On the afternoon of 17 June, war widows came together at Government House, Sydney for an afternoon tea hosted by our Patron, Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales. It was the first gathering of our 80th anniversary year and, looking back on it now, a fitting way to begin.
Where it started
Eighty years ago, war widows did not wait to be looked after. In the year after her husband, Major General George Vasey, was killed in 1945, Jessie Vasey wrote more than 2,000 letters by hand to find other widows like her. On 4 June 1946, more than 300 of them filled a conference room in Sydney for the first meeting of the War Widows’ Craft Guild. One hundred enrolled that day.
They were not asking for charity. They wanted fair pensions, recognition, and a place in a conversation that had overlooked them. Jessie Vasey took on governments who would rather not listen — “nagging is very good in a woman,” she said — and she did not stop. Her purpose was simple: to ask war widows to get back to the best that was within them. They did. As one member reflected on the day, without Jessie Vasey’s vision eighty years ago, the women in that room would not be where they are now. That is the inheritance every woman carried into Government House.
Women who understand each other
Looking around the room, you saw what Jessie Vasey set out to build: women who do not need to explain their loss to one another. Women supporting one another.
The members who were there described it better than we could. One spoke of an understanding that is not written down and not spoken aloud: you know when someone is sad, and you know why, and sometimes all you need to do is offer a hug. Another remembered being newly widowed and unsure the Guild was for her, only to feel an immediate rapport the moment she walked in, because everyone was in the same position. Others spoke plainly about what that support had meant: that in their hardest days, it was the friendship of other widows that kept them going; that they would not be the people they are today without it.
Many wore the kookaburra badge that has marked Guild members since the 1950s — chosen by Jessie Vasey because the kookaburra’s call is not a song but a laugh, “a call to win the widow back to laughter.” Eighty years on, the same bird sits at the centre of our anniversary mark.
Widows spoke warmly of friendships made, of outings they treasure, of bringing children and grandchildren into the life of the Guild so that the next generation grows up knowing these women and what they stand for. Several singled out the Governor’s speech, and the meaning in hearing their own history recalled with such conviction by their Patron.
Still here, still standing
The Guild that began with war widows has grown into a national organisation supporting defence and veteran families across Australia. What has not changed is the reason it exists: connection, advocacy, and the support of people who understand. As one member put it, no other group has this — you cannot say exactly what it is, it is just there. The motto our founders adopted in 1949 still holds — we all belong to each other; we all need each other — and, as another member said, it is not just words; it is how we live.
The year ahead
The afternoon tea was only the beginning or our celebrations for the year ahead. Across the anniversary year there is more to come: gatherings, recognition and moments to mark the milestone together, all carrying the spirit of our founder, and remembering that Together We Still Stand. We will share more in the months ahead.
Eighty years on, we are still here. Still standing together. And this anniversary belongs to every one of us.
#TogetherWeStillStand
