, formed the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps, which ran free courses. When World War II began later that year, the McKenzies had already trained nearly a thousand women in signalling subjects. she would go on to train some two thousand more, a third of whom joined the forces. Corps members wore a dark green and gold uniform that she had designed. 14 of her women graduates formed the nucleus of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service, and Mrs Mac was consider an honorary WRAN, later serving as Patron of the Ex-WRANS Association. As the war continued the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps role expanded and by August 1945 the school had also trained some twelve thousand men in Morse code, visual signalling and international code. The Air Force even appointed Mrs McKenzie as an honorary flight officer of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force, so she could legitimately instruct Air Force personnel.

After the war the McKenzie’s school continued voluntarily teaching signalling courses, training 2450 civil airline crewmen and 1050 merchant navy seamen by 1952. The school never received official status but In 1950 Mrs McKenzie was appointed an O.B.E. before finally closing her school in 1955.

She passed away in May 1982 and is buried at the Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia. Her beloved Cecil who was as much as 9 years her junior had passed away in 1958, and they had remained childless

Sources

• Victorian Births, Deaths & Marriages: BIRTH: GRANVILLE, Flor Violet - event: Birth - mother: Marie GILES - father: Jas. - place of birth: CARLTON - registration year: 1890 - registration no. 30595/1890. first accessed online on the 29th of May, 2022 from the Victorian Family History Search searchable database at: https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history

• New South Wales Births, Deaths & Marriages: MARRIAGE: registration no. 858/1925 - groom: MCKENZIE, CECIL R. - bride: WALLACE, FLORENCE V. - district: AUBURN. from the NSW Family History Search first accessed online on the 29th of May, 2022 at: https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/marriages?

• New South Wales Births, Deaths & Marriages: DEATH: MCKENZIE, FLORENCE VIOLET - registration no. 11662/1982 - father: GEORGE - mother: MARIE ANNIE. from the NSW Family History Search first accessed online on the 29th of May, 2022 at: https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/deaths?

• Michael Nelmes, McKenzie, Florence Violet (1890–1982), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mckenzie-florence-violet-15485/text26700, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 23 May 2022.

• Florence Violet McKenzie from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. first accessed online on the 23rd of May, 2022 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Violet_McKenzie

• Find a Grave, database and images accessed 23 May 2022, memorial page for Florence Violet Granville Mckenzie (29 Sep 1890–23 May 1982), Find a Grave Memorial ID Find A Grave: Memorial #234827215, citing Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, North Ryde, Ryde City, New South Wales, Australia ; Maintained by Cheryl Thompson (contributor 49281683) . (note no gravestone photograph as yet)

• Signals, currents, and wires: the untold story of Florence Violet McKenzie from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National Broadcast of Sunday 18 January 2009. retrieved on 28th of May, 2022 at: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/hindsight/signals-currents-and-wires-the-untold-story-of/3160112

• Electrical Engineering Diploma awarded to Miss Florence Violet Wallace from the POWERHOUSE COLLECTION of the New South Wales Museum of Applied Art & Sciences. retrieved 28th of May, 2022 at: https://collection.maas.museum/object/262414

• McKenzie, Florence Violet (1892 - 1982) OBE from the November 2020 Edition of the The Australian Women's Register. first accessed online on the 28th of May, 2002 at: http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0386b.htm (Copyright in The Australian Women's Register is owned by the Australian Women's Archives Program and vested in each of the authors in respect of their contributions from 2000.)

• Women thrilled by honors Blarney becomes our first field-marshal from The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954) of Thursday 8 June 1950, Page 7. first accessed on TROVE on the 28th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229617517

Further Reading

• FLORENCE VIOLET McKENZIE from the Smith's Weekly (Sydney, NSW : 1919 - 1950) of Saturday 5 June 1943, Page 11. first accessed on TROVE on the 24th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235753505?

• MDLLE. EDISOM from The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954) of Sunday 28 March 1920, Page 17. first accessed on TROVE on the 24th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221383111

• AUSTINMER LADY GAINS DISTINCTION. from the Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW : 1856 - 1950) of Friday 17 February 1922, Page 2. first accessed on TROVE on the 24th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/136367975?

• WOMENS TALK and TOPICS from The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954) of Thursday 13 September 1923, Page 13. first accessed on TROVE on the 24th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/222687202?searchTerm=%22florence%20Violet%20Mckenzie%22

• Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989, Australian Women's Archives Project, March 2003, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/honours/honours.html.

• McKenzie, Florence Violet (1890-1982) from TROVE at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/756076?c=people

• WOMEN'S EMERGENCY SIGNALLING CORPS IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII

• EX-WRANS PLAN GET-TOGETHER FOR 30th ANNIVERSARY from The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982) of Wednesday the 10 March 1971, page 15. first accessed on TROVE on the 28th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51771872

• THANK YOU MRS MAC from The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982) of Wednesday 12 July 1978, Page 41. first accessed on TROVE on the 28th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/52764691

• Sydney, NSW. Portrait of Mrs Florence Violet McKenzie, the founder of the Women's Emergency Signallers Corps (WESC). from the AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL. retrieved on the 28th of May, 2022 at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C208564 (note: Item Copyright has expired and now Public Domain)

• Florence Violet McKENZIE from the HER STORY collection online via the Women's Museum of Australia website. first accessed online on the 29th of May, 2022 at: https://wmoa.com.au/herstory-archive/mckenzie-florence-violet-mckenzie

• FLORENCE McKENZIE OBE 1890–1982 from the HER PLACE collection online via the Her Place Women's Museum Australia website. first accessed online on the 29th of May, 2022 at: https://herplacemuseum.com/biographies/florence-mckenzie/

• Florence McKenzie Monument from the MONUMENT AUSTRALIA website. first accessed online on the 29th of May, 2022 at: https://monumentaustralia.org.au/display/90066-florence-mckenzie

Her mother's death:

• MRS. WALLACE from the South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus (NSW : 1900 - 1954) of Friday 12 May 1933, Page 19. first accessed on TROVE on the 24th of May, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/143031524?

Dictionary of Sydney links (lots more not included):

• McKenzie, Violet by Catherine Freyne 2010. supported by Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts

• McKenzie, Violet

• Violet McKenzie and husband Cecil McKenzie c1935

• Lady electrician (Violet McKenzie installing light fitting at the Electrical Association for Women's rooms) June 1935

• Mrs Florence Violet McKenzie, OBE, founder of Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) c1941

• The all electric cookery book compiled by Mrs FV McKenzie for the Association for Electrical Development 1949

• Three members of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps, l-r Violet McKenzie, Pat McInnes, Esme Kura Murrell c1940

• Funeral of Violet McKenzie, Greenwich May 1982