the Sitting

 

Leaving behind the searing heat of a typical Canberra summer day, I stepped into Helen Crisp’s shady garden in Deakin. It was Helen’s favourite haunt, and she looked very cool and calm, sitting in an old wicker chair reading some paperwork.

The light was dappled and soft; it reminded me of a Monet painting. I normally prefer a plainer background, but this setting seemed to suit my sitter. I used a reflector to increase the light on her face, and chose a fairly open lens to get both the foreground and background out of focus. I asked her to continue reading until I gave her a signal to look up into the camera.

 

The Sitter

 

“Your mother was the best dancer I ever knew” Manning Clark told Gerry Crisp. In an era when dancing played an important role in the social life of all classes of society, this was no small compliment. Manning was already studying at Balliol College Oxford when Rhodes Scholar Finn Crisp arrived in 1939. Incidentally, Heinz Arndt, who was featured in CT Magazine in October, was also at Oxford at this time, and was a good friend of Manning. Helen joined her fiancée Fin at Oxford University, where she studied Public and Social Administration. They were married in 1940, before returning to Australia. Gerry Crisp was to write “The marriage was brought forward because the war had interrupted their studies and they were to return home by ship. Unless they were married they would not be allowed to share the same cabin; it just shows how times have changed!”

Helen had met Fin at Adelaide University, where she received her BA in 1938. She was president of the University Women’s Union, and together with Fin, edited “On Dit” the university newspaper.

After a brief stint in Adelaide, the Crisps moved to Canberra in 1941. Fin was to become a well known and successful Canberra identity. He was appointed Chairman of the Commonwealth Banking Corporation in 1975, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University in 1977. By that time the population of Canberra was approaching 200,000, but in 1941 there were only 12,000 inhabitants, with very limited social services. In an attempt to improve conditions for Canberra families, Helen became actively involved in the voluntary administration of the Mothercraft Society, and the establishment and running of the first pre-school and pre-school centres, the Civic Occasional Care Centre, and the Emergency Housekeeper Service. She was later to agitate for a post-natal home for mothers and babies, and co-wrote “The Mothering Years”, a history of the Mothercraft Society.

Between 1955 and 1964, Helen conducted a weekly program for country women on the ABC Regional Rural Session, frequently helping

 


Dr Helen Crisp
Dr Helen Crisp

the Sitter - continued

 

 individuals and community groups to air their ideas and problems. Through this medium and through membership of various committees and organizations, Helen was to fight for equal pay for women, and the removal of the marriage bar from the Commonwealth Public Service.

From 1962-65  she was President of the Australian Federation of University Women, and from 1968-71 was Chairman of the ACT Child Welfare Advisory Committee; and this at the same time as bringing up three young children, and entertaining Fin’s students to afternoon tea at home on weekends. Both Fin and Helen were keen golfers and regularly had Sunday lunch with friends at Royal Canberra Golf Club. Helen returned to full time employment with the public service in 1971, and was deputy head of the Capital Territory Health Commission from 1974 to 1977.

Of all the many worth while causes which Helen Crisp championed, the one which was closest to her heart was the Canberra College of Advanced Education, now the University of Canberra.

She had served on a number of committees investigating and promoting the need for a tertiary institution for the ACT, to train students

 

 for professional careers, and was appointed by Senator John Gorton in 1965 to be a member of the Burton Committee, which subsequently recommended such an institution. Helen was deputy chairman of the interim council that planned the college, and served in various capacities with the college council, including chairman, for the next twenty years. She became an Honorary Fellow of the college in 1976, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1981.

After retirement Helen, a keen swimmer, was able to spend more time with her family at their beach house on the NSW South Coast. The story of the buying of that cottage seems to typify to me, the drive and determination which Helen Crisp displayed all her life. Once again to quote her son Gerry; “Helen had always loved beach holidays with the family, but unfortunately Fin was not a beach person. One Saturday morning in 1968 she saw a little cottage at Broulee advertised in the Canberra Times. She said nothing, but waited until Fin had gone to golf, then hopped into the car with her daughter Marg, drove to the coast, bought the place and was back home getting dinner ready when Fin returned from the club!”

 

 

any questions

if you have any have questions about this sitting, feel free to contact me

 

 

Contact: tel: 61 2 44761171  email: inquiries@heidesmith.com