From the time when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India to the landing on Mars – this was the span of the interesting life of May Maxwell, who died at the age of 100 in 1977 at 157 Wellington Parade South Jolimont, which had been her home for sixty years.
May was born in Bendigo in 1876, the eldest child of nine children of David Moorhead, an Irish-born stockbroker. Christened as Mary she was known as Maisie to her family. At the age of nineteen in 1895 Miss Moorhead left Bendigo to embark on a career on the stage. She earned money for acting lessons by working as a lady’s companion and a governess. As Maisie Maxwell she had some success as a professional actress, appearing at the Theatre Royal in Melbourne and the Lyceum in Sydney. Whilst touring in Perth in 1907, she began writing for that city’s Sunday Times and came to the realisation that journalism was a more stable and secure career than acting. Coming back to Melbourne, she changed her name to May and took a job at Table Talk, the society weekly at ten shillings a week.
In 1910, she was poached by The Herald and asked to edit its weekly page for women, covering the social round of parties, balls and royal tours. Some ten years later her page was published daily, the first time a women’s page had appeared in a newspaper on a daily basis. May insisted on wearing evening dress and mingling with the guests at such venues as Government House, writing her notes openly rather that furtively which was the convention of the day. She also made sure that as well as covering the society news which was of course popular, she covered the more serious issues of the times, such as the working conditions of nurses, the plight of female prisoners and the role of the National Council of Women.
In 1911, four months after its foundation, she joined the Australian Journalists’ Association as its second only female member. She served on the A.J.A.’s Victorian committee from 1925 – 1927 and was made an honorary life member in 1960. In the 1969 Queen’s Birthday Honours, she was awarded the British Empire Medal for her services to journalism.
May Maxwell retired from The Herald in 1934 at the age of 58, but continued as a freelance writer. The weekly articles she wrote for The Argus after her retirement demonstrate her plain speaking opinions on such topics ranging from The Fascination of Flattery to Mothers Mend your Ways and Cease Crying Over Spilt Milk, Save Tears for Real Sorrows. She also offered readers the opportunity to write to her with personal problems that she would answer in her column…”If something is worrying you it is often helpful to obtain a disinterested opinion. Make me your confidante”. She was also a broadcaster on 3XY, 3UZ and 3KZ, radio stations no longer on the Melbourne airwaves.
May wrote her last article in longhand on the eve of her 100th birthday. Still intellectually ‘with it’, she no longer adopted her trademark red wig! The article was published virtually unedited on the front page of The Herald the next day. Her article was a cheerful and candid reminiscence but she noted the present day’s ‘absence of smiles and laughter’.
