Author Susan Neuhaus reveals the astonishing double life of Lady Marie Galway, the German-Bavarian, Catholic wife of South Australia’s most unpopular governor, whose wartime philanthropy built the state’s first Red Cross, with a rare 25-year-old Galway Pipe tawny poured as the South Australian Drink of the Week and a Steve Davis and The Virtuosos original closing out the show.
She was a Bavarian baroness, a childhood playmate of Bavarian royalty, fluent in seven languages, and widowed with two children by her early twenties. Somehow she ended up, more than a decade later, presiding over Government House in Adelaide for the entirety of the First World War, married to a man a historian later called the most pernicious governor South Australia ever had. In episode 439, Susan Neuhaus, author of A Woman in a Thousand: Lady Marie Galway, South Australia, and the Great War, sits down with fellow author Lainie Anderson at the Mortlock Library launch to unpack a story that folds together German suspicion, Catholic prejudice, secret concentration camps, peacock-hunting governors and a genuinely radical stand for equal pay.
Paul Burnett, the man behind Galway Pipe’s fortified wines, joins Steve Davis to pour the rare 25-year-old tawny that carries Sir Henry Galway’s name, for the South Australian Drink of the Week.
Steve rounds out the episode with the Musical Pilgrimage, previewing his own composition And Drink to Us, a modern-day Greek folk song imagining an uprising against a tyrant laying waste to a beloved town, inspired partly by Lady Marie’s story and partly by Steve’s own frustrations with short-termism in South Australian leadership.
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Running Sheet: Lady Marie Galway And Her Husband’s Pipe
00:00:00 Intro
Introduction
00:05:37 SA Drink Of The Week
Steve Davis welcomed regular guest Paul Burnett, who steers the fortified wine program behind Galway Pipe, to pour a genuine rarity: the 25-year-old Rare Tawny, presented in a gift box dripping with the kind of heraldic livery Sir Henry Galway himself would have approved of. Burnett explained that a “pipe” is simply a large barrel, roughly 500 litres, which Sir Henry would personally select to serve visiting dignitaries at Government House. Fittingly, Burnett’s own team once repeated the ritual for a modern-day governor, presenting six base tawnies to Government House and letting the current occupants choose their favourite for a bespoke blend.
Tasting notes ran from cathedral organ tones and rancio to fruitcake, nutmeg and dried orange peel, with Steve reaching for an unlikely comparison: a luxury car’s suspension, so smooth and integrated you barely notice the road beneath you. At roughly $100 a bottle and 18.5 per cent alcohol, Burnett’s advice was blunt: don’t save it for a special occasion, because opening it is the special occasion, since all the ageing has already been done. Refrigerate after opening, he suggested, and gather six or seven friends, because at 7.3 standard drinks a bottle, this is one built for sharing rather than saving.
00:25:30 Susan Neuhaus and Lainie Anderson
Lady Marie Galway arrived in Adelaide in April 1914 as the new governor’s wife, greeted with what Susan Neuhaus called a celebrity welcome: Outer Harbor decked in flags, bands playing, crowds packing the town hall for a glimpse of her and Sir Henry. Lainie Anderson put it more bluntly on the night: they arrived like the Beatles of their day. Nobody in that crowd could have known that within four months the world would be at war, and that this elegant, seven-language-speaking baroness, half Bavarian, half Anglo-Irish, and a practising Catholic in an overwhelmingly Protestant colony, would spend the next four years quietly running the state’s entire volunteer war effort out of the stables at Government House.
The contrast with her husband could not have been starker. Sir Henry Galway, twenty years her senior and a career colonial administrator, married Marie in England in August 1913, and it was only a week after the wedding that the announcement came that he was to be South Australia’s seventeenth governor. Neuhaus is clear that this was, by all accounts, an arranged marriage, though she admits she isn’t certain why. He was, in Neuhaus’s telling, a man whose idea of a good afternoon was hunting peacocks, who opposed votes for women, dismissed returned soldiers as lazy, and drew so many complaints to the Colonial Office that a historian later described him as the most disliked governor the state ever had. Marie, ever discreet, left no recorded complaint about him. The closest anyone got was a Broken Hill mayor warning her that angry locals might throw Sir Henry out a window, to which she reportedly replied that the mayor had better tell him that himself.
While Henry postured, Marie built institutions that still stand today. Within days of war breaking out she received a telegram asking her to establish South Australia’s first Red Cross, and did, turning the Government House stables into a sorting depot for socks, knitting and parcels bound for the front. She founded the Lady Galway Convalescent Home at Glenelg, backed the Cheer Up Society, edited a fundraising book for Belgian relief that roped in contributors from Douglas Mawson to C.J. Dennis, and, most strikingly for 1914, stood before the Chamber of Commerce and insisted that women moving into clerical and bookkeeping roles be paid the same rate as men.
That last point matters more than it might first appear, given the world she was navigating. As the war ground on, anti-German hysteria swept South Australia: German-owned shops on Rundle Street had rocks thrown through their windows, the German language was banned outright, churches at Angaston and Edithburgh were burned down, and a concentration camp operated on Torrens Island, just twelve miles from her front door. Neuhaus admits she still doesn’t know how much Marie knew of what was happening there, but the enigma at the centre of the book is really Marie herself: a woman of German and Catholic heritage who somehow escaped the press scrutiny and public suspicion that consumed almost everyone else who shared her background, and who left South Australia so beloved that the Catholic Archbishop credited her with inspiring a generation of women to believe in their own capabilities.
Additional Resources
A Woman in a Thousand: Lady Marie Galway, South Australia, and the Great War by Susan Neuhaus is available now, with the launch hosted by the State Library of South Australia at the Mortlock Library.
Murder Mystery Writer, Lainie Anderson.
The Virtual War Memorial Australia, of which Susan Neuhaus is patron, holds further resources on South Australians’ First World War history.
01:12:52 Musical Pilgrimage
In the Musical Pilgrimage this week we listen to And Drink To Us by Steve Davis & The Virtualosos.
Steve closed the episode with And Drink to Us, a new track from Steve Davis and The Virtuosos. Reflecting on Lady Marie Galway’s willingness to put her position and Government House’s resources to work for people who genuinely needed help, Steve found himself thinking about agitation and resistance against destructive leadership throughout history, sharpened by a recent re-read of The Iliad and viewing of The Odyssey. The result is a modern-day Greek folk song, cast as a flight of fancy, following a narrator preparing to fight a tyrant who is destroying their town: a haunting, olive-tree-and-candlelight ballad of farewell, defiance and shared wine while there’s still time. Steve floated the hope that a Greek performer might one day breathe further life into the track.
Here’s this week’s preview video
There is no video this week.
SFX: Throughout the podcast we use free SFX from freesfx.co.uk for the harp, the visa stamp, the silent movie music, the stylus, the radio signal SFX, the wine pouring and cork pulling SFX, and the swooshes around Siri.
An AI generated transcript – there will be errors. Check quotes against the actual audio (if you would like to volunteer as an editor, let Steve know)
439 TAS
===
Steve Davis: [00:00:00] Hello, Steve Davis here. Welcome to episode 439 of The Adelaide Show podcast. A Woman in a Thousand. What an amazing title one, uh, should get. Uh, this is one that was bestowed upon Lady Marie Galway by, I believe, Hans Heysen, the magnificent painter of German heritage who lived in South Australia. And those two things are very relevant for this topic because this episode is celebrating a book that’s just been published by Susan Neuhaus.
It’s called A Woman in a Thousand: Lady Marie Galway, South Australia, and the Great War. Fascinating story. And this is what I love about these types of books, these historical accounts that I’m becoming increasingly aware of as I reflect more on our history and history itself. [00:01:00] This book is the story largely of World War I when we had Sir Henry Galway, uh, become our governor, and his wife, Lady Marie, is also in Government House.
They’re here for only a few months before World War I breaks out, and the two people could not be more different. You’ve got Sir Henry, who is very much of the establishment, loves his finery, uh, loves his military deportment, and really is a hard man, one might say, in relation to, “Come on, up you go. Get over there.
Do the bit. Do the fighting. Hurry up. No time for laggards here,” uh, and, and many other as-aspects of him. Whereas Lady Marie, who was in a, an interesting and difficult situation of being of [00:02:00] German background at a time when suspicion against Germans, uh, became all a frenzy here in South Australia i-in, in horrid ways, and also Catholic.
Uh, this is at a time where Catholics were under suspicion too, with the, the Protestant-ness, uh, being the, the dominant flavor. And so what I find striking about her is how she used her position to just do good. No wonder she was loved and serenaded when she eventually left, unlike her husband, um, because she gave her all.
She was a woman of heart. She is indeed, or in fact, was indeed a woman in a thousand. Some of that will be fleshed out later in this program ’cause the main interview I’m not actually doing. Lainey Anderson is doing that, uh, herself a magnificent author who [00:03:00] also draws these historical stories to the surface and, uh, and journalist, et cetera.
