Ellen Kent Hughes

MBE
Ellen Mary Kent Hughes, (State Library of Queensland photograph)
Born
Ellen Mary Kent Hughes

(1893-08-29)29 August 1893
Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
Died16 May 1979(1979-05-16) (aged 85)
Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation(s)Medical practitioner, councillor
Years active1917–1977

Ellen Mary Kent Hughes, MBE (29 August 1893 – 16 May 1979) was an Australian medical doctor and council alderman. She was the first woman to serve on a local government council in Queensland, serving on the Kingaroy Shire Council from 1923 to 1924.[1]

Early life

Ellen Mary Kent Hughes was born on 29 August 1893 in Fitzroy, Melbourne.[2] Hughes was the eldest of seven children of Wilfred Kent Hughes, a surgeon, and his wife Clementina Rankin, who had been a nurse in England. Hughes was the niece of Rev. Ernest Selwyn Hughes, Frederic Hughes and Eva Hughes and through her mother, first cousin of Philip Seaforth James. Two of her siblings, Wilfrid Kent Hughes and Gwendolen Kent Lloyd,[3] would also achieve significance in the community. Hughes attended Ruyton Girls' School, Kew. She left school in 1912 while her mother was in a hospital for tuberculosis.[2] Hughes enrolled at the University of Melbourne in 1913 residing at Trinity College Hostel. She would complete her M.B.B.S. degree in 1917.[4] Hughes married Paul René Loubet of France and a medical-assistant at the Children's Hospital, Melbourne in July 1917.[5] Loubet died three months after they married.[6][7] Hughes was pregnant with their child.[8]

Medical career

Hughes' colleagues assisted her in finding work after her husband's death, at Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital for Women and Children.[2] In 1918, working under the professional name of Dr Kent Hughes, Ellen worked as resident medical officer at the Hospital for Sick Children in Brisbane.[9] She was a resident at the Hospital during the influenza and diphtheria epidemics of 1919[10] where she took the responsibility almost single-handedly for 200 desperately ill children. Her son was cared for by his nanny, Alice Pickup, who would reside with Hughes for 54 years.[11] A locum job became available in Mitchell, a town west of Brisbane.[12] Hughes took the job. She met Francis Garde Wesley Wilson and in August 1920, Hughes married Garde Wilson. They had four children together. The family moved to Kingaroy.[2][13]

Kent Hughes was elected to the Kingaroy Shire Council in an extraordinary election on 7 July 1923, becoming the first woman to serve on a Queensland local government council.[14][15][16][17][18] She had been nominated by the Queensland Country Women's Association and the Queensland Women's Electoral League.[19][2][1]

The family moved to Armidale in 1928, where Kent Hughes opened a medical practice with Roger Mallam, and continued her active community work. She worked as an Honorary paediatrician at the Armidale and New England Hospital, government medical officer and a justice of the peace. Kent Hughes was particularly interested in indigenous women's health, which remained one of her interests throughout her life.[2] She was known to visit Aborigianal nurse and midwife Emma Callaghan's home based hospital to treat patients.[20]

Kent Hughes served as an alderman from 1937 to 1968 in the Armidale City Council.[21] She was Deputy Mayor from 1963 to 1964. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1968. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1971, and was awarded the freedom of the city of Armidale in 1975.[2]

Kent Hughes retired from work in 1977. She died on 16 May 1979 in Armidale and was survived by her five children.[2]

Legacy

Plaque commemorating Dr Ellen Kent Hughes's election to the Kingaroy Shire Council, placed 2001 in O'Neill Square, 2023

Her home, Kent House, was given over to a community centre in 1990.[22]

On 26 October 2001, a memorial to Kent Huges was officially unveiled by Nita Cunningham in King Street, Kingaroy (26°32′20″S 151°50′23″E / 26.5390°S 151.8398°E / -26.5390; 151.8398 (Dr Ellen Kent-Hughes)) in O'Neill Square, outside the former Kingaroy railway station.[23]

