{{Short description|Australian kindergarten teacher (1893 – 1990)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}{{Use Australian English|date=May 2024}}

{{Infobox person | name = Ellinor Gertrude Walker | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|OBE|size=100%}} | image = Ellinor Gertrude Walker.gif | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1893|04|09}} | birth_place = South Yarra, Victoria, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1990|11|07|1893|04|09}} | death_place = Norwood, South Australia | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = Kindergarten teacher | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Ellinor Gertrude Walker''' {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|OBE}} (9 April 1893 – 7 November 1990) was an Australian kindergarten teacher and women's rights activist.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lj9WAAAAYAAJ&dq=Ellinor+Gertrude+Walker&pg=RA5-PA94 |title=Manual |date=1908 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Prest |first1=Wilfrid R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDgPo8KWKh4C&q=Ellinor+Gertrude+Walker |title=The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History |last2=Prest |first2=Wilfrid |last3=Round |first3=Kerrie |last4=Fort |first4=Carol S. |date=2001 |publisher=Wakefield Press* |isbn=978-1-86254-558-8 |language=en}}</ref> She wrote plays and poems and is credited with drafting The Guardianship of Infants Act passed in 1940 in South Australia.

==Life== Walker was born in 1893 in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra. In 1902 she moved with her family to Adelaide, where she was educated at the Wilderness School and Norwood High School.<ref name="eadrb" />

In 1916 she enrolled at the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College<ref name=iview>{{Cite web |title=Interview with Ellinor Gertrude Walker Interviewer: Beth M. Robertson [Full interview] |url=https://digital.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/nodes/view/7762 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=State Library of South Australia |language=en}}</ref> (one source says 1917). The college was led by Lillian Daphne de Lissa<ref name=eadrb/> who was headhunted in early 1917 to lead a similar college in Britain. de Lissa said that she would try to find a replacement for herself.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1917-01-27 |title=Miss Lillian de Lissa. |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59430568 |access-date=2024-05-04 |work=Mail}}</ref> Walker became the principal of the Halifax Street Free Kindergarten which gave assistance to the poor mothers of the area.<ref name=eadrb/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pa.) |first=Juniata College (Huntingdon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wJxGAQAAMAAJ&dq=Ellinor+Gertrude+Walker&pg=RA10-PA53 |title=Catalogue |date=1899 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1919 the flu pandemic was killing many people around the world. Walker did not die but she did catch the disease and she had to be place in quarantine as she began a long recovery. After her recovery,<ref name="eadrb" /> Walker opened and ran Greenways, a school for twenty children aged 3 to 8 based in her home based on the Montessori method for 24 years.<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis |last=Keane |first=Mary Veronica |url=https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/37742/10/02whole.pdf |title='Ourselves Alone'?: The work of single women in South Australia, 1911–1961: The institutions which they shaped and which shaped them |date=2005 |access-date=2024-05-04 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Adelaide}}</ref> In the later afternoon she had other activities for herself. She would read the accounts of parliamentary debates and write letters where she could assist. She also wrote plays and one was performed in Adelaide in May 1933 at the Australian Federation of Women Voters conference. The play was called ''The Spring of Power'' and concerned how women had gained the vote. Her next play, ''Heritage: A Pageant of South Australia'', was featured in the celebration of South Australia's bicentenary and it ran for ten sell-out performances.<ref name=eadrb/> Her writing also included poetry and ''The silver wing and other poems'' was published in 1939.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The silver wing and other poems / by Ellinor G. Walker - Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/928160 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}</ref> [[File:Pageant 1936 Ellinor Walker and Heather Gell.png|thumb|left|Ellinor Walker and Heather Gell created a Pageant in 1936 in Adelaide for the Women's Centenary Council]] In 1940 ''The Guardianship of Infants Act'' was passed by the South Australia parliament.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Legislation |first=South Australian |date=2021-11-22 |title=LZ |url=https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/lz |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=South Australian Legislation |language=en-AU}}</ref> This act was almost entirely due to Walker. It was her research over eight years that enabled her to draft the text. Her draft was checked by lawyer Roma Mitchell and with one amendment it was adopted by the government as part of that year's legislation.<ref name="eadrb" />

She joined the Women's Non-Party Political Association and remained an active member for 65 years.<ref name=":0" /> After the war she and the association were advocates for the League of Nations.<ref name=iview/><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PDdmAAAAMAAJ&q=Ellinor+Gertrude+Walker |title=Archives and Manuscripts: The Journal of the Archives Section, the Library Association of Australia |date=1994 |publisher=Library Association of Australia, Archives Section |language=en}}</ref>

Walker was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1971 Birthday Honours for service to the community.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Miss Ellinor Gertrude WALKER |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1108387 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Australian Honours Search Facility}}</ref>

Walker died in Norwood, South Australia in 1990.<ref name=eadrb>{{Citation |last=Jones |first=Helen |title=Ellinor Gertrude Walker (1893–1990) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walker-ellinor-gertrude-15882 |access-date=2024-05-04 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref> Ellinor Walker Street, in the Canberra suburb of Franklin, is named in her honour.<ref name="eadrb" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2009 |title=News of Friends of Grasslands |url=https://www.fog.org.au/Newsletters/2009-09newsletter.htm |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Friends of Grasslands |issn=1832-6315}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walker-ellinor-gertrude-15882 Biography at ADB]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Ellinor Gertrude}} Category:1893 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Kindergarten Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:20th-century Australian women educators Category:People from South Yarra, Victoria