But she interviewed Susan at the launch of A Woman in a Thousand at Mortlock Library, uh, through the week just gone at the time of recording, and we’re going to hear that. And I think what I might do is there are a couple of questions from the audience that I will tack on to the end. We don’t actually get to hear the question, but the answers themselves are illuminating So that’s coming up for us.
However, Sir Henry is well known as the namesake of Galway Pipe, very famous, uh, port, which we can’t say anymore, uh, here in South Australia. And so we have a chat to the, the man in charge of fortifieds who has, well, who’s really at the helm of Galway Pipe, Paul Burnett. And we have a talk about what that name’s all about.
What is, why is it Galway Pipe? Uh, [00:04:00] what’s the connection to the man? How it’s made, and how there is a connection to the current Government House, uh, from that beautiful beverage. And then we’ll finish the episode off with, uh, a new song by Steve Davis and the Virtuosos that has a sort of romantic historical feel.
Um, you be the judge.
TAS Theme: Wave on wave she’s got a band on. Yaddle yaddle yaddle oo.
Winks it and soon it is, yaddle-yaddle-oo. Oh, oh, little Adeline
Caitlin Davis: In the spirit of reconciliation, The Adelaide Show [00:05:00] podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout South Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
TAS Theme: Adelaide. Adelaide. Adelaide
Steve Davis: For the South Australian Drink of the Week this week, keeping in theme with talking about the Galways, of course, the fantastic book about Lady Marie Galway, uh, we’re about to listen to that interview from its launch with Lainey Anderson and the author herself, Susan Neuhaus. But at that launch, there were some prizes, and the prizes were [00:06:00] these stunning gift boxes of the rare Tawny 25-year-old Galway pipe.
Superb. I happen to have one here, uh, to taste because we’re going to make this the South Australian Drink of the Week and tie all the loose ends up as to why when we’re talking about Lady Galway, we’re also talking about the governor himself. And so we need the fortified winemaker behind this label, which is a man becoming a regular guest on the Adelaide Show, Paul Burnett.
Welcome, Paul.
Paul Burnett: Thank you so much for having me. Can’t wait to taste this product.
Steve Davis: Oh, same here. I bet you’ve never tasted it before, have you?
Paul Burnett: Not, not today. Uh, regularly, uh, for, uh, assessment and for fun.
Steve Davis: Now, I should just say, before we have a taste, I’m dying to have a taste. The box that this comes in is stunning.
It’s got lots of that, um, what do they call it? Those, the fancy bits. I suppose [00:07:00] it’s the, um, uh, the, the heraldry, the liv- the livery. You know, that, that, um, elaborate, uh, uh, patterns, uh, distinctive colors. And so you’ve captured that, um, not only on the box, uh, but also in the glass, in the, the bottle that this beautiful 25-year-old Tawny is, is, uh, is put in.
And it’s done because our governor, Henry, Sir Henry, often just went about in his military uniform. Of course, it was World War I when he was here, but I have a feeling he’d wear that even in peacetime. Have you got a, a reading on the man, Paul?
Paul Burnett: Um, I have heard similar things, that, uh, he was a, a very serious man, um, a great ambassador for fortified wines, uh, was very careful in his selection of, uh…
The, the Galway pipe, the pipe’s a reference to the type of barrel, the size of the barrel And he would select a [00:08:00] pipe, this, I think it’s about a 400 or 300 liter, but please don’t quote me on that. Um, this particular barrel he would select personally, and then that barrel would be used to serve the dignitaries and the VIPs when they went to Government House.
Steve Davis: Right. So it was him basically making sure that he had… Uh, it looks like 500 liter barrel, by the way.
Paul Burnett: Okay, there you go. Yeah, we, we say a puncheon now. That’s what we say. The- A puncheon … but I will do that from now on. I’ll say pipe. But yeah, the governor would select this parcel of Tawny
Steve Davis: Port- Yeah …
Paul Burnett: and, um, that would be presented to the dignitaries when they came out.
Steve Davis: Now, of course, he, as it rightly says on the label, uh, yourself, he was a controversial figure, and that comes out during the interview we’re about to hear next. Because he was gung ho. He wanted everyone enlisted and out and over there. Anyone who didn’t pass muster for him, he wanted them gone. His wife [00:09:00] was at the other end of the spectrum to a degree in, in caring for people.
So we’re gonna f- learn, learn more about her. But right- The perfect
TAS Theme: couple.
Steve Davis: Yes. And, you know, this is something that I’m not sure, I’m… People do have it still, but it seems rarer given that we’re going to have the rare tawny. In all of the writings about her and things she said, Susan Neuhaus, the author, could not find her making any disparaging comments about Sir Henry.
So there’s a level of class, uh, with her reserve. Maybe she wanted to maintain access to the, the tawny. Who knows?
Paul Burnett: That’s the dream, isn’t it? Um, to have, ha- ha- have one’s loved ones always speaking nicely about you. I
Steve Davis: w- I would perhaps say not so much speaking nicely, but playing it back with a straight bat and being neutral, I think.
Paul Burnett: Yeah.
Steve Davis: I
Paul Burnett: think- Well, maybe she was politically correct in a time when political correctness wasn’t compulsory.
Steve Davis: Well, there you [00:10:00] go. Elective. All right.
Paul Burnett: I did get to go to, um, the governor house. I got to go to SA House.
Steve Davis: Yes.
Paul Burnett: And we presented, uh, a selection of six tawneys to the governor, and, uh, she and her husband, they selected their favorites.
It was great. It was a fantastic occasion.
Steve Davis: Did the rare tawny 25-year-old make that list?
Paul Burnett: Yes. We, we… There’s six major base wines that are blended together- Mm-hmm … to create this average age 25-year-old, and we showed her and her husband the individual six. Oh. And ultimately she picked, uh, the one that she liked, and then we did some special labels for her.
Steve Davis: Wow. It
Paul Burnett: was wonderful to go there.
Steve Davis: Uh, can you remember what the dominant variety or blend was her favor- do you remember off
Paul Burnett: the top? Yes. The one that she selected, uh, was about, I think, a 27-year-old-
Steve Davis: Mm-hmm …
Paul Burnett: base. Uh, it was predominantly McLaren Vale and [00:11:00] definitely more Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro.
Steve Davis: Okay. As opposed to some of the others swing different ways?
Paul Burnett: We had a bit more Muscat in a couple of the bases. Uh, one of them had a little bit more Barossa in it.
Steve Davis: Yeah. Okay.
Paul Burnett: But still predominantly that Grenache, Shiraz, Mataro were the varieties.
Steve Davis: All right. Now I do need to open this. I’m gonna pour some. And do I pour the normal amount that I would if I was having a bit…
No, it’d be a bit less than what I would normally pour if I was pouring a red, isn’t it?
Paul Burnett: Uh, I’d be pouring, uh, in terms of a pub, probably a double pour. You’d want 60 mil.
Steve Davis: How’s that looking to you? Is
Paul Burnett: that- Yep. Perfect.
Steve Davis: Is that right? Okay. Okay. Now, before we taste, of course, we do have to, this is just royalty everywhere, we have to toast our late patron, Queen Adelaide.
So Paul, to the Queen.
Paul Burnett: To the Queen.
Steve Davis: All right. Of course, we could be toasting to Lady Marie Galway as well, and Sir Henry, but we’ve done, we’ve got to keep [00:12:00] our agreement with Queen Adelaide. Can you guide me through what I should be having here? Because I’m looking up, this is, um- This is very much in those deep, deep, I don’t want to say br- not, not quite brown.
They’re caramelly brown tones in my glass. Is that fair? That’s what you’re getting as well?
Paul Burnett: Absolutely.
Steve Davis: Uh, fair- Yeah,
Paul Burnett: very deep, dark or tawny in color.
Steve Davis: And really deep, like, uh, the legs on the side of the glass, which is, uh, that sticky residue that people see, which to me is normally a, a giveaway of high alcohol or Beaume, et cetera, has actually, on a wine, on a, on a, say, a Shiraz, there’s, there’s some there if you’ve got a good hefty one, but they, they streak away pretty quickly.
On this glass, they’re staying, and in fact, it… the rest of the glass, while it’s f- slowly going down, is like stain- a, a [00:13:00] transparent stained glass window. It’s fantastic, really thick. Now, this is where it’s, it’s all the classic things you’d expect, uh, from port on the nose. Although we can’t use that word, of course, on the tawny, on the nose.
Although very… imagine a pipe organ, so to speak, in a big cathedral, and the organist is hitting all those low sonorous notes that That’s the equivalent, whereas some tawny, uh, you get some sharper smells. These are very base note to my nose. What are you getting?
Paul Burnett: Yeah, all those lovely interwoven, well, I mean, rancio is a word that winemakers use for these classic old tawnies.
