MISS PAULINE RILEY BEM

Catherine Pauline Riley, known as Pauline, is the longest serving member of the Board of Governors of St Mary’s. She was born in Preston, Lancashire England in 1887, the eldest child of Archbishop Charles Owen Leaver Riley, the first Anglican Archbishop of Western Australia, and Elizabeth Riley nee Merriman. She had two sisters and three brothers, one being Bishop Charles Lawrence Riley CBE, the founder of St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School. The family moved to Perth in 1895, residing in Bishop’s House on Mounts Bay Road. Archbishop Riley believed in equal education for all his children, be they boys or girls. Pauline was educated by a governess at home, and later by Lionel and Blanche Gouly at Eumeralla Ladies’ School. Lionel Gouly was a famous sportsman, and Blanche Gouly would later be the Principal of the Girls’ Grammar School, that would combine with the Alexandra High School to create St Mary’s in 1921.

Pauline sat for university entrance examinations and attended Newnham College at the University of Cambridge from 1907, obtaining a Master of Arts in 1910, which was not awarded to her until 1925, when women became entitled to hold the degree. Pauline worked as a governess, taught religious instruction in state schools, helped her father in Church correspondence and, additionally, held the position of Librarian at the Patients’ Library at Royal Perth Hospital in 1911. She continued the role in a voluntary capacity until her retirement in 1976.

Pauline was awarded the British Empire Medal (Civil) for her voluntary services to the hospital and the wider community, and upon retirement at the age of 82 years, she said, “I wouldn’t leave until it was all tied up”.

Pauline joined St Mary’s Board of Governors in 1932, as a representative of the St Mary’s Parish, to help in the management of the school that her brother had founded. After 37 years of dedicated service, she retired from the Board of Governors in 1969 as her nephew, Canon Lawrence William Riley, had been appointed Honorary Chaplain to the School and was also a newly appointed member of the Board. Pauline would later be involved in the ‘Friends of St Mary’s’ group that attempted to save the old St Mary’s Church in West Perth from demolition. On her 100th birthday, she was visited by St Mary’s students from Year 2, and photographed with one of her many childhood dolls, which she had donated to the Museum of Childhood as part of what is now known as ‘The Riley Gift’. She passed away at 101 years of age in 1988 at the Home of Peace in Subiaco, after donating much of the Riley family’s memorabilia to the Western Australian Museum and Royal Western Australian Historical Society. Pauline once said, “I would have liked to have been a teacher if I’d had to earn my own living”. Pauline is remembered for her devoted service to St Mary’s with the naming of the Pauline Riley Foyer of Anne Symington House and the annual Miss Riley’s Prize for Citizenship at Speech Night.

Stephanie Neille, Archivist