Joan McClintock
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4 February 1922
Joan McClintock | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joan Hartley McClintock 4 February 1922 |
| Died | 9 September 1996 (aged 74) |
| Education | Social Studies at the University of Sydney |
| Occupation | Social worker |
Joan Hartley McClintock née Roberts AM (4 February 1922 – 9 September 1996) was an Australian social worker and welfare activist who worked for the Australian Women's Army Service during World War II and then had a long career at the Australian Council of Social Service between 1968 and 1983.[1]
McClintock was born in Mosman, a suburb of Sydney, and was the youngest child of Thomas Victor Roberts and his wife Vera Marguerite (née Perdriau). McClintock's commitment to social justice was cemented at a young age when her father, who worked as an accountant, lost his job during the Great Depression which led to poverty and the loss of her brother Jeffrey in 1937. Jeffrey was deaf and mute and a major contributing factor in his death was his disability; he died while crossing a street and failing to notice a car.[1]
Most of McClintock's schooling took place through Blackfriars, the New South Wales state correspondence school, as he family were living in a house provided by her mothers family in Woodford, in the Blue Mountains (New South Wales). She gained her intermediate certificate in 1938 and then worked as a stenographer and legal secretary.[1]
The Australian Women's Army Service
On 6 February 1942, during World War II, McClintock joined the Australian Women's Army Service and worked first as a driver within the 2nd Ambulance Car Company, between 1942 and 1944, and then in the 8th Advanced Workshop between 1944 and 1945. The Women's Army broadened her understanding of people from different social backgrounds, outside of the middle class life in which she had been raised, which again influenced her later career. She was demobilised on 15 December 1945 with the rank of driver.[1]
