Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE (b. 1931), former sprinter, was Governor of South Australia from 2001 to 2007. The 'Lithgow Flash' won Olympic gold medals in the 100m and 200m at Helsinki in 1952, becoming the first Australian woman to win an Olympic gold medal for track and field and the first Australian to win an Olympic gold medal on the running track since 1896. Between 1950 and 1954 she won every state and Australian title for the 100 yards and 220 yards. She broke world sprint records ten times and garnered seven Commonwealth Games gold medals. Sportsman of the Year in 1952, in 1953 she was awarded an MBE for her services to athletics. Since the death from leukaemia in 1977 of her husband Peter Nelson, former Olympic cyclist, she has been dedicated to securing funds to sponsor research into the disease, raising over $7 million for facilities in Adelaide through the Peter Nelson Leukaemia Fellowship Research Fund.
Avril Thomas painted Jackson-Nelson in a number of sittings at Government House in Adelaide. The portrait incorporates objects referring to Jackson-Nelson's position as Governor and her Olympic career, such as her kangaroo-skin running spikes and a maquette of her life-sized statue in her home town of Lithgow.
Commissioned 2006
© Commonwealth of Australia
Avril Thomas (age 50 in 2006)
Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE (age 75 in 2006)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
As part of its ongoing program of commissions of portraits of prominent Australians, the National Portrait Gallery has unveiled a portrait of Her Excellency Marjorie Jackson-Nelson by South Australian artist Avril Thomas.
Well behaved women seldom make history, as the saying goes, and the National Portrait Gallery, consequently, is full of awesome Australian women who refused to conform to narrow ideas about their place and their worth.
