Julia Margaret Guerin Halloran Lavender (23 April 1858 — 26 July 1923), known popularly as Bella Guerin, was an Australian feminist, women's rights activist, women's suffragist, anti-conscriptionist, political activist, and schoolteacher.AW.1.
In December 1883, she was the first woman to graduate from an Australian University, when she graduated B.A. at the University of Melbourne.
Family Julia Margaret Guerin, known as "Bella" was born at Williamstown, Victoria on 23 April 1858.Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Birth Registration no.6138/1858. She was the daughter of Julia Marguerite Guerin (1835–1890), née Kearney,Deaths: Guerin, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 30 September 1890), p. 2. and Patrick Guerin (1835–1893), sometimes "Guérin";Deaths: Guerin, The Geelong Advertiser, (Friday, 17 March 1893), p. 1.(News Item), The Geelong Advertiser, (Monday, 20 March 1893), p. 2. both of whom were Irish Catholic immigrants.FK.1 Her father worked in the penal system, serving as Governor of Ballarat Gaol (1881–1891).Melbourne, The Ballarat Courier, (Saturday, 9 July 1881), p. 3.(News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Thursday, 26 February 1891), p. 2.(News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 14 March 1893), p. 2. She had an older brother, Marco Guerin (1855–1929), who was born on her family's way to Australia in the Marco Polo (thus, "Marco").Deaths: Guerin, The Age, (Saturday, 16 November 1929), p. 13.
She married the former civil servant and poet Henry Halloran (1811–1893), C.M.G. at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, on 29 June 1891.A Melbourne Wedding, Freeman's Journal, (Saturday, 11 July 1981), p. 15. Guerin was 33; Halloran was 80. In 1884, Halloran had addressed a "laudatory poem"HH.1. to Bella, after seeing her graduation portrait."Miss Bella Guerin: First Female University Graduate at the Melbourne University" (Portrait), The Illustrated Australian News, (Monday, 24 December 1883), p. 204.Our University's First Woman Graduate: Late Mrs. Bella Lavender, B.A., M.A., The (Melbourne) Herald, (Thursday, 21 February 1924), p. 10: includes Guerin's (1884) B.A. graduation photo. Halloran died in Sydney on 19 May 1893,Mr. Henry Halloran, C.M.G., Australian Town and Country Journal, (Saturday, 3 June 1893), p. 32. leaving Bella with their son, Henry Marco James Halloran (1892–1981), just 5 months old.Births: Halloran, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 1 November 1892), p. 2."Bella Guerin and son, 1895" (photograph), Federation University Historical Collection.Commencement Day: Granting of Degrees, The Argus, Monday, 19 April 1915), p. 13.Personal, The (Adelaide) Daily Herald, (Thursday, 28 October 1915), p. 4.Henry Marco James Halloran, p. 95 in "Who's Who": South Australia Centenary, 1936, Adelaide: Amalgamated Publishing, 1936.
She married her second husband, George D'Arcie Lavender (1887–1961),Births: Lavender, The Bendigo Advertiser, (Saturday, 29 October 1887), p. 7. thirty years her junior, at Christ Church, St Kilda, Melbourne on 1 October 1909.Marriages: Lavender—Halloran, The Prahran Telegraph, (Saturday, 23 October 1909), p. 1.Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria Death Registration no.8193/1961. The marriage was apparently short lived; and, at the time of his enlistment in the First AIF,Mrs. Bella Lavender's Husband Enlists, The (Broken Hill) Barrier Miner, (Thursday, 19 October 1916), p. 2. at Adelaide on 14 April 1916,First World War Nominal Roll: Private George D'Arcie Lavender (378), Australian War Museum. Lavender officially declared that he was not married, and that his next of kin was his sister, Mrs. Clara Rowson, of Bendigo.First World War Embarkation Roll: Private George D'Arcie Lavender (378), collection of the Australian War Memorial.First World War Service Record: Private George D'Arcie Lavender (378), National Archives of Australia.DL.1.
Education "Educated by her mother, who had had the advantage of many years' schooling in France and Belgium, Mrs. Lavender was a brilliant scholarly woman, and spoke French as fluently and wittily as her mother tongue, and she was very proud of her University Degree, won in the "dark ages", when brainy woman were regarded as undesirable blue stockings, and their presence at the University was frowned upon. She was a writer, and her efforts in the press and on the platform helped in a great measure to secure the suffrage for women." Table Talk, 2 August 1923. Celia, "Ladies' Letter", Table Talk, (Thursday, 2 August 1923), p. 32. In October 1878, from her own study at home, Bella passed in both the Melbourne University's Matriculation Examination and its Civil Service Examination.University of Melbourne, The Argus, (Wednesday, 1 January 1879), p. 5: P.T. = "private tuition".
