Gwendoline (Gwen) Hesketh MBE

Awarded for service to community, advocacy and inclusion; health; human rights, justice; volunteering

14 June 1899 – 24 November 1963

Entered on roll: 2023

"Outstanding guide"

Gwendoline (Gwen) Hesketh made an outstanding contribution to the Tasmanian Girl Guide Movement and led a team providing relief in post-war Europe.

Gwen joined the Girl Guides as a Ranger in 1924 and became Captain of Launceston’s St Aidan’s Guide company, before moving to the rank of Commandant.

Following the outbreak of World War 11, Gwen was asked to help train members of the Australian Women’s Land Army and Civil Evacuation Committee. In 1944, the British Government called for volunteers to follow the army into Europe and help relieve distress in war-torn countries where equipment, comforts and food would be limited. Gwen was one of five Tasmanian Girl Guides who joined the Guide International Service (GIS).

To prove fitness for the job, Gwen was required to complete a nine-day commando training course in the Welsh mountains. This included harsh physical training, semi-starvation, and sleep deprivation.

Once deployed to Germany, Gwen saw utter horror: cities reduced to rubble and millions of people dying of disease and starvation. Gwen was given the honorary military rank of Major General and oversaw the GIS in Germany where she acted as a liaison officer between the British occupation authorities and all voluntary bodies in the field.

Though recalled several times, Gwen refused to return home. When the GIS wound up at the end of 1951, Gwen was the last Australian to leave.

In 1953, Gwen embarked on a national lecture tour, describing what she had seen, and the life-saving work of the GIS. Over the following decade Gwen visited India, Korea and China promoting the work of the GIS. In Korea she spent six months helping to establish guiding. There remains a memorial to her in Pune, India.

Gwen was State Commissioner for Girl Guides from 1956 to 1962.

Gwen was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1950 for service to social welfare. In 1953 she received the Silver Fish award – the highest award in Girl Guiding.