Her father, Thomas Campbell, was an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland, while her mother, the former Mary Ann Burton, had been born in Australia to English parents.

[1] The Campbell family seems to have had a certain amount of social standing, as in 1899 her sister Esther married John Haynes, a member of parliament and co-founder of The Bulletin.

However, she never developed a close relationship with her stepchildren – they were all adults or teenagers when she married their father, and various commitments (boarding school, military service, etc.)

[3] Mary Hughes accompanied Billy during his parliamentary sessions in Melbourne (then the seat of the federal government) and on domestic and overseas trips as Prime Minister (1916, 1918 and 1921).

[4] On her overseas trips she became closely acquainted with influential British women such as Margaret Lloyd George, Margot Asquith, Clementine Churchill and suffragette leader Christabel Pankhurst.

[4] In the 1922 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) for her charitable and war effort work.

[citation needed] After the war, she continued with her charity work and became president of the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children in Sydney in 1925.