University Enrolling in 1881, Bella went on to become the first woman ever to graduate from an Australian university,BA.1. graduating Bachelor of Arts (B.A.),"First Year Arts", The University of Melbourne: Ordinary Examination—October Term, 1881, The Australasian Sketcher, (Saturday, 10 December 1881), p. 11."Second Year Arts", The University of Melbourne, The Australasian, (Saturday, 2 December 1882), p 4."Third Year Arts", Melbourne University, The Australasian, (Saturday, 24 November 1883), p 20.FN.1. aged 25, from the University of Melbourne on 1 December 1883.Sweet Girl Graduates, Table Talk, (Friday, 11 December 1885), pp. 8–9."The First Lady Bachelor of Arts: Conferring the Degree" (illustration), The Australasian Sketcher, (Wednesday, 19 December 1883), p. 224.The First Lady Bachelor of Arts: Conferring the Degree, Supplement to Adelaide Edition of The Australasian Sketcher, (Wednesday, 19 December 1883), p 219. It was reported that, "after receiving her degree Miss Guerin was enthusiastically cheered by those present".The Melbourne University, The Illustrated Australian News, (Monday, 24 December 1883), p. 211. Later, she became the first woman to attain a Master of Arts (M.A.) from Melbourne University when she graduated on 5 December 1885;The University of Melbourne, The Argus, (Friday, 27 March 1885), p. 10.Master or Mistress, Melbourne Punch, (Thursday, 2 April 1885), p. 9.The Melbourne University, The Geelong Advertiser, (Monday, 7 December 1885), p. 3. and on 23 April 1892, "Mrs. Bella Halloran (née Guerin)" of Melbourne, was admitted to the courtesy degree of M.A. ad eundem gradum at the University of Sydney.The Sydney University, The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, (Tuesday, 26 April 1892), p. 4.
Career Teaching Her first teaching position was at Loreto College, Ballarat,SL.1. where she called for higher-education scholarships for Catholic girls, in order to assist "in the furtherance of a movement, which will place at the disposal of the social reformer, a band of noble, thoughtful women as a powerful influence for good, in the persons of our Catholic girl-graduates."Guerin, "Higher Education of Women" (1886), p. 8. She taught Matriculation classes and University subjects at the Ballarat School of Mines over five years,(News Item), The Ballarat Courier, (Wednesday, 11 March 1889), p. 2, col.F.(News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Friday, 25 December 1891), p. 2, col.G. from 1887 i.e., upon the School of Mines' official affiliation with the University of Melbourne in 1887(News Item), The Argus, (Tuesday, 3 May 1887), p. 9.Ballarat School of Mines, The Ballarat Star, (Friday, 22 July 1887), p. 4.Ballarat School of Mines, The Argus, (Tuesday, 8 November 1887), p. 6.(Editorial), The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 24 January 1888), p.2. until her marriage in 1891.(News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Wednesday, 30 March 1887), p. 2, col.F.Education Classes: School of Mines, Ballarat, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 28 June 1887), p. 3.A Successful Ballarat Student, The Ballarat Star, (Tuesday, 5 November 1889), p. 4.(News Item), The Ballarat Star, (Friday, 12 June 1891), p. 2, col.F.
After her husband's death in 1893, Bella returning to teaching from financial necessity, She taught in Sydney,Educational: Mrs. Bella Guerin-Halloran, M.A. (Advertisement), The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 13 January 1894), p. 13. then Carlton,Educational: Carlton Ladies' College (Advertisement), The Argus, (Monday, 28 January 1895), p. 7. Prahran,Special Advertisements: University College, St. Matthew's Schoolroom (Advertisement), THe Prahran Chronicle, (Saturday, 16 May 1896), p. 4. and East Melbourne. From 1898 to 1903, in Bendigo, she operated University College, Bendigo.Scholastic, The Bendigo Advertiser, (Monday, 11 April 1898), p. 2. From 1904 to 1917 she taught at Camperdown,Educational: Church of England Grammar School, Camperdown (Advertisement), The Camperdown Chronicle, (Thursday, 2 August 1906), p. 1. and in a succession of small Melbourne schools at South Yarra, St Kilda, Parkville, and Brunswick,(News Item), The Coburg Leader, (Saturday, 23 January 1909), p. 1.Educational: High School for Girls (Advertisement), The Age, (Monday, 19 April 1909), p. 12. with diminishing success. According to Farley Kelly, "her increasing political activity and disputes over conditions with the Education Department probably contributed to this outcome".
Women's Political Association From the mid-1890s, whilst running University College, Bendigo, she became involved with suffragist issues, and became an office-bearer in the Bendigo Women's Franchise League.Bella Halloran, 23 August 1900. As vice-president of the Women's Political Association (1912-1914) Guerin co-authored Vida Goldstein's 1913 Senate election pamphlet. However, according to Farley Kelly, "[her] dual membership of non-party feminist and Labor Party organizations proved untenable".
In 1914 she began to write, and speak for the Labor Party, the Victorian Socialist Party, and the Women's Socialist League,Sunday Night Meeting at the Socialist Hall: Ma! The Great White Mother: Lecture by Mrs. Bella Lavender, M.A., The Socialist, (Friday, 23 September 1921), p. 1; Bella was responding to: 'L', ""Ma": The White Mother", The Age, (Saturday, 10 September 1921), p. 4. and was recognized as a "witty, cogent and instructive" commentator on a range of controversial social issues,Party Chronicles, The Socialist, (Friday, 24 May 1918), p. 3. which included "the rights of illegitimate children", "brotherhood and sisterhood without sex distinction",Should Wives Obey?" Women say "No", The (Brisbane) Telegraph, (Wednesday, 18 March 1914), p. 8. and the "defence of English militant suffragettes".
Anti-war Mrs. Bella Lavender, M.A. is not well-fitted physically for an out-door speaker. Her figure, tall and slight, would seem more at home in the schoolroom, but the big soul of her rises beyond the physical limitations of nature, defying despotism, defying anything that could come between her and her mission. Who, looking at this courageous woman, could doubt her when she said: "I am of the people; I love the people; and I would gladly suffer martyrdom to-morrow if such a sacrifice would benefit in any way my brothers and sisters the workers of the world." The Australian Worker, 14 September 1916.MT.1.