Colonel Barbara Maxwell: Last director of the WRAAC

In this article, Michele Harper – a volunteer researcher with the Harbour Trust – charts Maxwell’s rise through the ranks of the WRAAC to become the organisation’s fourth (and final) director by the late 1970s.

Early life and military career

Barbara Maxwell was born in Burma in 1932. At the time, her father was a district commissioner in Rangoon. The family lived in India for a period before relocating to Australia in 1946. After leaving school, Maxwell found work as a typist; however, soon after – at the age of 20 – a she joined the Army.

Although she was not a trained nurse, she served with the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) and spent a year with the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces at the British General Hospital at Kure in Japan. The British Commonwealth Occupation Forces included Australian soldiers serving with units in Japan and Korea.

Following her posting to Japan, Maxwell served as a Warrant Officer instructor at the School of Army Health in Victoria. This this role, she trained nursing assistants. She then spent two years as a Warrant Officer with the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) company in Western Australia, before transferring to the WRAAC school at Georges Heights to complete an officer cadet course.

Maxwell could not climb the ranks in the Nursing Corps as she lacked nursing qualifications and, therefore, a transfer to the WRAAC offered opportunities for promotion. Maxwell graduated in 1960 and was awarded the top academic cadet prize. She remained at Georges Heights for a further two years as an instructor and 1st Lieutenant.

Between 1963 and 1968, Maxwell served in Melbourne, Canberra, Duntroon and Tasmania in a wide variety of positions and rose to the rank of Captain. In 1969, she returned to Georges Heights as a senior instructor at the WRAAC school and, later that year, she was promoted to Major and appointed Chief Instructor.

In 1972, Maxwell was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and posted to Victoria Barracks at Paddington in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs as assistant director of the WRAAC Headquarters Eastern Division. After a short stint in Canberra, Maxwell was promoted to the rank of Colonel and appointed as director of the WRAAC – the fourth director since its formation in 1951. When Maxwell retired from her posting in 1979, the role of director was discontinued. Despite her resignation, Maxwell remained in the Army Reserves as a Colonel in Reserve of Officers Headquarters, 2nd Military District.

A time of change for women

Colonel Barbara Maxwell served in the RAANC and the WRAAC, during a time of great social change for women. In 1972, as chief instructor of the WRAAC School, Maxwell is quoted as saying:
“We try to keep our girls soft and feminine…I think there are jobs for men and there are some for women… We do a lot of communications work and driving and catering, job that suit the mentalities and abilities of women… I just don’t like guns, I suppose. It isn’t very feminine, is it? Shooting, I mean.”

In 1959, the WRAAC was recognised as a permanent part of the Defence structure and, in 1973, married women with children under 16 years of age were permitted to serve. By 1979, equal pay was granted to service women.

The final intake of recruits and officer cadets marched out of the WRAAC School in 1983 and the corps itself was disbanded in 1984. Female officer cadets trained alongside their male counterparts at Portsea until 1985 when female cadets were permitted into the Royal Military College Duntroon and the Australian Defence Force Academy.

A keen sailor and philanthropist

In her personal life, Maxwell was interested in travel, Asian studies and sailing. In addition to being a member of the Royal Australian Naval Sailing Association, she was the first female crew member of a service-owned yacht in a Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. During her time at Georges Heights, Maxwell – together with Mosman Council – organised fundraisers and collected for charities, including the Red Cross and Austcare.

On 17 May 1991, Maxwell died suddenly, aged just 58 years. She was survived by her husband of nearly two decades, Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Starrett. Maxwell is remembered as the last Director of the WRAAC as well as the only occupant who had not seen active service during wartime.

References

• The Australian Women’s Register. Maxwell, Barbara Edwina Audrey (1932-1991) Colonel http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0411b.htm
• The Australian Women’s Register Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) (1951-1985) http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0388b.htm
• Department of Defence, Defence press release. New Director for WRAAC. No, 108/77. Wednesday, May 25, 1977
• Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Landmark moment for women in the ADF. Wednesday 24 October 2018. https://pmc.gov.au/news-centre/office-women/landmark-moment-women-adf
• Knuckey, Marie, No bugles for the modern Major Barbara. The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 November 1971, page 20
• Stewart, Libby, The Encyclopedia of Women &Leadership in the Twentieth-Century Australia. Australian Defence Force. http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0338b.htm
• The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 1991, page 156
• Western Mail, Thursday 13 January 1955, page 22

Article was originally published on 14 June 2023.