Um, all those hints of fruitcake, Christmas cake, uh, hedonistic lifts of, uh, very old oak, perfect integration of [00:14:00] spirit. So there’s gonna be majority brandy in this fortification, but some neutral spirit would have been used in some of the bases. But all that’s interwoven perfectly. It, it should be extremely complex.
You know, you get, um, those sort of all spice. I see, I see a bit of that nutmeg sort of aroma.
Steve Davis: Yeah, there is a bright, bulbous, uh, aroma in the middle, which really is, it is that, uh, if I was at Kyton’s, uh, bakery and opening one of their, um, matured Christmas cakes, that’s what I’m getting. It’s like a ball of this in the middle of my, of my nose.
I, I should try and some, have some of this now. So here goes the first sip. Oh Okay. That I, I’m, I’m, I’m speechless because it’s the difference. I, I’m not a car man, but there are people who are car men, and I’ve driven in some of those really expensive marque cars. You sink in the seats, the doors close, they [00:15:00] hardly make a sound.
They drive along, they’re soft. The suspension is superb. It’s like you’re floating. That’s what I got on my palate just then. Great. It was if Sir Henry had a coach that matched this, it would’ve had superb suspension. You wouldn’t have heard the outside world. He would’ve just drifted off to sleep and then been gently woken up at his destination.
Which doesn’t tell you very much about the, the flavors because they’re all there, but they’re They’re so polished. This, these are the, um, the tawny notes that we expect, but they are wearing black tie
Paul Burnett: I really think it sort of dovetails on your palate too, because you get that-
Steve Davis: Mm …
Paul Burnett: wonderful sweet entry, spice, raisin, fruitcake, toffee, and then it, uh, evolves into, I get a bit of [00:16:00] that citrus complex.
There’s these tiny little notes, honeyed, treacle.
Steve Davis: Yes, I was trying to put my fi- uh, tongue on it. Hmm. Oh, right across the back palate lingering. It’s, it’s like I’ve got some of that beautiful dried orange peel that’s just resting across my tongue, but not in a, not in an aggressive way. It’s just a really…
So it, it is a bit candied or, or honeyed, you’re right. Mm. I love how that finishes so nicely. And it’s not huge. It’s, it is still subdued. It’s, um, it’s come to your black tie dinner, and it’s being the perfect guest. It’s not being boorish, uh, and it’s not being a wallflower either. It’s taking a seat. It knows it’s meant to be there.
Mm.
Paul Burnett: Hopefully, uh, you get that beautiful balance of, um, you know, natural concentrated acidity, that perfect balance of sugar and alcohol. Uh, like that retained Baumé from fortification has [00:17:00] interwoven and become a real partner with the spirit. It’s the epitome of maturation for me. What I really hope is people buy this and then they open it.
They don’t buy it and save it for a special occasion. Like when you open it, that’s your special occasion. All the maturation’s already been done. This is not gonna get any better. After you purchase it, you need to be opening it and trying it.
Steve Davis: And it sort of shot across my palate on that last one. This is not what I expect.
I expected heavy thickness, and I’m not getting that, Paul. I’m not getting that. It was like a, um… I got a bit of rose just then. I don’t know where that came from, but the, the, I think it’s all the different perfumes that are being released as it goes across, shooting across the bow. Gorgeous. Now, here’s a question though.
If I do open it, how long have I got to finish the bottle? Does a tawny have long shelf life like a whiskey, or how, [00:18:00] are we on, say, two or three days and we have to be done with it? What’s, what’s your, uh, advice?
Paul Burnett: I would say, uh, if you’re gonna open it on the Friday-
Steve Davis: Mm-hmm …
Paul Burnett: you’ve probably got, y- you might have a week, but it’s gonna diminish that fruit flavor and that lovely, the nuances you’re describing of those floral perfume characters.
Mm.
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: Mm.
Paul Burnett: They’re gonna disappear. It, it, it will go gradually stale as it oxidizes even more, but it’s a higher alcohol. This is about 18 and a half. If you put it in the fridge, it’ll keep it brighter and fresher for longer. So I’d say after opening, put it in a, in a fridge.
Steve Davis: Yep.
Paul Burnett: Definitely keep it at four degrees.
Yeah. And then bring it out, pour it, let it attemporate.
Steve Davis: Yep.
Paul Burnett: And go back or just hold it in your hand and warm it up. But yeah, I, I would say get six or seven friends around and open a bottle and enjoy it. ‘
Steve Davis: Cause I’ve opened this now for tasting purposes, so my wife and I need to get busy tonight, and maybe tomorrow night too, and maybe with [00:19:00] some friends.
Paul Burnett: Well, you can always decant it to a smaller bottle to prevent that additional oxidation,
Steve Davis: but- Yeah …
Paul Burnett: that’s what, yeah, I really want people- Yep … to realize with tawny, unless you’re buying a vintage port from Portugal-
Steve Davis: Yeah …
Paul Burnett: or a vintage port or a vintage tawny made in Australia, these, all the aging’s already been done.
Steve Davis: Okay.
Paul Burnett: Once you open it or once you purchase it, it’s time to try it.
Steve Davis: I primarily was asking you for your technical answer, but also to have my guilt assuaged when this bottle is drained over the weekend. I’m
Paul Burnett: glad you, um, I’m glad you find that, the subtlety in it too because-
Steve Davis: Mm …
Paul Burnett: we don’t want, some of the bases that we use are quite unctuous and
Steve Davis: thick- Yeah
Paul Burnett: and moreish, so you-
Steve Davis: I’m not getting that …
Paul Burnett: carefully find them out or carefully isolate them and use them in only a smaller percentage. Um, and we do a tiny amount of Muscat is used in this too to give that real raisin flavor.
Steve Davis: It’s there. Like, if I was [00:20:00] blindfolded, I could be convinced that this was a heavy, fruity red wine with really high Beau-May.
I could be convinced. It’s, it wouldn’t take long to then recalibrate my palate, but for a moment there, I’ve had some rippers like that. And this is stunning me because it is not what I expected at all. Wow. Where does this sit retail-wise, if I can put you on the spot?
Paul Burnett: I would say it sits at $100.
Steve Davis: Yeah. Mm.
Paul Burnett: Um, it might get discounted to 95, but-
Steve Davis: Yeah
Paul Burnett: yeah, the last time I saw it for sale, I think I saw it for 99 or 100.
Steve Davis: And it’s beautiful. And you said 18. So how many drinks have we got in this? Have a look. 7.3. 7.3. So, well, there’s seven people gathered around a table having a drink each, or ideally three good friends having a couple each. You know what I mean?
Paul Burnett: Tawny gets a bad rap because people have, you know, a bottle of Shiraz or a bottle of [00:21:00] Chardonnay, and um, then they might have a brandy, and then they go, “Oh, I’ll just have a tawny at the end.” Now, I think definitely you can even start with a tawny.
Steve Davis: Well, I want to ask you, what’s your ideal application of tawny, especially this older, this rarer tawny, but, but tawny, where does it sit?
Actually, let’s, let’s, let’s just stay focused to this one, because this is a special one. We’re toasting Susan’s book this weekend with it. I feel like as much as people might push against it, I’d want to start while your palate’s fresh to get all of this, because this is not… I had some very bad experiences as a youngster with a mate, because a thing, I don’t want to say too much, but it was not the best.
I saw a thing in the Vine Inn many, many years ago when my mate was there. They had, this is a long time ago, Four Crown Port, which I thought, “Gee, that sounds like it’s really special.” 25 cents a schooner. And, uh That this is [00:22:00] the opposite end of that spectrum. So that stuff you would wrap up at the end of the night, but this, I don’t know, this, this drinks on its own.
Paul Burnett: I think, uh, yeah, early in the night, as soon as the guests arrive, um, even, you know, and I, I sometimes break those rules. I might have a little bit of cheese-
Lainie Anderson: Mm-hmm …
Paul Burnett: at the start. Um, and then you can also enjoy it at the end with your dessert, or you can have it with your little fireside chat.
Steve Davis: Oh, yeah. Look, it would work for all of that.
In fact, poured over some beautiful vanilla Golden North ice cream. Oh Although, you know, if you’re, you’re paying $100 a bottle, you probably don’t want to fritter it away like that. But if there’s a little bit left in the bottle, you’ve all had a little sip, gorgeous
Paul Burnett: Our, our chef does some amazing things with, um, uh, this tawny.
Oh. I just mentioned-
Steve Davis: When you’re at 23rd Street up in the Riverland? Yeah, okay.
Paul Burnett: Yes, when you’re having your, when you’re having your dessert after your early morning tawny.
Steve Davis: Yes. Yes. [00:23:00] All right. Look, Paul, thank you for guiding me through this. It’s, it’s wonderful. Uh, what a great reason to have it because this book, which is a stunning book, it’s fantastic to mop up the history of South Australia.
