Mary Elizabeth Maud Chomley OBE (1872–1960) has been described as the 'divine angel of mercy' for Australian prisoners of war during the First World War. A charity worker, arts patron, feminist and amateur artist, she was the eldest daughter of judge Arthur Wolfe Chomley and Juliana, and grew up in Melbourne and later at Dromkeen, the Chomley family's property at Riddells Creek. In her early twenties Mary spent time in Burma and India, and following her mother's death in 1897 took on the running of the family homes. She became involved with the Victorian Ladies' Work Association and, in 1906, was the secretary for the committee who instigated and organised the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work, which attracted a quarter of a million visitors and is now considered a landmark event in the history of women’s art in Australia. Chomley was one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts Society of Victoria, and in 1909 became founding secretary of the state branch of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship. She went to England in June 1914 and, prevented from getting home by the outbreak of war, threw herself into work: teaching English to Belgian refugees in London, giving crochet lessons and volunteering at the Robert Lindsay Memorial Hospital for Officers. She then went to France to work at a canteen that supplied food and clothing to British and allied troops. After returning to London, she was superintendent of the domestic staff at Princess Christian's Hospital for Officers, then, in 1916, she joined the newly formed Prisoners of War Department of the Australian Red Cross, coordinating a team of volunteers to distribute thousands of parcels to Australian and New Zealand troops taken prisoner on the Western Front. Her work for the Red Cross was honoured in 1918, when she was awarded an OBE. Remaining in London after the armistice, Chomley was the Australian representative on the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women and, from 1925 to 1933, chair of the Women's Section of the British Legion. Chomley returned permanently to Melbourne in 1934, resuming her work with the Victoria League and the Arts and Crafts Society. She died at her home in Toorak, aged 88.
