Cartoon - Bella Lavender
'Mrs. Bella Lavender, M.A.', Truth, 30 January 1915, p. 2Contributors
This cartoon from the Melbourne newspaper Truth notes Bella Lavender’s occupation as a schoolteacher. During the anti-conscription campaign she was the principal of the High School for Girls in Brunswick.
The High School for Girls was a private school in Brunswick. From 1890 until 1909 it was operated by Elizabeth McCowan, a schoolteacher recently arrived from Britain. At the beginning of 1909 Bella Halloran — Bella’s first married name — purchased the school, and commenced running it. (She married George Lavender later in 1909.)
At that stage the School was run out of the Congregational Hall at 327 Sydney Road. However a year later, this hall was sold by the Congregational Church, and Lavender needed to find a new venue.
This search was complicated by Education Department requirements. In older suburbs like Brunswick, halls like this were the only facilities available, and were used by both private and public schools. However these old halls often failed to meet the Health Department standards required. (Public schools were exempt from inspection, even when they rented exactly the same halls.) As a result, Lavender’s school moved to the Lyceum Hall, at 259 Victoria Street Brunswick.
In 1917, the combination of Lavender’s activism, and Education Department bureaucracy had taken their toll; only four students remained at the High School for Girls. Lavender bowed to the inevitable and closed the school.
Australia and World War One
Photograph - Send-off to the Brunswick Soldiers
Photograph - Brunswick Town Hall Honour Board
Memorial Plaque - Leonard William Telford
Poster - 'Australia has Promised Britain 50,000 More Men'
Labour Activists of Brunswick and Coburg
Photograph - Frank Anstey
Photograph - John Curtin
Photograph - Frank Hyett
Photograph - Maurice Blackburn
The Trade Unions' Anti-conscription Campaign
Handbill - 'The Blood Vote'
Cartoon - 'The Charge of the Would to God Brigade'
Handbill - Slave Conspiracy
The Women's Movement During the War
Photograph - Vida Goldstein
Photograph - Adela Pankhurst
Handbill - Conscription and Woman's Loyalty
Photograph - 'Women's No Conscription Demonstration'
Bella Lavender - Brunswick Campaigner
Photograph - Bella Lavender
Cartoon - Bella Lavender
Letter - Bella Lavender to Education Department
Photograph - Labor Women's Anti-conscription Committee
Religious Perspectives on Conscription
Handbill - Conscription and Christianity
Handbill - Conscription Questions for Voters
Handbill - How Would Christ Vote?
The Catholic Church and Conscription
Photograph - Daniel Mannix
Article - Cause of the War
Article - Revolt Victims
Cartoon - Australian Workman's Burden
Brunswick and Coburg During the Campaigns
Article - No Anti-conscription Meetings in Brunswick
Handbill - Public Meeting Against Conscription
Advertisement - Recruitment Meeting
Article - Remarkably Quiet Day
The Two Referendums
Handbill - Vote Thus Against Conscription
Article - Military Service Referendum Poll
Article - Conscription. Mr Hughes in Queensland
Article - 'Bourke'
The Soldiers' Votes
Diary - Claude Ewart
Photograph - Jack and Bert Grinton
Handbill - Returned Soldiers' No Conscription League Manifesto
Photograph - Soldiers Voting
Consequences for the Campaigners
Inscription - Police Just Raided
Article - 'Failure to Enrol'
Letter - Adela Pankhurst to Sallie Walsh
Article - 'Serenading Miss Pankhurst'
Story education resources
Education Against the Odds: The Victory over Conscription in WW1 Education Resource
The Against The Odds Education Resource provides a stimulating range of activities for students undertaking the compulsory Victorian History Curriculum Level 9/10 unit Australia at war (1914 – 1945). It helps students reflect on the complexities of the conscription debate through a range of analytical, creative and research tasks.
Education Against the Odds: The Victory over Conscription in WW1 Walking Map
The Against the Odds: The Victory over Conscription in WW1 Walking Map is a map of some of the sites described in the digital story or related to individuals therein. Download the map to use it for a self-guided tour in the area.