I’m gonna say something that might put some of my winemaking friends offside a little bit. This is, this is not your casual buy. This is a special buy, the 25-year-old. Let’s be, let’s be frank about that. So I don’t wanna be loose with people’s money and be flippant. If you’re gonna buy a $100 bottle of red wine or a $100 bottle of the Rare Tawny 25 Galway Po- Pipe, this will guarantee amazing stuff on your palate.
Whereas even $100 bottles of wine are sometimes hit-and-miss. I’m, I’m
Paul Burnett: sorry. Value for money. Uh, it’s, um, yeah, it’s over-delivering, uh, hugely.
Steve Davis: Yeah.
Paul Burnett: Um, [00:24:00] it’s, it’s extremely well awarded too. We’re, we’re just not going to, you know, garnish the bottle with all those medals.
Steve Davis: Well, no, well, Sir Henry would’ve. Let’s be fair.
Like, he wouldn’t have been shy. But I guess you, you still have a modicum of taste. This is a ripper, and people who know me who’ve long been suffering through this podcast know I love my big heavy red wine. So this is like all of that, but with no need for a safety net. It hits every single time. Paul, a pleasure as always to have you on the Adelaide Show.
We are gonna make a road trip up and, and spend some decent quality time with you. But until we can make that happen, we’ve got the Galway Pipe, and this 25-year Rare Tawny is, hats off to you and all the team and all those who came before you. This is keeping a beautiful tradition that’s doing a little bit to rectify Sir Henry’s [00:25:00] reputation.
Paul Burnett, thank you. Thanks so much. All that’s left for me to say is the Galway Pipe Rare Tawny t- aged 25 years is the South Australian drink of the week. And I will add one final thought. If you’ve got a copy of Susan’s book, A Woman of a Thousand, this, a little glass by your side, perfect.
Ali Pilborough: Hi, this is Ally, uh, from Florio Roast. Welcome to the Adelaide Show. Steve is here fueled, as usual, by copious amounts of espresso, proudly roasted by me.
Susan Neuhaus: It’s incredibly special to be able to be here in this amazingly historic chamber of the library. And it’s a library that stood in Lady Marie’s time, and it’s also a library that houses the archival fragments of her story and her time in [00:26:00] South Australia. I’d also like to acknowledge that this building stands on land which is the traditional land of the Kaurna people, resting along as it does the place called Karrawirra Parri.
And in fact, the stone that this building was made from was quarried from just across Kintore Avenue, and that quarry is of course now Torrens Parade Ground. Um, so I would like to pay my respects to the Kaurna people and to their leaders past, present, and emerging. Marni naa-dl-u, tapun-da naa-dl-u Kaurna yartangka inparrin-dhi Kaurna mayuna yanti yarta-matina.
Um, I’m just so thrilled that people could come here tonight and I wanted, before we go to a conversation with Lainie, um, I just wanted to have s- an opportunity to say thank you to so many people who’ve been a part of this journey. Um, firstly, Lainie, I’m sure is absolutely known to all of you, having had decades of a career in journalism and in [00:27:00] public relations, and of course, as a columnist with Adelaide’s, uh, Sunday Mail, as well as being the author of Long Flight Home, which is an amazing book, and the Petticoat Police series featuring Australia’s pioneering policewoman, Kate Cox.
So, um, a fantastic read. Um, before we get into our conversation, as I say, I would really like to start by acknowledging the team that have really made this possible. Um, my husband, Peter, my daughter, Emma, who’s here today as well, thank you so much for your patience over many, many years and your support, putting up with an, an absolute mountain of archival boxes and, uh, various pieces of photocopying, et cetera, all over the house for the better part of quite a number of years.
And, uh, the endless logistics behind, um, tonight as well. Um, the production team, fantastic team that I’ve been very privileged to work with. Romy, Karen, and Steve, thank you so much for turning, uh, this manuscript into an actual book, and for [00:28:00] doing it with such care through so many twists and turns in this story.
I couldn’t thank the three of you enough. You’re an amazing team to work with, um, and really, this book is, has come into being because of your work, so thank you. Um, my own admin team, uh, Julie, Kerryn, and now Ashley, thank you for keeping me sane through, through this, and I do mean that, uh, I do mean that quite literally.
It’s also an absolute pleasure to have some serious historians in the room. Bob Carney I can see here, who’s from the Virtual War Memorial, um- Um, thank you for everything that the Virtual War Memorial does. It is just such an amazing resource. I feel incredibly privileged to be the patron of the Virtual War Memorial Australia.
But if you’re looking to go online and search for things, that is definitely the place to go. Um, Sandra Kearney couldn’t be here tonight, but she provided absolutely amazing resources, particularly around Marie’s time with the League of Loyal Women, and that was invaluable. As did Peter Monteith, who’s [00:29:00] written quite extensively about the German experiences of South Australians during the First World War.
Um, Michelle Lensink was coming. I’m not sure if she’s here. I haven’t seen her yet. Um, but it’s, um, it’s sobering to reflect on the role, on her role now within the Legislative Council because, uh, at the time, in fact, M- Marie had only been here for a few months when the state’s own attorney general, uh, was forced from his office.
His home was searched at bayonet point simply because of being German, and the five German members of parliament at the time, uh, all ended up resigning from office W- one of the things that struck me most while researching Marie’s life is just how far her reach extended through the state. And almost every institution she touched is still part of the fabric of Adelaide society today.
So it’s just wonderful to look around the room and see people who are connected with the University of Adelaide, the Red Cross, the Catholic [00:30:00] Church, particularly the Catholic Women’s League, who are all organizations that Marie worked alongside, fundraised for, and I suspect occasionally exasperated, uh, more than a century ago.
We also have people here from Government House, where Marie lived, and I am very grateful for the opportunity that I spent to spend some time in the house, going over the most amazing photographic collections and records that they hold. Uh, and I’m also particularly grateful to Her Excellency Frances Adamson AC, our 36th governor, who sent her apologies tonight, but, uh, she wrote the very generous introduction to the book.
And of course, to the newspapers. I spoke earlier this morning to The Advertiser, but it… The newspapers at the time were not just incredible sources of primary research material, they were also very much a character in this story. Sometimes the stories that they ran amplified the hostilities th- towards the German community, but they also [00:31:00] are really one of the only public records that preserved some of that history that otherwise might have been lost.
And to the representatives of the different parts of the German community here tonight, I hope that you will find something in Marie’s story that speaks to the reasons why we must never forget this dark chapter in our state’s history. And I do also need to thank, there’s a lot of thanks, um, to thank the South Australian History Trust for their support and their patience through this journey, which, like all good books, took a few more years to come to life than perhaps were initially planned.
And also, to my writing community, some of whom I can see here, here tonight, uh, it’s been wonderful to work with you all over the years, and thank you very much for your support. And finally, just one other slightly different thanks, which is to Galway Pipe for their incredible donation of the door prize, which we will be announcing later this afterno- la- later this evening.
Um, very fitting [00:32:00] given that, uh, Sir Henry was particularly fond of his drop, uh, even though at the time he had, uh, allegedly taken the pledge that the King had asked of all the governors to abstain for the duration of the war. Um- … somewhat fitting with Henry’s character that perhaps he did not do that. Uh, and of course, thank you all for your support of the book, and, uh, copies are available to purchase at the end, and, uh, happy to sign for anyone.
In fact, would love to sign for people tonight. So please, um, welcome Dr. Lainey Anderson to the stage, and I look forward to our conversation.
Lainie Anderson: Hello, everybody. Um, thank you so much for coming along tonight on a, a busy Thursday. Lovely, um, to have you all here in the beautiful Mortlock Chamber. I’d like to, um, acknowledge as well that we’re meeting on the lands of the Kaurna people, the original wonderful storytellers of this place. Um, Susan didn’t sort of introduce herself, and she is the [00:33:00] star of the show.
So forgive me, um, for letting you know if you didn’t already know that Susan is a South Australian surgeon, former Army Colonel, an accomplished author with a passion for uncovering stories of women overlooked by history. She’s worked in England, Cambodia, Bougainville, and Afghanistan. Has an interest in empowering children to protect themselves from health threats to themselves and their communities.
Susan co-authored Not for Glory: Chronicling Pioneering Australian Women Doctors in Military Service, and wrote the historical novel, The Surgeon of… It’s Royomont, isn’t it?
Susan Neuhaus: Yeah. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s Royomont, Royomont.
Lainie Anderson: Royomont. Mont. Yeah. So I did get it wrong, but yes. And we’re here tonight to talk about A Woman in a Thousand.
So please welcome Susan Neuhaus.
I’ve got to put on my glasses because I’m [00:34:00] blind. And I was going for the look, but I really need to be practical. Ah. Okay. So you alluded a couple of times, Susan, to the fact that this book took longer than you anticipated originally. What first drew you… And I’ve read the book. I was lucky enough to get a- to get an early copy.
