Dame Enid Lyons AD GBE (1897–1981) was the first woman elected to the Federal House of Representatives. Born near Smithton, Lyons led an itinerant childhood as her father sought work at different sawmills in northwest Tasmania. In her early teens she learnt elocution, and with her mother's encouragement went to Hobart to train as a teacher. She was fifteen when she met Joseph (Joe) Lyons, then a Labor member of the Tasmanian parliament and eighteen years her senior. They married in 1915, by which time Joseph was serving as Treasurer and Minister for Education. By 1923, when her husband became Premier, Lyons managed being a mother to six children with her political activities, including an unsuccessful tilt at parliament in 1925. Joseph entered Federal politics in 1929; after his 1931 break with Labor, Enid became an active campaigner for the newly formed United Australia Party. As the Prime Minister's wife from 1932 to 1939, she maintained what she described as a 'killing pace' of official, political and personal duties between Canberra, Melbourne and the family home in Devonport. Her last child – her twelfth – was born in 1933. She returned to Tasmania following Joe's death in office in 1939, thereafter experiencing a sustained period of grief and depression. She returned to public life in 1943 when she stood as the UAP candidate for the seat of Darwin (now Braddon) and won. In Lyons' maiden speech she addressed issues such as pensions, the declining birth rate, child endowment, a national housing scheme and the basic wage. Over the years she also advocated for her state on a range of social and political issues, as well as industry and agricultural development. Re-elected twice, each time with an increased majority, in 1949 she was appointed vice-president of the Executive Council, making her the first woman to serve in a Federal cabinet (although she was disappointed not to have been given a portfolio and later said that the position was 'toothless'). Lyons retired from parliament in 1951 but continued to be involved in political and community activities through organisations including the Australian Women's National League and the Housewives' Association. Commissioner of the ABC from 1951 to 1962, she also worked as a newspaper columnist and broadcaster. Lyons published three memoirs between 1965 and 1972, and was accorded a state funeral following her death, aged 84.
