Florence Violet McKenzie

Florence Violet McKenzie
OBE
McKenzie in uniform c. 1940
Born
Florence Violet Granville

(1890-09-28)28 September 1890
Melbourne, Australia
Died23 May 1982(1982-05-23) (aged 91)
Sydney, Australia
Other names
  • "Mrs Mac"
  • Violet Wallace
Alma materSydney Technical College
OccupationElectrical engineer
Known forFounding the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps

Florence Violet McKenzie OBE (née Granville; 28 September 1890[1] – 23 May 1982), affectionately known as "Mrs Mac", was Australia's first female electrical engineer, founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) and lifelong promoter for technical education for women.[1] She campaigned successfully to have some of her female trainees accepted into the all-male Navy, thereby originating the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS).[2] Some 12,000 servicemen passed through her signal instruction school in Sydney, acquiring skill in Morse code and visual signalling (flag semaphore and International Code of Signals).[3]

She set up her own electrical contracting business in 1918, and apprenticed herself to it, in order to meet the requirements of the Diploma in Electrical Engineering at Sydney Technical College. Described at the time as Australia's "Mademoiselle Edison",[4] in 1922 she became the first Australian woman to take out an amateur radio operator's licence. Through the 1920s and 1930s, her "Wireless Shop" in Sydney's Royal Arcade was renowned amongst Sydney radio experimenters and hobbyists. She founded The Wireless Weekly in 1922, established the Australian Electrical Association for Women in 1934, and wrote the first "all-electric cookbook" in 1936. She corresponded with Albert Einstein in the postwar years.[5]

  1. ^ a b Catherine Freyne (2010). "McKenzie, Violet". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. Archived from the original on 5 April 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heywood was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Who's Who in Australia (15th ed. / compiled and edited by Joseph A. Alexander ed.), Herald & Weekly Times, 1955, retrieved 19 November 2011
  4. ^ "Mdlle. Edisom". The Sun. No. 887. New South Wales, Australia. 28 March 1920. p. 17. Retrieved 7 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Hindsight – 18 January 2009 – Signals, currents, and wires: the untold story of Florence Violet McKenzie". ABC News. 18 January 2009. Archived from the original on 3 February 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2011.