Um, it’s fabulous. I bloody loved it from start to finish, um, because we all love, um, f- women in, in Australia are just not celebrated enough, particularly in the First World War, I found. Tell me what drew you to this remarkable woman, Marie Galway?
Susan Neuhaus: So look, I first came across her story when I was doing research for Not For Glory.
So that was… Really, I was going deep into the stories of particularly the Australian women doctors who’d served in the First World War, whose stories we didn’t know. And I was particularly interested in the stories of the women who had deployed [00:35:00] and had worked overseas in war zones. But somewhere in that, I came across this story about the governor’s wife going before the Chamber of Commerce to s- to, to, to basically advocate for women to step into bookkeeping and clerical roles, and she insisted that they would be paid the same rate as men, which was quite, yeah, shocking.
Um, quite remarkable at the time, but of course, South Australia has always been a very pioneering place, so very appropriate. And I just… That kernel just sat at the back of my mind that this must have been quite a remarkable woman. It wasn’t until years later that I started to discover more about her, and then I learnt about her Catholic ancestry.
Oh. And that seemed to be quite challenging at the time, given her position. And then I discovered that she was half German, and that absolutely intrigued me. And so as I went [00:36:00] further and further, I just found the story of this really quite incredible woman, whose background was amazing. And she just seemed to be the right person at the right time with all the skills that were needed, you know, but having come to Australia with no idea that that was the role that she was about to undertake.
Lainie Anderson: So for people who… Does anyone not know a thing about Marie Galway? Okay. So tell us who she was when she arrived in South Australia. Like, what was her role? Why was she here?
Susan Neuhaus: So Marie Galway, um, is, is probably best described as a child of empire. Her father was Anglo-Irish, her mother was Bavarian, and she was a Bavarian baroness.
She grew up in the royal hou- amongst the royal children of Bavaria. They were her playmates. She’s someone who had the Queen of Naples as someone she would go and spend a month on [00:37:00] holiday with. So she was, you know, moved in some pretty amazing circles. She spoke seven languages, and she had married…
Having grown up in Munich, she married a Frenchman and lived in Heidelberg for three years. She was married at 18. They had two children, and on her third wedding anniversary, her husband died, presumably from influenza She described that as the bottom dropping out of her world. Uh, she was a young widow with two children, and she just threw herself into philanthropy.
She worked in a hospice in France for a while, then she went, uh, back to… She finally went back to London, and in London she worked amongst the destitute of the widows from the Boer War, who at that stage were coming back. She also worked as a volunteer at Pentridge Prison- Wow … going to visit the women in, in the [00:38:00] jail.
She was on the Women’s Parliamentary Committee. And so her days were filled really with doing charitable work, as one did at the time, and then in the evenings sort of soirees and glittering balls and so forth. And she was 37 when she met Sir Henry, so she’d been happily widowed for quite a long time. He, on the other hand, um, had been a colonial governor in Bermuda and, uh, St.
Helena, and he was a point in his career where he clearly could not progress without having a wife.
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: Mm.
Susan Neuhaus: So they were married in, uh, August of 1913, and curiously, a week after the wedding, there was an announcement in The Times that said he was to be our 17th governor. Ah. So that’s how she came here. They arrived in April of 1914 with no idea that in just a few months the war would break out.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. What kind of [00:39:00] reception did they get in South Australia?
Susan Neuhaus: Oh, a celebrity welcome. The… At Outer Harbor, they decked Outer Harbor out in flags. There were bands. They took a train up to Adelaide. There were receptions. Apparently, the town hall was packed, and people were even standing outside to, to, to have a glimpse of their new governor and of the-
Lainie Anderson: They were like The Beatles of their day.
Susan Neuhaus: Yes.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. Is… Was this… Is this photo of them on their… the day they arrived? That
Susan Neuhaus: is the day they
Lainie Anderson: arrived. Yeah, so the front cover is the day they arrived.
Susan Neuhaus: And they brought with them- Very fancy … um, uh, Maria’s daughter. So her two children were Charlotte, and we’ll call him Henri because it gets confusing- Okay
with Henry. Um, her son had gone to Cambridge to study, and Charlotte, who was still only 17, uh, came out to Adelaide with her, and she went to school here at Angus Street Convent.
Lainie Anderson: Um, so tell us… I’ve got my own views on Henry from my research of, [00:40:00] uh, Kate Cox’s Petticoat Police mysteries. I think he was a bit of a dill, but you obviously have…
An u- unlikable chap, I, I think. But tell me what you think.
Susan Neuhaus: I’m not gonna tell you what I think. I, I will say that I think I’m on safe ground because a historian described him as the most pernicious governor that South Australia had ever had. And thoroughly unsuited to the role. Uh, through his time here, he was incredibly disliked.
He was outspoken. He was pugnacious. There were so many complaints to the colonial office to have him recalled. Um, he was a thoroughly unlikable individual. If I said to you, and here’s the judg- here’s my judgment on the man, that, uh, he thought a great activity was, uh, hunting peacocks.
Lainie Anderson: Oh. I didn’t know that.
I knew that he [00:41:00] didn’t l- support votes for women.
Susan Neuhaus: He did not support… He, he-
Lainie Anderson: And he thought returned soldiers were lazy and ungrateful.
Susan Neuhaus: Yes.
Lainie Anderson: So, yeah, nice guy.
Susan Neuhaus: He was th- He was, he was thoroughly charming. I would’ve loved to have met him. It just- Would’ve gone well, I think.
Lainie Anderson: From f- from everything… And I, I’m jumping ahead here because we’ve got four years of, um, of the war to talk about.
But from everything that you read and researched, what do you, what do you think Marie’s opinion of him was?
Susan Neuhaus: Oh, look, I’d have loved to have found her diaries. Wouldn’t that be fantastic? Look, I don’t… It’s, it’s impossible to know. Mm. I’d love to be a fly on the wall. She was
Lainie Anderson: incredibly discreet, wasn’t
Susan Neuhaus: she?
She was. I mean, that was her job, too. She was in a viceregal office, so she never outspokenly said anything about him. Sh- there are some clues, though. There’s a really interesting one in Broken Hill [00:42:00] towards, um, a bit later in the war, and the mayor comes and says to her, “Look, you need to have a word to Henry because I’m not sure that, uh, the, the lads are gonna be happy and they might try and throw him out the window.”
And she said something like, “Yes, I think you’ll have to tell him that yourself.” And it just… It was the way she said it. Yeah. I’ve got, I’ve got the quote in the book, but the way she said it, and I just went, “Yeah, I think you’ve tried to tell him before.”
Lainie Anderson: Yes. Um, okay. We’re going to, um… It’s suddenly August 1914.
As you say, they’ve been here a few months. What… How did the w- war immediately change Marie’s life? From half a world away
Susan Neuhaus: So the war changed everyone’s lives pretty much overnight. And I think for South Australia, but for Australia generally, it was so unexpected. [00:43:00] We just didn’t expect to be embroiled in this.
And there was no doubt that if the Empire was at war, then we were at war as well. But August the 5th was a pretty amazing day. The SS Scharzfels sailed up Outer Harbor flying a German flag, and by that afternoon, the, the crew were in under guard in Keswick Barracks, having been arrested. And the honorary German consul had gone to the governor that afternoon to swear to the loyalty of the German community here in South Australia, who fundamentally saw themselves as being British subjects.
Many of them had- Mm … taken citizenship. And at the time, one in 10 South Australians had some form of German heritage. So I think there was a bit of a sense of it was all in for everybody until that started to really unravel. And unravel it did in South Australia.
Lainie Anderson: Mm. Um, tell us about her, her charity work, which really began [00:44:00] overnight as well, didn’t it?
Susan Neuhaus: So I think she was absolutely ideally suited to the role she found herself in. I don’t think anyone in South Australia would have had the pedigree that she had- Mm … in terms of working with philanthropic organizations or understanding how to put them together. She received a telegram from the wife of the then governor-general asking her to set up the first Red Cross in South Australia, which she did.
So they gathered people in the town hall, and they set up the Red Cross. And the Red Cross started sorting its parcels for the front on the table in Government House. Yeah. So for any of you who’ve been there, and we, we do have someone from Government House here, just to imagine that beautiful, beautiful long table just covered in parcels and knitting and socks and all sorts of things as the, the first sorting table to, for comforts to go to the front.
And then later, they used the stables in Government [00:45:00] House, and she took… basically made one of the rooms into her office, and she ran a lot of the philanthropic effort for the war out of Government House, certainly for the early years of the war.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah, she was just amazing, wasn’t she? She just, um- I don’t, I don’t know when she found time to sleep after reading your book.
She was absolutely prolific. But she had a, a very special fondness as well for, for Belgium, didn’t she? If you tell us about her, her work in that aspect.
