French-Australian League records, 1917-1921

MLMSS 717

fonds

1917-1921

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Ephemera

422216

1 box of textual material

Augustine Soubeiran (1858-1933), was born in France. She migrated to Sydney after the death of her parents and worked as a governess. In 1884 she was invited by Louisa Jane Gurney (1852-1937) to help in teaching private pupils. She taught French and was the co-principal of Kambala girls’ school from 1891 to 1914. She was one of the first members of the Alliance Française in Sydney, which was established by a few French residents in 1895.
On the outbreak of World War I, with Louisa Gurney's backing, Augustine Soubeiran participated in the French-Australian League of Help which held its first public meeting in Sydney in December 1914. This league was due to a request from the War Chest Fund. Madame Georges Playoust became one of its first co-president and Augustine Soubeiran, as its secretary, assisted in establishing this very important patriotic organization in Australia. At the end of 1917, paying her own expenses, she left for France to distribute the accumulated resources of the league's funds. Based in Paris, she dispensed money and set up a depot for clothes from Australia. In 1918 she came back with the diplomatic mission of General Pau to tell Australians of the “heartfelt, tearful thanks of [her] people”. She returned to France again in January 1919 and spent months touring the war-devastated districts, distributing further funds to war widows and orphans and assisting in reconstruction of France. About November she was joined by Louisa Gurney.
Winding up affairs in 1921, Augustine Soubeiran wrote to the Mitchell Library offering the League's archive to ensure its preservation as “the rightful property of New South Wales”.
Augustine Soubeiran died, unmarried, on 31 May 1933 at Darlinghurst, Sydney and was awarded the Légion d'honneur posthumously in July.


References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/ (accessed July 27, 2011)
State Library of New South Wales. http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/society_art/french/archives/archives.html (accessed on January 20, 2014)
Open Journal System. http://www.msp.unimelb.edu.au/index.php/explorations/article/view/41, (accessed 20 January 2014)
Australian War Memorial. http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/frenchaust/ (accessed 20 January 2014)

SERIES 01
Letter from Mlle Augustine Soubeiran to the Mitchell Library, explaining the contents of the collection, 28 September 1921.

SERIES 02
Papers of the French-Australian League, 1917-1920.

State Library of New South Wales collection of World War I papers

Vive la difference! : the French in NSW - State Library of New South Wales (7 June - 10 October, 2004). Selected items