80 years ago, a group of war widows met in Sydney and refused to be forgotten. This is the story of how the Guild began and the story of the woman who made it happen.

It was a winter afternoon in Sydney, Tuesday, 4 June 1946. In the conference room of the Grand United Order of Oddfellows on Castlereagh Street, more than 300 war widows had gathered. The war in the Pacific had ended less than a year before. The city was preparing for Victory Day celebrations the following week, when three-quarters of a million people would line the streets.

But the women in that room had been left out of the celebrations. They were war widows, and they had already learned that the end of the war did not mean the end of their hardship. Many faced real financial difficulty. They had lost their husbands’ incomes, and the pensions they received were meagre. As the minutes of that first meeting recorded, war widows had been “left out and forgotten, and the sacrifice they had made for the community overlooked.”

That day, they had come together to change that.

The woman who wrote 2,000 letters

The meeting was the work of Jessie Vasey CBE OBE. Born in Roma, Queensland, in 1897, she had graduated from the University of Melbourne with first-class honours and spent the war years supporting families through the AIF Women’s Association, which helped some nine thousand families in need.

Then the war reached her own family. In March 1945, her husband, Major General George Vasey, was killed when his aircraft crashed off Cairns. Jessie Vasey became a war widow herself. Even in her grief, she kept pushing for better treatment of women in her situation — she drafted a reply to a condolence note from the Prime Minister, John Curtin, on the back of his own letter.

She did not rest for long. She had seen what war widows faced, and she had an answer. By February 1946 she had written, by hand, over 2,000 letters encouraging war widows across the country to join a new organisation. She had already established the first Guild in Melbourne the previous November. New South Wales would be the second state to follow.

“… only a widow knows what a widow feels.”  — Jessie Vasey

Self-help, not charity

From the very beginning, the Guild had two purposes that worked together. One was connection — friendship and belonging among women who understood one another without needing to explain. The other was advocacy — pressing governments for fair recognition and support.

Its first name, the War Widows’ Craft Guild, reflected a practical idea. Training in crafts such as weaving had a steadying, restorative value, and it offered a way to earn an income alongside an inadequate pension. The word “Craft” was later dropped, but “Guild,” with its sense of mutual aid, was kept on purpose.

What never changed was the principle underneath it all. When Jessie Vasey first applied to register the Guild, she was knocked back. A male politician asked her why widows should need to organise at all, offering instead, “But we’ll do it all for you.” Her reply has echoed through our history ever since:

“And what qualifies you to decide what women need?”  — Jessie Vasey

This was never an organisation built on charity. It was built by women who intended to act for themselves.

80 years on

That first meeting in 1946 drew 100 members on the day. By mid-July, another 280 had joined. From there, the Guild grew into a national voice for war widows — and, over the decades, broadened to support all families of veterans, across every stage of service and beyond.

The need that brought those women together has not gone away. Families still carry the weight of service. They still navigate complex systems, and they still deserve connection, recognition, and support. We continue that work today for war widows, defence and veteran families alike — not moving beyond the women who founded us, but extending what they built.

Our anniversary line says it best: Together We Still Stand — 80 years of bringing out the best in each other. The words come straight from Jessie Vasey. In 1946 she described the Guild’s purpose as asking war widows “to get back to the best that was within them.” Eighty years on, that is still what we do.

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