Georgie Swift (1920-2008), journalist, publicist and chatelaine, was born Georgette Marie Hiro Matsui to a French-born mother and Japanese father in Sydney after the First World War. When she was quite young her father had to return to Japan to work, and renamed Georgie Matson, she grew up with her French relatives in the Eastern suburbs, progressing from Kambala to the University of Sydney, where she began an arts degree. Her studies curtailed by World War II, she gained a job at the Daily Mirror, but was sacked for underperformance within a year. In 1945 she married Flight Commander Robert Swift DFC; henceforth, they lived at his childhood home in Killara. For most of the 1970s she was fashion editor of Woman’s Day, and in 1980 she became director of publicity for David Jones. She and her dashing husband ‘Snow’ Swift were legendary entertainers; amongst her closest friends were Margaret Whitlam (it was she who introduced Margaret to Gough) and Maggie Tabberer.