Susan Neuhaus: Yes, she did. Uh, the Belgium story I find quite interesting because there was a real sense of poor little Belgium. I think Belgium was what in the First World War pulled at people’s heartstrings, that this was really very unfair and unjust.
And in the early stages of the war, again, I don’t think people realized quite how much of an entrenched war this was about to come. I mean, how could they have had any insight into that? But the v- the very early campaigns [00:46:00] were focused on fundraising for, for, for the Belgians, and she started a book, which is this book here, which took her most of the duration of the war to write.
Wow. She didn’t write it, she edited it, but it is quite remarkable. There’d been a book, uh, King Albert had done a book as well. They were very popular sort of coffee table book to have. And she decided to do one, and decided really interestingly, I think, that she would use Australian and particularly South Australians to, as her talent in the book.
So Douglas Mawson made a contribution, C.J. Dennis has made a contribution. She originally had Hans Heysen doing- Mm … a water, a watercolor for it, but there is no watercolor from Hans Heysen in this book.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah.
Susan Neuhaus: Uh, but that in itself was remarkable, and the publishers, Gillingham Publishers here donated the, the print and the paper, and she went round [00:47:00] corralling everyone to give donations.
And it was an incredible fundraising effort, and it raised a huge amount of money for the war.
Lainie Anderson: I didn’t realize it took her a lot of the war to write, to, to actually get it printed because, um, she was raising money though for, for the Belgium, um, Relief Fund all throughout the war, wasn’t she? She,
Susan Neuhaus: she was, yes, and, uh, in lots of different ways.
I mean, there, there’s just so many amazing ways that they raised money. The children’s patriotic funds I think- Mm … are, are quite interesting as well. Ra- you know, growing cabbages for the war effort, getting badges. They all got little medals if once they’d raised a certain amount of money, and then you could get a bar on your medal if you’d raised even
Lainie Anderson: more.
Yeah, beautiful.
Susan Neuhaus: Yeah.
Lainie Anderson: Um, at any time, do you feel like, do, um- read anything and, and tell us things. I, I haven’t actually left any time for you to give any talks or any little reading, so…
Susan Neuhaus: No, that’s all right. I was just going to, um, have a quick look at the index, actually, and see, um… Oops, sorry, the pages are [00:48:00] very old.
Uh, this was published in 1916. No, sorry- Oh, okay … it did go into print in 1916.
Lainie Anderson: Ah, okay, yeah, so that would’ve been a very frantic year for her, getting that, all of that done.
Susan Neuhaus: Absolutely.
Lainie Anderson: Um, okay, so she was very much, she was very much a doer, wasn’t she? She didn’t, she couldn’t engage politically because of her role, so but she was clearly, she was German, she was Catholic in a very s- sort of Protestant Anglican society.
Um, she… Do you think she just decided, “I’ll just, you know, actions speak louder than words anyway, so I’ll just, I’ll just show from example or lead from example”?
Susan Neuhaus: I, I think that’s right. She was certainly someone whose personal philosophy was the busier you… Busy people would get more things done, and her job was to roll up her sleeves and just crack on with it, [00:49:00] and that’s really what she demonstrated.
I mean, she must have just been a voracious task master, and she in fact apologized to many of the charities that she was patroness of for, for being such a hard task master for them. But I, I would’ve loved to have seen her personal diary in, just in terms of the events and appointments that she’d w- gone to, but…
Lainie Anderson: Did you actually count the number of speeches that she gave throughout the war? It would’ve been hundreds and hundreds.
Susan Neuhaus: It would’ve been hundreds, and no, I didn’t. But she, before the war started, she toured and talked on modern languages. She gave talks to, um, Alliance Française, which was just setting itself up at the time.
She spoke on Napoleon in Melbourne. She spoke on the value of… In fact, bravely during the war, she spoke on the value of modern languages. I’m not sure if she spoke about the value- Wow … of German when, uh- … people weren’t speaking German in the streets anymore. Yeah.
Lainie Anderson: Um, what was the… or can you give us a sense of [00:50:00] patriotism among women who’d been left behind, um, at that time i- in, here in Adelaide?
Susan Neuhaus: So patriotic fervor was, uh, immense and a whole lot of women’s groups started out, um, very much in support of the war. There’s the patriotic, so many of the patriotic leagues, the Women’s League particularly, the, the, uh, League of Loyal Women. So all of these groups kind of spontaneously emerged, and I think it’s because the women really just wanted to do something useful.
One of the most interesting that Bob Cairney can tell you an enormous amount about is the Cheer Up Society. Mm. So Alexandrine Seeger, who started that. Uh, there were c- campaigns around, uh, violet days and carnivals and fundraising and just so much outpouring of what [00:51:00] at the time was probably the only way that they could support the war.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. Um, what about her, her daughter? How, how was… Was she involved in the war effort, or was she, um… She was still st- studying all throughout the war, wasn’t she?
Susan Neuhaus: Charlotte was at school, as I said, at, um, the convent school at, uh, um, at, at, at Angus Street. Uh, so Marie worshiped at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral while Henry went up to St.
Peter’s, which is kind of crazy. Um, she was there for a year or so, and then she went to the University of Adelaide. Now, I never managed to find- Wow … her records from the University of Adelaide. I think she did first-year medicine, but I’m not sure. Wow. I’m not sure. And then in 1917, she went back when, after the war, or ’18, when she went back after the armistice.
Lainie Anderson: Um, w- how did women in South Australia identify with Marie? Was she [00:52:00] very much sort of celebrity, or did you get a sense, um, from, um, you know, your research that she actually sort of had a one-on-one relationship with some people? Or was sort of she up here, even though she was working very closely on these committees with women?
Susan Neuhaus: It’s hard to know. I, I get the sense that she was very genuine and warm and curious, and- At first, I think she possibly found it difficult to find her way and f- find her way through Adelaide society, and she was very fortunate. When she set up the Red Cross, her secretary was a woman called Kathleen Kiffin-Thomas, and they maintained a lifelong friendship.
And it’s really- Yeah … interesting. You can see this maturing of the letters in terms of the friendship. It’s quite formal to start off with, and then they start to become- Oh, that’s
Lainie Anderson: nice … a-
Susan Neuhaus: as time goes on, which is, which is just beautiful. But I think the degree to which she was held in [00:53:00] esteem, to me, actually comes out…
There, there were… I can’t quite remember whether it was 16 or 17, but her son, Henri, was serving with the British Machine Gun Corps in France, and he had very significant shell shock. And as a consequence of that, he had been hospitalized, and he was allowed to come out to South Australia and be Sir Henry’s aide-de-camp.
That caused an absolute furore in the press. Mm. People were so angry. There were letters being written in the press. You know, how dare the governor’s son be allowed to come out when their sons were still serving in Europe, et cetera, et cetera. And there’s a beautiful letter that was written by a woman just saying how, even though she’d never met Lady Marie, but how loved she was by people.
And at the end of the day, she was a mother. And, uh, it was just- Yeah … it, it… There’s just something in [00:54:00] that that shows you, I think, that she was really respected, that people knew how hard she was working- Mm … and what she was doing for the community.
Lainie Anderson: What w- was, was… I didn’t, I didn’t get a sense from, from the book that there was a lot of animosity expressed in the press towards Marie particularly.
Did she sort of escape a lot of that, um- You know, anger, like fr- from the press in particular, and the editors, letters to the editor, and, um, also opinion pieces and editorials
Susan Neuhaus: I couldn’t find any evidence of her ever being questioned.
Lainie Anderson: Mm.
Susan Neuhaus: Which I think is really interesting, because she spoke with a detectable accent.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah.
Susan Neuhaus: Maybe it’s because she was just seen differently because of the role that she had. Maybe because she managed to navigate these incredible fracture lines [00:55:00] with such grace and, and dignity. And when you think about it, particularly through the conscription debates- Mm … that was quite remarkable because, you know, I still don’t know what side she was on for the conscription.
I know what side Henry was on. Um- Yeah … I don’t know what side Marie was on because the Catholic Church was very anti-conscription, and the Lo- the League of Loyal Women required you to hand your badge back if you didn’t support conscription. Uh, the, there was just so… I, I mean, it was so divisive.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. Did she…
She said something like, and I’m, I’m only quoting you, something like, “I think the people got it right,” or something like that at the end
Susan Neuhaus: of the war. She, she did, but she said that years later. Oh, right. So many years later, she said that it, it was right not to have c- conscription.
Lainie Anderson: And give us… I, I, I loved the book not just because you, you tell us [00:56:00] about her life, but you tell us about South Australia at the time and those fault lines.
Just give us a sense of what it was like to be German in South Australia during the First World War.
Susan Neuhaus: So I found this really fascinating because when she first arrived, you could have probably walked down Rundle Street and seen all the German businesses. Mm. There were piano businesses. There were confectioners.
