Mary Hughes

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.

Helen Hughes, Mary's only child, as painted by Philip de László in 1931.
Hughes in 1955 with another prime ministerial widow, Dame Enid Lyons .