MS 10117 comprises correspondence, school records, certificates, newspaper clippings such as obituaries and interviews, photographs, articles and a booklet by Helen Waldsax on the history of the Watford Branch of the National Council of Women. The papers relating to Sir Herbert Kingsley Paine largely document his schooling at the Collegiate of St Peter and then the University of Adelaide, together with papers relating to his death, including an obituary, tributes from colleagues and friends and family history material. The papers relating to Helen Waldsax include reports and other papers from her schooling at Poltoonga St Peters, Girton Proprietary School for Girls and the University of Adelaide, together with material relating to her early career as an almoner, her life in Watford, Hertfordshire after her move to England in 1945, and her involvement with the Watford Branch of the National Council of Women. There are also papers relating to her death, including an obituary and orders of service for her funeral (1 box, 1 map fol. packet).
Judge. Herbert Kingsley Paine was born in Gawler, South Australia, in 1883. Paine graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1904 and was admitted to the South Australian Bar in 1905. He practiced in Port Pirie, Gawler and Kadina until 1922, and was then appointed as a special magistrate, first at Wallaroo and then at the Adelaide Local Court. In 1926, he headed a Royal Commission to investigate allegations of bribery against certain police officers in the South Australian police force. In 1933, he was made director of the Farmers Assistance Board, set up to assist country areas during periods of hardship such as the Depression. After retiring as a judge of the Local Court in 1948, Paine served as an acting puisne judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1949-1950 and 1951-1952. He was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George in 1944 and knighted in 1953. Paine served as judge of the Bankruptcy Court in South Australia for 46 years, retiring in 1972 at the age of 89. He died several months later in Adelaide.
Medico-social worker and feminist. Helen Waldsax (née Paine) was born in Kadina, South Australia, in 1915, the daughter of Sir Herbert Kingsley Paine. She graduated with a history degree in 1938 and a Diploma of Social Science in 1939 from the University of Adelaide. Waldsax received training as an almoner at the Victorian Institute of Hospital Almoners in 1940, and was appointed as a social worker for the Family Welfare Bureau in Adelaide from 1940 to 1942, assisting families of men in the defence services. Following this she joined the Red Cross and in 1944 was sent to the United Kingdom as a social health worker. She met her future husband, the German political refugee and Dunera boy Reinhard Waldsax, on the journey to England. They settled in Watford, England after their marriage in 1945 and she became a British citizen in the same year. Waldsax was an advocate for equality and women's issues, serving as president of the Watford and District Branch of the National Council of Women for two years. She also served on the bench of the Watford Magistrates' Court from 1964 to 1980 and was the Watford Chairperson for the Save the Children organisation. Helen Waldsax died in Watford in 2000.
Find in other libraries at Trove