Mathilde Monash and Korowa

By Ian Robertson, Alumni Manager

Did you know that Miss Mathilde Monash (1869-1939), sister of Sir John Monash, was one of Korowa’s first teachers of French and German?

She was a brilliant scholar, being Dux of PLC, and was a friend of the first woman in the British Empire to stand for Parliament, Vida Goldstein, the renowned Australian suffragist. Some have speculated that had Mathilde been born in a different time her career would have been just as distinguished as that of her brother. As former GovernorGeneral, Quentin Bryce, stated: “We know him as Sir John Monash. But how many know of his brilliant sister, Mathilde?...What might she have achieved given the same opportunities? We will never know whether Mathilde Monash might have become one of our country’s greatest daughters. We will never know because, in her time, ambition was considered the domain of men.” One outlet for academically inclined women was teaching. Miss Ethel Akehurst appointed Miss Monash when the School was in Wattletree Rd and she was still teaching at Korowa when the School moved to Ranfurlie Crescent in 1914. Sir John relied on Mathilde’s wise counsel and she wrote to him continuously during World War I. She reputedly warned him to beware of false friends after his heroic return from the war. In her later years, the French government decorated her for her promotion of French culture and she devoted her time to charitable pursuits. Her obituary in 1939 stated she was not only an accomplished linguist, but one of the leading Braillewriters in Victoria, having translated 207 books! How fortunate were those early students of Korowa to have had a woman of her calibre as their languages teacher.

Source: nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2566488088

How fortunate were those early students of Korowa to have had a woman of her calibre as their languages teacher.

Postscript: I had great difficulty in sourcing a photograph of Mathilde and so contacted the Archives at Monash University. It was my good fortune to speak with the Archives Manager who turned out to be a Korovian – Lucy Davies (Class of 1992) who led me to the Monash papers held by the National Library of Australia. These were recently digitised and made available to the public through Trove where this photograph was located of Mathilde taken in 1906 in the period when she was teaching at Korowa. Thank you Lucy!