{{short description|Australian poet, novelist and journalist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox poet | name = Agnes L. Storrie | image = Agnes L. Storrie.png | caption = Storrie in 1916 | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1864|08|23}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1936|08|20|1864|08|23}} | occupation = {{Cslist|Poet|writer}} | notable_works = ''Poems'' (1909) | pseudonym = {{Cslist|Agnes L. Kettlewell|A.L.S.|Senga|"AYEA"|La Pensee|Inky Fingers}} | birth_name = Agnes Louisa Storrie | death_place = Woolwich, New South Wales, Australia | birth_place = Glenelg, Glenelg, South Australia }}
'''Agnes Louisa Storrie''' (23 August 1864 – 20 August 1936) was an Australian poet, writer and one of the founders of the Wattle Day League. She wrote as '''Agnes L. Storrie''', but was also known by her married name, '''Agnes L. Kettlewell'''. Other pennames included '''A.L.S.''', '''Senga''', '''"AYEA"''', '''La Pensee''' and '''Inky Fingers'''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Agnes L. Storrie |url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/A30535 |access-date=2024-05-24 |website=AustLit: Discover Australian Stories |publisher=The University of Queensland}}</ref>
==Life and writing== Agnes Louise Storrie was born in Glenelg, South Australia on 23 August 1864. She was the third daughter of James and Agnes Storrie (née Tassie).<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49751302|title=Family Notices|date=1856-06-05|work=South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=2}}</ref> She was educated at the Advanced School for Girls in Adelaide.<ref>{{cite news |date=13 February 1936 |title=Schoolgirls of Yesteryear |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133056462 |accessdate=26 December 2024 |newspaper=Adelaide News |location=South Australia |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=XXVI |issue=3,920}}</ref>
Storrie was an associate member of the Glenelg Literary Association. Her poem "What the overseer told me" was award second prize by the South Australian’s Literary Societies' Union in September 1887.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37180305|title=Literary Competition|date=1887-09-23|work=South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 - 1889)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=5}}</ref> In the same competition her "Grapes From a Thorn" won first prize for a novelette and was subsequently published in the ''Adelaide Observer''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article160764573|title=The Story-Teller.|date=1887-10-15|work=Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=42}}</ref>
On 10 July 1890 Storrie married John Wilson Kettlewell at the Congregational Church in Glenelg.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47280200|title=Family Notices|date=1890-07-24|work=South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=4}}</ref> Following her marriage she moved to Sydney, home of her husband.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63611246|title=South Australian Social Items.|date=1890-07-19|work=Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1881 - 1894)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=10}}</ref>
A volume of her poetry, titled ''Poems'', was first published in Sydney in 1899.<ref>{{Citation|author1=Storrie, Agnes L|title=Poems|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11319058|publication-date=1899|publisher=[s.n.]|access-date=21 November 2019}}</ref> A review in ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' referred to it as a "small volume of pretty verse",<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14239112|title=Palmistry.|date=1899-12-16|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=4}}</ref> while the ''Adelaide Advertiser's'' critic said "all express deep feeling, and show an exalted view of the poet's calling".<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5200179|title=Australian Verse|date=1909-11-06|work=Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=15}}</ref> A review published in 1912 said that "Agnes L. Storrie has a wonderful knowledge of our own country, and the lonesome out-back."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article124129168|title=Our Book Column|date=1912-11-26|work=Sydney Stock and Station Journal (NSW : 1896 - 1924)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=8}}</ref>
In 1899 she and her husband edited the ''Tourist guide to China, Japan, islands and ports en route, Australia and Tasmania'' for the Eastern and Australian Steamship Co., Ltd.<ref>{{Citation|author1=Storrie, Agnes L|title=The Eastern and Australian Steamship Co., Ltd. : tourist guide to China, Japan, islands and ports en route, Australia and Tasmania|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/16755444|publication-date=1899|publisher=W. Dymock|access-date=21 November 2019|author2=Kettlewell, J. W}}</ref>
Two of her poems, "Twenty Gallons of Sleep" and "A Confession", were included in Bertram Stevens’ ''Anthology of Australia Verse'', published by Angus & Robertson in 1906.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109519556|title=Personal Pars.|date=1906-01-04|work=Renmark Pioneer (SA : 1892 - 1913)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=3}}</ref>
Marion Miller Knowles wrote an article, "Australian Women of Note", for the ''Advocate'' in 1922. She said that Storrie's "poems in a mystic vein are as musical as an infant's lullaby".<ref>{{cite news |date=18 May 1922 |title=Australian Women of Note: "Advance Australia" |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article171064640 |accessdate=25 May 2024 |newspaper=Advocate |location=Victoria, Australia |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=LIII |issue=2590}}</ref>
== Wattle Day League == In 1909 Storrie was one of the founders of the Wattle Day League, along with the NSW Government Botanist, Joseph Maiden and Hannah E. Clunies-Ross.<ref>{{cite news |date=2 September 1922 |title=Wattle Day |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64129138 |accessdate=25 May 2024 |newspaper=The Register (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia |volume=LXXXVII |issue=25,486}}</ref> The movement sought to celebrate Wattle Day as Australia’s national flower and raise patriotic feeling. She was appointed honorary secretary at the inaugural meeting on 30 August.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15072183|title=Wattle Day|date=1909-08-31|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-23|pages=5}}</ref> Storrie resigned from that position in 1919, having promoted the concept in London as well as across Australia.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15072183|title=Wattle Day|date=1909-08-31|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-23|pages=5}}</ref>
== Personal == Storrie's only son, John Bryan Kettlewell, died on 11 February 1922 at Griffith, New South Wales aged 19.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15989351|title=Family Notices|date=1922-02-14|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=8}}</ref> Her husband, a retired publishers' representative, predeceased her on 22 February 1933.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247115756|title=Family Notices|date=1933-02-23|work=Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16984777|title=Advertising|date=1933-05-15|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=2}}</ref>
Storrie died on 20 August 1936. The following day her funeral left her residence at 16 Point Road, Woolwich for the Northern Suburbs Crematorium.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17262978|title=Family Notices|date=1936-08-21|work=Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=9}}</ref> She was survived by her two unmarried daughters, Rhoda Storrie Kettlewell and Joyce Kettlewell, who were both journalists.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article180073685|title=Agnes Louise Kettlewell|date=1936-08-25|work=Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947)|access-date=2019-11-21|pages=9}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Storrie, Agnes L.}} Category:1864 births Category:1936 deaths Category:Australian women poets Category:19th-century Australian poets Category:19th-century women poets Category:19th-century Australian women writers Category:20th-century Australian poets Category:20th-century Australian women poets Category:Writers from South Australia Category:Colony of South Australia people Category:People educated at the Advanced School for Girls