There were pubs. You could probably even, you know, quite easily have streets where German was spoken in the German Quarter around the city here. Once the suspicions and the hostility started to come into play, all of a sudden, things started to change. Businesses had rocks thrown through them. German was banned as a language when the War Precautions Act came in.
Uh, you know, people were just being persecuted. We had… In fact, I might, um, I might just go… [00:57:00] Actually, I’m gonna go to this. I might
I think there’s a section here that talks about some of the, the, the things that happened to the German community. I mean, who would know that we actually had our own secret police? Um- Yeah … you know, towns like Tununda were barricaded off, baskets were checked to make sure they didn’t have radios in.
People were being put under house arrest. The attorney general, as I say, had pe- had soldiers arrive at, you know, m- with bayonets at his office. Uh- Wow … it was the most extraordinary- Yeah … time of, of suspicion. You know, churches at Angaston and Edithburg were burned to the ground. Uh, there were, th- I mean, the Lutheran schools became particular targets of s- of, of subs- of suspicion.
Uh, the poli- militia forces would arrive, pull up the floorboards, dismantle the blackboards, confiscate anything that was, uh, that had been published in Germany, including religious tapestries, including Bibles, [00:58:00] uh, because they thought that they were, were seditious. I mean, this was a really horrible time to be of German ancestry.
Hans Heysen was put under house arrest. Uh, he had mattresses stabbed to look for an alleged radio that was supposed to be there, cans of paint overturned. And interestingly, I think Nora Heysen, who became Australia’s first female war artist, was actually in the house, uh, at the time that the police came through on one occasion.
But we changed the names of towns, we changed the names of Kitchener buns and all sorts of exciting things. So, uh, it really was extreme- extremely difficult. And one of the things that is still a big enigma to me Is the fact that I’d love to know how much she knew- Yeah … about what was going on. I find it really hard to believe that she was in Government House and, you know, whatever it is, it’s about 12 miles from the front door is Torrens Island, where we had a [00:59:00] concentration camp where we incarcerated Germans in barbed wire cages for at least six months.
And the activities that went on there have, were largely hidden from the general public, although not completely, because The Advertiser reported a death that was there, so clearly people did know what was going on.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah, that was a, a question. Yeah, it must have been in the papers sometime. It
Susan Neuhaus: must have been.
Yeah. And it was when there was a trial. So there was a very- Mm … public court martial of the officer that had been in charge there, and that in itself is quite a, quite an interesting story. But I just find it impossible for her to have not known. Mm. I mean, there must have been- Yeah … conversations that she heard, and she must have, must have known about it.
Lainie Anderson: It seems that she just kept her head down- Mm … and knew she had a job to do, so do it, and-
Susan Neuhaus: Mm.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. Um, what was her relationship like with Hans Heysen? You’ve, you said that, um, she had, had [01:00:00] originally asked him. Did you get any sense that they were confidants or quite close?
Susan Neuhaus: I think they were close, and in fact, this i- the title A Woman in a Thousand comes from Hans Heysen.
It’s how he described her, and he said when she left, uh, you know, th- that he’d lost a, lost a great friend She spent time up at his house so I think she would’ve loved being up there- Mm … with Hans and with Sally Heysen, possibly able to speak German, I’m not sure. Certainly Sally’s home-cooked German meals would’ve been- Okay, yeah
would’ve been wonderful for her. She also was very much a patron to him, so she brought over, uh, the wives of the Governor of Victoria, and the wife of the Governor General. They went up, and they all sponsored and bought paintings from Heysen.
Lainie Anderson: Wow, during the war when-
Susan Neuhaus: In the early stages.
Lainie Anderson: Oh, right. Okay,
Susan Neuhaus: yeah.
Um, Hans Heysen then became himself [01:01:00] subject to immense suspicion. Yeah. As I say, he was put under house arrest. He had paintings withdrawn from sale. Uh, he became a very unpopular figure, but, uh, it’s interesting to me also that Sir Henry, always a collector of art, managed to leave with 13 Heysen paintings-
all of which were apparently suitable to be hung in the finest room. So he obviously did quite well out of the arrangement.
Lainie Anderson: Wow. Wow, I didn’t know that. Um, it’s obviously in the book. I’ll have to read it again. Um, okay, I’m gonna jump … Is there anything else before we, I move away from the war and speak about Marie’s later life?
‘Cause I do wanna throw at you questions as well. Is there anything else about Marie during the war that you would like to say?
Susan Neuhaus: No, that’s okay. Great.
Lainie Anderson: Okay. I was fascinated that she left so quickly after the war. I mean, the armistice had b- barely, you know, been announced, and she was out of here. Why do you think that [01:02:00] was?
Susan Neuhaus: Why do you think that was?
Lainie Anderson: I, I know why it was. No, and I’ve got my ideas. I would have left as well. I would have left him here. And she did.
Susan Neuhaus: And she did. Look, I… Her mother had died during the war. She had family to go back to. Uh, her son, I think she would have been desperate to get back to- Mm … to see her son, because he really had been very unwell.
While he was here, he underwent surgery, I think for appendicitis, although it’s a bit unclear. Charlotte had, you know, finished school. It was time for her to get back, and, uh, I don’t think she was reluctant to leave Henry here.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. No, that’s true. Um, w- you had some great quotes by, um, newspaper editors about Marie when she left.
Can you give us a sense of, um, the feeling among South Australians about her role at, by the end of the war, and the general consensus about her when [01:03:00] she left?
Susan Neuhaus: Look, I think she was absolutely, unlike Henry, she was much loved by the people of South Australia. She was presented with a beautiful opal brooch.
People were genuinely very sad to see her go. The Catholic archbishop, uh, spoke quite remarkably about what she had done to encourage a generation of women to believe in themselves and their own organizing capability- Mm … which I think was a remarkable testament to her So I think she probably was a bit sad to leave South Australia in some ways.
In later years she spoke very fondly of her time here. Whenever families were visiting through London, like the Barr-Smiths, they always dropped in and saw her. Mm-hmm. So she did keep up those relationships. She kept up her correspondence to Kathleen, some of which is in, in the library here. So yes, the… As opposed to Henry, who stayed on and, uh, was fighting with the Colonial [01:04:00] Office because he wanted a, an extension as the governor, and clearly they had other ideas.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. Um, okay. Tell us about, um, her life, uh, post, post-Adelaide. What… How did she… What happened next?
Susan Neuhaus: Well, she certainly wasn’t a woman to sit still. So she went back to the UK and… Well, to, to Britain, and she threw herself once again into philanthropic activities. She became very involved with the Mothercraft organization- Oh
particularly in Ireland, and spent a huge amount of time traveling around Europe for them. She was involved in the women’s committee for the Wembley Stadium, and she became a patron of a whole raft of other activities as well. Went back to some of the other parliamentary advisory committees that she was on too.
Lainie Anderson: Was she a feminist in her time?
Susan Neuhaus: In the sense of a woman who believed in women [01:05:00] doing things, yes. In, in… You know, was she a radical? Well, look, she was a radical advocate for women. The fact that she stood in front of the Chamber of Commerce here in South Australia- Mm … and put the proposal to them in the first place, but then insisted that they give women equal pay, I think that meets my definition of a feminist.
Lainie Anderson: Yes. Great. What, um, what was the biggest surprise that you discovered in the archive? What sort of went, “Whoa, that was amazing”?
Susan Neuhaus: The biggest surprise for me… and it was quite hard to get the letters in order, but really was probably, probably a letter that she wrote t- to Kathleen many, many years later. So after…
And it was really clear to me that she was a very sharp, astute woman. She wasn’t politically naive at all- Mm … because she was writing at the time how she [01:06:00] felt that the burden of reparations on Germany was not gonna go well.
Lainie Anderson: Ah.
Susan Neuhaus: And I thought, “That’s incredibly insightful.”
Lainie Anderson: Yeah.
Susan Neuhaus: Uh, so she clearly, you know, she was clearly a very well-educated person.
Lainie Anderson: Pity she wasn’t at Versailles. Um, um, what, what do you hope that readers take away from the book?
Susan Neuhaus: I think there’s a couple of things. I mean, like you, I’m always an advocate for bringing these amazing women’s stories back to life that often get overlooked and forgotten, because so often we think that women didn’t do amazing things, and that’s only because we didn’t have the opportunity to know and share their stories.
But I think it’s also South Australia understanding its own history. Mm. I, I think we really should, as South Australians, reflect on this incredibly difficult time that we went through as a state, and what it means to [01:07:00] have your own community divided against each other across so many lines because they’re…
across religious lines, across heritage lines, across social divides. And to see how somebody managed to navigate that I think is quite powerful, and it is particularly relevant today. You know, if you read the newspapers today, you can see quite a few parallels with what happened here back in 1914 to ’18.
