biographies

D'Ebro, Blanche Mary (nee Tracy) (1859 - 1943)

Born
24 September 1859
Collingwood, Victoria, Australia
Died
8 January 1943
Toorak, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Board of Management member
Summary

Prepared by Ann Westmore PhD, 2006


Blanche Mary D’Ebro (née Tracy) (1859-1943) served as Honorary Secretary and Committee Member of the Women’s Hospital, 1902-1910, and the Committee’s representative on the hospital’s Advisory Board for a further two years. Her husband, Charles D’Ebro, served as a Trustee of the hospital site from 1903 until his death in 1920.

The fifth of seven daughters of Dr Richard Tracy, one of the founders of the Melbourne Lying-In Hospital, and his wife Fanny Louisa Sibthorpe, Blanche’s outstanding contribution was continued by later generations.

Details

When Blanche Tracy was born at Collingwood in 1859, the reputation of her father, Dr Richard Tracy, was second to none in Melbourne medical circles. His practice at Brunswick St Fitzroy was thriving, added to which he was Honorary Physician to the Melbourne Lying-In Hospital which had moved to new and bigger premises in Carlton a year earlier. The practice, and the family, occupied the two-storey building Dr Tracy had built in Fitzroy in the early 1850s, the practice occupying the bottom level, while the living quarters for Fanny and Richard Tracy, Blanche and her four older sisters, were above.

At age five, her father was appointed the first Lecturer in Obstetric Medicine and Diseases of Women and Children at the University of Melbourne. The following year, 1864, the family moved to 190 Collins St east where he established new consulting rooms.

From childhood to womanhood
Blanche became involved in voluntary work while still at school, teaching in the Scots Church Sunday school and assisting the Melbourne Flower Mission to Hospitals. During her teenage years, her father’s health declined and he died from a debilitating cancer when she was just fifteen. He left his wife, three unmarried daughters including Blanche, three married daughters, and three grandchildren. A seventh daughter had died during childhood.

A capable student, she won first prize in writing at the Brighton Boarding and Day School in 1876. There is no record of her subsequently undertaking formal tertiary studies, but she was active in a range of artistic pursuits, particularly music.

In January 1891, she married London born civil engineer and architect, Charles Abraham D’Ebro (1850-1920) and, the following year, celebrated the birth of a daughter, Ethel (known as “Essa”). At the time, D’Ebro was rapidly making a name for himself for his residential constructions having designed Stonnington, the Italian Renaissance style residence in Glenferrie Rd Malvern (1890) which was later home to several Victorian Governors.

According to the D’Ebros’ granddaughter, Mrs April Harding (née Barraclough), Blanche enjoyed a host of activities at “Prado”, the large home her husband designed and built in 1889 at the corner of St Georges and Lansell Roads, Toorak. Her leisure interests included gardening, piano playing and sewing and, in addition, she maintained a strong involvement in philanthropic works

Hospital service
Blanche served as Honorary Secretary of the Committee of Management of the Women’s Hospital (originally known as the Melbourne Lying-in Hospital), 1902-1910. She was also the Committee’s representative on the hospital’s Advisory Board for a further few years.

Her tenure as Secretary came at a delicate time in relations between the Committee and the honorary medical staff, a dispute having arisen shortly before her appointment which centred on the Committee’s decision to close the hospital following several cases of septicaemia infection. Blanche led the “new blood” on the Committee, according to historian of the hospital, Janet McCalman, and she seems to have exerted a pacifying influence on the different factions.

Once relations settled down she, like other Committee members, continue to play a hands-on role in managing and running the hospital, routinely interviewing women seeking treatment at the hospital, discharging others, and hiring and firing prospective staff members. She also “straightaway set about transferring power over medical appointments and medical matters to the medical staff”.

She was embroiled in another delicate matter when controversy erupted over whether patients’ bed cards should indicate marital status, through the presence or absence of “Mrs” on them. Following complaints from feminist groups and local councils about discrimination, Blanche headed a small committee of investigation which decided to abolish the cards, with patient’s personal details kept in the nurses’ pantry. Within a few years, use of the cards resumed to prevent confusion about which patient was getting which medicine, but all patients were treated as married and the single among them were given cheap wedding rings to protect them from taunts.

In addition to her work as Secretary, she was appointed to the Building and Finance Committee which was very active during her time in office. In 1903, the hospital had 49 midwifery beds and delivered over 1200 women annually, and had a further 38 Infirmary (gynaecological) beds. Aside from the problem of infection, common complaints from patients and staff at the time included overcrowding and poor lighting.

Major building works completed during her time in office included a midwifery theatre (1904) and a pathology department and eclamptic ward (for women with high blood pressure related to pregnancy, 1908). In addition, a very substantial outpatients and nurses’ home building was completed (1909) which later accommodated the resident doctors, medical students, medical records, the superintendent’s office and the pharmacy; as was the Druids’ wing (1912) on the corner of Swanston and Grattan Streets.

A second pair of hands
The year after Blanche joined the Hospital, her husband, Charles, became a “Trustee of the hospital site”, filling that role for the next 17 years. He was particularly well suited to a position that required an understanding of complex operations, having developed considerable expertise in large-scale building works after demand for residential architecture declined during the 1890s. [His particular area of expertise was constructing freezing and cold storage plants, then in their infancy.] From 1905 to 1906 he was President of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects and, in 1907, the organisation appointed him (at the request of the hospital) to adjudicate on the winner of an architectural competition for the new hospital buildings.

He died while on a trip to Perth in June 1920, leaving a sum of £2000 to the hospital which was used to endow a bed in perpetuity, known as the Blanche Tracy D’Ebro bed.

An on-going legacy
Blanche D’Ebro was a founding member of the Australian Women’s National League, established in 1904 to educate women in politics, support the monarchy and empire, and combat socialism. She worked strenuously for the organisation which by 1914 had 52,000 members in three states.

With Mrs Darnley Nailor she founded the Time and Talent Society and was active in the Council and on the Executive of the English Speaking Union. She died of the blood disorder, pernicious anaemia, early in 1943 at “Prado”.

The Tracy and D’Ebro families’ involvement in the affairs of the hospital continued through the generous interest of Ethel Barraclough (née D’Ebro); Mrs Barraclough’s daughter, April D’Ebro Harding, a member of the Toorak Junior Hospital Auxiliary for 25 years and a Life Governor of the hospital; and Mrs Harding’s son, Richard Walpole, chairman of the History Archives and Alumni Committee at the time of the hospital’s 150th anniversary.


Sources;
Personal communication April Harding and Richard Walpole to Ann Westmore;

‘Charles Abraham D’Ebro’, “Wikipedia” (internet encyclopaedia);

Janet McCalman, “Sex and Suffering; Women’s Heath and a Women’s Hospital”, Melbourne University Press, 1998, pp. 87-88;

Obituary notice for B.M. D’Ebro, “Argus”, 9 January 1943;

D. Edelman and L. Coldenbert, ‘Charles A D’Ebro’, Thesis University of Melbourne Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.

Published Resources

Books

  • McCalman, Janet, Sex and Suffering; Women’s Heath and a Women’s Hospital, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1998. [ Details... ]

Newspaper Articles

  • Anon, 'Obituary - B.M. D’Ebro', Argus (Melbourne), 9 January 1943. [ Details... ]

Theses

  • Edelman, D. and L. Coldenbert, 'Charles A D’Ebro', Thesis, University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 13 November 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006