Summary heading

  Dame Annabelle Rankin DBE (CP 137)

Career within Commonwealth

  Annabelle Jane Mary Rankin was born in Brisbane in 1908, the daughter of a former Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly (Colonel C D W Rankin). She received her primary education at state schools in Childers and Howard and her secondary education at Glennie Memorial School in Toowoomba. She later spent some time travelling in Japan, China, England, Scotland and Europe and, on returning to Brisbane, worked as a clerk for a Trustee company.

During the Second World War, Rankin became an Assistant Commandant of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, Secretary of the British Bombed Children’s Fund, worked with the Women’s Voluntary National Register and was a state Assistant Commissioner in the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). In 1942, she took up the full-time position of State Secretary to the Queensland Branch of the Girl Guides Association and was also attached to the Australian Women’s Services (1943-46). On her discharge from the Army, she became an organiser for the Junior Red Cross in Queensland.

In 1946, Rankin was elected as a Liberal Senator for Queensland, the first Queensland woman to be elected to Federal Parliament. Her term began on 1 July 1947 and she remained a Senator for 34 years.

Senator Rankin was Opposition Whip in the Senate (1947-49), Government Whip in the Senate (1951-66) and a member of three Parliamentary Committees:- the Senate Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances and the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on Broadcasting (1947-49) and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works (1951). She was a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Delegation to Ottawa, Canada in September 1952 and represented the Australian Government at the Independence Day Celebrations in Mauritius in March 1968. In the Holt and Gorton Governments she served as Minister for Housing (1966-71).

In March 1971, Senator Rankin resigned from Parliament and her portfolio to accept an appointment as Australia’s High Commissioner to New Zealand. She retired from that office in September 1974 and returned to Brisbane, where she resumed her involvement in voluntary and community organisations.

Dame Annabelle Rankin was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1957 and died in Brisbane in 1986.

Links to other Commonwealth Persons

Publications

End notes

Sources

Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook 1965, p 193; 1971, p 410

Commonwealth of Australia Directory 1967, p 26

Who’s Who in Australia 1985, p 706

Summary heading

Unregistered links

1942 - ?1946    :  Girl Guides Association, Queensland – State Secretary

1943 -Apr 1946:  Australian Women’s Services (attached) – Senior YWCA Representative

1946 -             :  Junior Red Cross, Queensland – Organiser

1949 -             :  Liberal Party, Queensland – Vice-President