Doris McRae

Background

She was born at Pakenham to teamster Donald McRae and Mary Jane, née Broad.

Education

She was educated at Pakenham State School before winning a scholarship to Melbourne Continuation School, returning to Pakenham as an assistant teacher in 1910.

Career

She soon enrolled in the University of Melbourne as an arts student, and by September 1914 was teaching at Faraday Street State School in Carlton. She was also a political activist, joining the Australian Student Christian Movement and the Student Peace Group in 1914, and the Free Religious Fellowship in the 1920s. She became headmistress of Flemington Girls High School in 1942 and served on the Victorian committee of the Women"s Charter Conference and the Council for Women in War Work during the Second World War.

From 1929 to 1930 she had gone on exchange to Scotland, and she travelled to Vancouver, England and the Soviet Union in 1937 as part of the Pan Pacific Women"s Conference.

She joined the Communist Party of Australia and the Australian-Soviet Friendship League on her return to Australia. McRae"s communist affiliations led her activities to be watched closely by the Commonwealth Investigation Service, and she was the subject of heated debate in the Victorian Parliament in 1946.

Defeated for VTU office in 1948, a relentless anti-communist campaign saw her retire from teaching in poor health in 1950. She was the Victorian delegate to the Defence of Children conference in Vienna in 1952 and served as the United Auto Workers"s president from 1964 to 1966.

McRae died at East Brighton in 1988.

Her body was donated to the University of Melbourne"s anatomy department.

Politics

In 1935 she joined the Movement Against War and Fascism and was a founding member of the Teachers" Peace Movement.

Connections

teacher:

Trades Hall