Lainie Anderson: Yeah. Well, um, thank you so much. How amazing. We’re going to throw to questions. Um, you can see how exhaustively Susan has researched this topic. Just absolutely fantastic, Susan. Um, we’re not gonna worry about bringing out a microphone, but if anyone has a, a question, um… What time have we got? It’s… We’ve got five minutes for questions before, um, we wrap up.
Yes? Every woman in the audience is asking the same thing [01:08:00]
Susan Neuhaus: Do you know, I wanted to title this book Enigma because to me there were just so many enigmas, and that is the biggest one. He was 20 years her senior. At the time, he’d been the governor of The Gambia. He had a, you know, he was recently decorated and quite pompous, I suspect Without doubt, there’s a, this is an arranged marriage.
I think we can be really clear on that. But why? I’m not so sure. Okay, so the Red Cross started here as a whole lot of Red Cross circles. So different communities set up different Red Cross circles. There was the, the Lady Mayoress’s Red Cross circle, and lots of others afterwards. Uh, they… The main Red Cross was from Government House, and slightly separate to the Red Cross Bureau, which did the work on tracing relatives or tracing the missing particularly.
The… They did all sorts of [01:09:00] things. They raised money. They, um, did a rather a lot of knitting. And one of the stories I like the most actually is sort of, uh, she circulated a, a pattern for pajamas. That’s right. And suggested that when one is making pajamas, one should make them a rather larger size. But one of the Red Cross circles clearly just went a bit bananas and, um, they made them apparently so big that you could’ve fitted it on a hind, uh, end of an elephant.
So clearly that wasn’t very economical use of material. Um, in terms of Keswick Barracks, so Keswick Barracks was where some of our first, uh, soldiers came back, and in the early part of the war we didn’t have that many casualties and then all of a sudden we did. And Keswick was set up as a hospital, largely in tent lines.
They had a lot of patients, particularly with tuberculosis, in tent lines there. That was run by the [01:10:00] Army Department, but there’s so many iterations of the Red Cross, of various nursing societies, later the Edith Cavell nurses, et cetera, all being… You know, and it’s a very complex weft of stuff. She had named after her the Lady Galway Convalescent Home, which was built at Glenelg to allow soldiers a place to convalesce near the beach, which she was very proud of.
And that, along with the Cheer Up Society hut, which allowed soldiers who were returning to come in and have a cup of tea and sit down and just have a place to relax, were incredibly important places as people were moving in and out of their various contingents and commitments. And then, of course, uh, Scotch College, the Barr-Smiths, they made a hospital there, and I think that’s now…
Well, it’s still in the grounds of the school, but yeah. So there were, there were many, but Keswick Barracks was definitely one of those. And at the time, there’s a photograph in the book, at the [01:11:00] time there’s really just the two buildings and the tent lines.
Lainie Anderson: Oh, I didn’t know about Scotch. Victoria?
Susan Neuhaus: I think by then she was just thoroughly back to being British Empire.
I don’t actually know anything about her involvement in the Second World War, but Charlotte by that stage h- was married, and she’d married a dashing young gentleman by the name of Roddy Denham, and he unfortunately was killed in Egypt and buried in Egypt. Charlotte, interestingly enough, became a member of the SOE, the Special Operations Executive, and she worked with Nicholls in the intelligence section dealing with the Free French.
Lainie Anderson: Wow.
Susan Neuhaus: Like mother, like daughter. At least language skills run in the family.
Lainie Anderson: Wow, that’s amazing.
Susan Neuhaus: Wow. Mm.
Lainie Anderson: Um, yes, last question?
Susan Neuhaus: What a great question. Yeah, that’s
Lainie Anderson: a great question. Wish I’d thought of it.
Susan Neuhaus: Oh.[01:12:00]
Do you know, I have absolutely no idea. He wouldn’t write it. Well, it’s, it’s fascinating ’cause he certainly had opinions on everything else. Yeah. And he wasn’t shy in sharing them. I mean, he thought that the, the workers at Islington were lazy. He thought it was a great day for the Germans when we voted down conscription.
You know, he thought that, oh, we, we c- didn’t know anything about agriculture because there was a drought. He thought the wharfies were all lazy. Uh, as to what he-
Lainie Anderson: Any, anyone striking should be put in, um, khaki and sent overseas- Yes … in the w- in the war.
Susan Neuhaus: I mean, he was a shocker. I bet what he actually thought of his wife, goodness, I don’t know.
Lainie Anderson: Next book. Oh, well, um, please join me in thanking this extraordinary woman who’s written about an extraordinary woman.
TAS Theme: And now it’s time [01:13:00] for The Musical Pilgrimage.
Steve Davis: In the Musical Pilgrimage we have a song that A lot was going on in my head as I was reflecting on this. Um, having read an advanced copy of A Woman in the Thousand, I was very keenly aware of Lady Marie Galway and her, her care, the way she used her position of power and influence for good and the resources at her disposal, like Government House being a collection point for odds and sods and resources and things that people were making to send over to aid the war effort, and then subsequently to look after returned soldiers.
So I have that, and as you know, dear listener, if you’ve been listening over the last few months, there is consternation in my mind about how our government is governing, especially the way that neoliberalism is dominating the agenda. Everything is spreadsheet-based, it’s [01:14:00] ones and zeros, it’s dollars, and how leaders are trampling over our cultural and social and environmental inheritance.
Um, obviously, symbolically, what they’re doing in the Parklands, ripping out a-and treading over Light’s vision, those beautiful trees we have, that green space that humans need, um, the iconic look that it creates that Tourism SA is very happy to exploit, to be replaced by infrastructure and bitumen for a three-day race and maybe another couple of things where those in power get to wear their nice chinos and chink their champagne glasses with celebrities who are on the TV all the time a-and just have their little taste of power, and to heck with the stain it leaves upon our legacy.
Such [01:15:00] short-termism. Now, in this day and age, thanks to these little black screens that have addicted all of us, the distraction factor is so high that it’s hard to sustain a campaign, and it allows people in power to make their changes and know they just have to weather a few days of storm in the socials and then get on with it.
Um, if only they had the gumption to apply themselves to the tough things that society needs addressing. However, that’s a story for another day, and the song in last episode really honed in on that. What I’ve done is, inspired by all this historical writing and some fiction that I’ve seen, I imagined what it would be like if you were agitating against leaders who were destroying your town, very much in the way that we might think of some of the, the civil wars and the, the rebellions that have happened through history.
And for some reason, I think it’s because I’ve just seen the, The [01:16:00] Odyssey and very m– and also read through, uh, The Iliad recently. Greek culture is very much Front of mind, and of course, the Greeks are no strangers to having those struggles over time and having people need to be passionate, to rally together and put everything on the line.
And so I’ve crafted a modern day, if you like, Greek folk song, casting the story of the agitation against the wanton destruction taking place here in South Australia and Adelaide, um, in terms of that. And we follow someone who is going to agitate and try and bring the tyrant down who is, uh, destroying our town.
So this is a flight of fancy and fantasy. It’s a recasting of the story. It’s something a little bit different. It’s called And Drink to Us, Steve Davis and the Voutsalisos.
Steve Davis & The Virtualosos: My darling, [01:17:00] my darling, meet me at the olive trees
I’m leaving, I’m leaving. Come and say goodbye to me
Dance and weep . Clear your mind before you sleep. Share your wine and drink to us while there’s still time
There is a tyrant in our town I’m fighting, I’m fighting. I’m trying to bring him down[01:18:00]
Clear your mind before you sleep. Share your wine and drink to us while there’s still time
While there’s still time[01:19:00]
A candle lit. Please keep your lamp aglow. Please leave somewhere to sit. Even when I
Sleep. Share your wine and drink to us while there’s still time. Dance
and weep . Clear your mind before you sleep. [01:20:00] Share your wine and drink to us while there’s still time. Dance
Steve Davis: Steve Davis and the Virtual Osos and, and drink to us. How much I would love to have a performer, especially Greek performers, breathe life to this track. Thank you for listening. I do hope you get a chance to read a copy of A Lady in a Thousand … Sorry, A Woman in a Thousand. Uh, it’s, it’s a lovely read, especially if you are curious about our past and the things that people can do during their short [01:21:00] dance across this patch of turf that we call home.
Until next time, it’s good night from me, Steve Davis, and good night, Don.
AJ Davis: The Adelaide Show podcast is produced by my dad, Steve Davis. If you want to start a podcast or get some help producing creative content, talk to him. Visit stevedavis.com.au. Thanks, AJ. I’m Caitlin Davis, and I agree with everything my sister said, but there’s one more thing to say.
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please leave a rating or a review, ’cause that will make my dad really happy. Oh, and one more thing, if you really, really liked it, please help a friend put The Adelaide Show on their phone. Thanks for listening
Buzz, buzz, I
TAS Theme: wanna be Adelaide, Adelaide, [01:22:00] Adelaide