Lady Lloyd Jones

Hannah Benyon Lloyd Jones OBE (1901–1982) was the third wife of Sir Charles Lloyd Jones, the chairman of David Jones from 1920 until his death in 1958. The youngest of thirteen children, she and Lloyd Jones married in Chicago in July 1929, a week after Lloyd Jones' divorce from his second wife was finalised. Returning to Sydney in the early 1930s, they moved to Rosemont, a colonial-era mansion in Woollahra. Rosemont subsequently became famous as the venue for the many receptions and other functions hosted by Hannah, where guests might reasonably expect to meet people such as Sir Robert and Dame Pattie Menzies, RG Casey, and on occasion even Noel Coward or the Duke of Edinburgh, all of whom were friends of the family. Active in aid of charities including the Royal Blind Society, Legacy and Barnardo's and a fundraiser for organisations such as the National Trust, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Art Gallery Society of NSW and St. John's Ambulance, she was a leading member of Sydney society and known for her taste in fashion, interior decoration, fine art and gardening.

Awarded an OBE for her charity work in 1955, she lived at Rosemont until 1981, when the house was sold, along with the important art collection that had been built by her husband. A profile of Hannah, published in the Australian Women's Weekly in January 1979, described her as an 'extremely efficient, rich, powerful and strikingly handsome woman … who believes in contributing'. 'I have never had any desire to get away from it all,' she was quoted as saying. 'On the contrary, I always want to be where the action is.' She died in Sydney in September 1982.

Gift of Sarah Wood 2022. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Judy Cassab/Copyright Agency, 2024