Freda Mary Howy Irving MBE (1903 - 1985)

Born 1903 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Died 26 Sep 1985 at about age 82 in Kilmore, Victoria, Australia

Biography

Freda Irving MBE is Notable.

Freda Irving MBE was born in Victoria, Australia

Freda Mary Howy Irving was born in 1903 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She was the younger daughter of Major General Godfrey Irving and Ada Derham.^[1] Freda's older siblings were Colonel Sybil Irving MBE, founder and controller of the Australian Women's Army Service, and Brigadier Ronald Irving OBE.

Barely five feet (152 cm) tall, Freda was destined for a different profession than the military. A meeting with the women’s editor of the Evening Sun in 1925 led to her employment as a journalist and a social writer. Her first big break came in 1936, when she went to London for the Herald to cover the abdication of King Edward VIII and the coronation of King George VI. In 1940 she became publicity officer for the Victorian Red Cross Society and in 1943, almost inevitably, joined the Australian Women's Army Service.

Freda Irving MBE is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Australian Women's Army Service 1943-1945
Amenities Officer and Directorate of Public Relations

She served on her sister Sybil’s staff as amenities officer for the three women’s army services and later in the Directorate of Public Relations. She left the army in December 1945 as a Captain and returned to the Sun. ^[2] After freelance work in 1948 she joined the Argus. In 1952, in poor health, she left, briefly tried farming, then rejoined and covered the Royal Tour in 1954. Women’s editor when the paper closed in 1957, she made sure that every member of her staff got a job. She continued in journalism, over the years working on the Sunday Observer, Camberwell Free Press, the Age, and as Melbourne editor for Woman’s Day, and wrote the gossip page for the Sydney Sun-Herald and articles for Pol magazine. She was the first female president of the Melbourne Press Club in 1972. Freda was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1981.^[3]

She passed away, unmarried, on 26th September 1985 at Kilmore, Victoria, and was buried in Fawkner Cemetery.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria Birth Index #27184/1903
2. ↑ World War 2 Service: (Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs: accessed 10 Dec 2023), Veteran Details for Freda Mary Howy Irving for Service with the Australian Army; Service Number: VF398095; Rank: Captain; Enlistment Date: 23 Mar 1943; Date of Discharge: 3 Dec 1945
3. ↑ Dunstan, Keith. Irving, Freda Mary Howy (1903–1984). Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/irving-freda-mary-howy-12683/text22863, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 6 June 2018.
4. ↑ Victoria Death Index #10585/1985