View source for Lillie Goodisson

{{Short description|Australian nurse (1859–1947)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox medical person
| honorific_prefix  =
| name              = Lillie Goodisson
| honorific_suffix  =
| image             = Lillie Goodisson.png
| image_size        =
| alt               =
| caption           = Lillie Goodisson, c.1929
| birth_name        = Lillie Elizabeth Price
| birth_date        = c. 1860
| birth_place       = [[Holyhead]], Wales
| death_date        = {{Death date|1947|01|10|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Cremorne, New South Wales]]
| occupation        = nurse, birth control advocate, racial hygiene and selection proponent
}}
'''Lillie Elizabeth Goodisson''' (née '''Price'''; {{Circa|1860}} – 10 January 1947) was a Welsh Australian nurse and a pioneer of [[family planning]] in [[New South Wales]]. Generally referred to as '''Mrs L. E. Goodisson''', her surname is frequently mis-spelled as "Goodison".
==Life==
Goodisson was born in [[Holyhead]], [[Wales]]. She trained as a nurse and at age 19 married London physician Lawford David Evans. Soon after they moved to [[Auckland]], New Zealand, where they started a family.<ref name = "ADB"/> Her first child, [[Evelyn Paget Evans]], was born in 1881<ref name=epe>{{Citation |last=Godden |first=Judith |title=Evelyn Paget Evans (1881–1960) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/evans-evelyn-paget-10128 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-09-26 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en |last2=Radi |first2=Heather}}</ref> and a son was born in 1883.<ref name = "ADB"/> The couple and their two children moved to Melbourne in 1895, and in 1897 established Myrnong Private Hospital at [[St. Kilda, Victoria|St. Kilda]]. Her husband died in 1903 and thereafter she went to [[Western Australia]] where she met and married her second husband, Albert Elliot Goodisson in 1904. They lived in [[Geraldton, Western Australia|Geraldton]] until Albert Goodisson went to [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] in September 1913 to receive treatment for an illness, he died 4 February 1914<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26896955 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=[[The West Australian]] |volume=XXX |issue=3,685 |location=Western Australia |date=5 February 1914 |access-date=15 May 2024 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> leaving little to his wife, she borrowed money from her friend [[Ivy Brookes]] and returned to Melbourne.
She was involved in patriotic causes during [[World War I]], however her finances did not improve, and she took another loan from Brookes to establish a library at [[Elwood, Victoria|Elwood]] in Melbourne. Debts and ill health forced its [[liquidation]] in 1924. Goodisson moved to Sydney to be with her daughter, Evelyn, in 1926.<ref name = "ADB"/> She joined the [[Women's Reform League]] and with [[Ruby Sophia Rich|Ruby Rich]], [[Marion Louisa Piddington]] and [[Mrs A. V. Roberts|Anna Roberts]] founded the Racial Improvement Society, which later (1928) became the [[Racial Hygiene Association of New South Wales]].<ref name="FPA">FPA Health. 2 November 2006.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090106130456/http://www.fpahealth.org.au/news/20061102_80.html 80 years of Family Planning], Press Release</ref><ref name = "Horin">Horin, A. 20 November 2006. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/11/19/1163871272126.html The pill - and other battles fought and won]. ''Sydney Morning Herald''</ref><ref name = "thesis">Wyndham, D. H. 1996. [http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/402/1/adt-NU2000.0015whole.pdf Eugenics in Australia: Striving for National Fitness], PhD thesis, University of Sydney</ref> The association was involved in promoting [[sex education]], preventing and eradicating [[sexually transmitted disease|venereal disease]] and increasing the public awareness of [[eugenics]].<ref name = "ADB">Meredith Foley, [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090046b.htm Goodisson, Lillie Elizabeth (1860? - 1947)], ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp. 47–48.</ref> Goodisson served as general secretary for the association.  She advocated the selective breeding of future generations for the elimination of [[hereditary disease]], and defects and campaigned unsuccessfully for the segregation and [[Human sterilization (surgical procedure)|sterilization]] of the mentally deficient and for the introduction of pre-marital health examinations.<ref name = "ADB"/> Although Goodisson campaigned for her association's eugenics goals, her main interests were in [[contraception]] and politics.<ref name = "thesis"/> The likely catalyst for her campaign interests was her husband's death from general paralysis and derangement (general paralysis of the insane) a symptom of Tertiary [[Syphilis]].
In 1932 Goodisson unsuccessfully stood for the seat of Newcastle as the Social Reform Party’s candidate.<ref name = "thesis"/> In 1933 the association established a birth control clinic in Sydney which Goodisson described as the first in Australia; however, Piddington had established a birth control clinic in Melbourne two years earlier.<ref name = "thesis"/> The clinic served married women, providing [[Diaphragm (contraceptive)|diaphragm]]s so that unwanted pregnancies would not be terminated by illegal [[abortion]]s. The activities of the clinic were controversial; it received government subsidies only to have them withdrawn. Piddington's Melbourne clinic was forced to close in 1943 when the rubber used to make diaphragms was needed for [[World War II|war efforts]]; the Sydney clinic remained open.<ref name = "thesis"/> Goodisson remained active in the association until her death in 1947; however the organisation's activities were greatly reduced during the war and did not regain momentum until the 1960s.<ref name = "thesis"/> In 1960 the association was renamed the [[Family Planning Association of Australia]].<ref>Stefania Siedlecky and Diana Wyndham (1990) "Populate and perish : Australian women's fight for birth control". Sydney: Allen and Unwin | [http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18030774]</ref>
Goodisson was also an active member of the [[National Council of Women of Australia|National Council of Women]] of New South Wales, the [[Travelers Aid International|Travellers' Aid Society]], the Good Film League of New South Wales, and the Sydney Health Week and Mental Hygiene Council.
==References==
<references/>
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[[Category:1860s births]]
[[Category:1947 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:Australian eugenicists]]
[[Category:Australian nurses]]
[[Category:Welsh emigrants to colonial Australia]]
[[Category:Welsh eugenicists]]
[[Category:Australian women nurses]]
[[Category:People from Holyhead]]