In 2011, the forecourt in front of the South Burnett Regional Council Chambers in Glendon Street, Kingaroy, was named in her honour (the South Burnett Regional Council being the successor of the Kingaroy Shire Council).[24] However, there was a Facebook campaign to name it after cricketer Matthew Hayden, describing Kent Hughes as "an obscure politician". There was no change to the name of the forecourt, but it was proposed to name another venue after Hayden.[25]

A scholarship was established in her name in 2016, to encourage young women of the South Burnett Region, where Hughes had been a young doctor, to pursue a tertiary education.[26]

References

  1. 1 2 "Women Councillors". Daily Mercury. Vol. 71, no. 187. Queensland, Australia. 7 August 1937. p. 15. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Gilbert, L. A. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived from the original on 26 May 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  3. ↑ Falk, Barbara. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived from the original on 26 May 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "MAINLY ABOUT PEOPLE". Graphic of Australia (Melbourne, Vic. : 1916 – 1918). 18 January 1918. p. 8. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  5. ↑ "Family Notices". Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957). 15 August 1917. p. 1. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  6. ↑ "DEATH OF DR. LOUBET". Advertiser (Footscray, Vic. : 1914 – 1918). 29 September 1917. p. 2. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  7. ↑ "REAL LIFE ROMANCE". Truth (Melbourne ed.) (Vic. : 1914 – 1918). 6 October 1917. p. 6. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  8. ↑ "LUCETTE IN MELBOURNE". Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 – 1924). 27 June 1918. p. 2. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  9. ↑ "DIPHTHERIA". Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1903 – 1926). 5 April 1919. p. 6. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  10. ↑ "WOMAN'S WORLD". Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 – 1933). 10 May 1919. p. 15. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  11. ↑ "HOME NURSING". Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser (NSW : 1856 – 1861; 1863 – 1889; 1891 – 1954). 15 November 1940. p. 4. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  12. ↑ "Kent Hughes". www.rankins-of-broomhills.net. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  13. ↑ "PERSONAL". Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1903 – 1926). 19 July 1924. p. 7. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  14. ↑ "Lady Medico". Daily Mail. No. 6647. Queensland, Australia. 18 June 1923. p. 10. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ "Lady successful". The Telegraph. No. 15793. Queensland, Australia. 12 July 1923. p. 4 (SECOND EDITION). Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ "Personal News". Morning Bulletin. No. 18294. Queensland, Australia. 16 July 1923. p. 6. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ↑ "WOMAN COUNCILLOR". Daily Mercury. Vol. 57, no. 683. Queensland, Australia. 16 July 1923. p. 6. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ↑ "Putting Kingaroy on Map". The Sun. No. 3968. New South Wales, Australia. 21 July 1923. p. 6 (LATE SPORTING). Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ↑ "FOR THE WOMEN". The Brisbane Courier. No. 20, 439. Queensland, Australia. 26 July 1923. p. 15. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ↑ Kelly, Shay Ann, "Emma Jane Callaghan (1884–1979)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 19 November 2023, retrieved 19 November 2023
  21. ↑ "NEWS AND NOTES". Richmond River Herald and Northern Districts Advertiser (NSW : 1886 – 1942). 10 December 1937. p. 1. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  22. ↑ Anonymous (20 June 2015). "Kent House and Hughes House, Community Centre". www.armidale.nsw.gov.au. Archived from the original on 15 June 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  23. ↑ "Dr Ellen Kent-Hughes". Monument Australia. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  24. ↑ "The Dr Ellen Kent Hughes Forecourt". South Burnett Regional Council. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  25. ↑ "Council Committee To Investigate Naming Options". SouthBurnett.Biz - The South Burnett's Online Business Directory. 8 June 2011. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  26. ↑ "The Dr Ellen Mary Kent Hughes Memorial Scholarship" (PDF). 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
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