Frances Perry (1815-1892) met Charles Perry through her brother, a student at Cambridge, and after they married, the couple lived at St Paul’s Cambridge, where he was vicar, for six years. When Perry was appointed first Bishop of Melbourne they came to Victoria on the Stag, arriving in January 1848. Here she accompanied Perry on his long trips through his huge diocese, riding, walking, staying in rough quarters and writing copiously in diaries and letters home about the country she found herself in. She described the flora and fauna, the Snowy Mountains, the appearance of the native police (she thought them good-looking), the heat, the flies, the bushfires and the discovery of gold. In her role as Bishop’s wife she undertook her charitable duties with gusto; she was especially involved with the Governesses’ Institution and the Melbourne Home, and was a strong advocate for the Lying-In Hospital for poor women, serving as its president for nearly twenty years. The Frances Perry Wing of the Royal Women’s Hospital commemorates her contribution to women’s health in the colony. Having returned to England with Perry in 1874, she died in the Lake Country on the first anniversary of his death.
