Gordon1552
Senior List
- Oct 7, 2019
- 207
- 199
- AFL Club
- Brisbane Lions
I think you'll find the Rationalists organisation was on the suspect list for bing a CPA affiliate, ASIO records should have it.OK was thinking although the documentary gave some clue that might potentially link Jessie Harkness to the CPA in some way, I thought what there was in the documentary would probably be too hard to nail down, after all we only were told that Jessie knocked around with Margaret Langley but didn't give us her mom's name. There were few details about the Langley family.
Anyhow I looked up Margaret's sister, and I found something that she said that might help understand what Tim Edhouse was going on about.
"
Jean Langley was born on a Rationalist Society commune in Mentone in 1926. Her father, John Samuel Langley was English. Born in 1889, he came to Australia in 1912. After arriving in Perth he became a schoolteacher and took up public soapbox lecturing. He was atheist and an impressive speaker. The Victorian Rationalist Association became aware of his heard of him and invited him to Melbourne - an invitation he accepted. The Association was founded in 1906. Its fundamental view was that all significant beliefs and actions should be based on reason and evidence. It aimed to promote critical enquiry into religion and what it perceived as other superstitious practices, stimulate freedom of thought, and encourage interest in science, criticism and philosophy. In 1919 he became the Associations Secretary. In 1924 he founded the Rationalist Journal, and in 1926 he became the inaugural Secretary of the Rationalists Society of Australia. Jean's mother was Vera Lucy Savige. She was born in Elsternwick in 1892 and met Jean's father through the Society. She was already a Society member, and at the age of twenty-two, on their Board of Directors. They married and lived on a Rationalist commune at Mentone. Several families lived there, on a ti-tree covered ten-acre property by the sea. Jean was born in 11th of January, 1926. She was the third of the five Langley children
Jean Langley (centre) at the Rationalist Commune at Mentone c.1931
Reflecting on her parents, Jean said, "My father was very English; proper, reserved and formal, and very gentle. The most we got in the way of a hug was a pat on the head. I liked him immensely. My mother was very gentle and kind. She wasn't the greatest housekeeper in the world, but would read at least a dozen books a week. She was well-educated and proofread all of my father's writings. On many nights they'd be in the study for hours, going through whatever he was working on. She wrote poems and stories herself. She was a literary lady of that passionate left-wing world which followed the Depression". Recalling her life on the commune, she said, "Our home was full of Rationalists and very interesting people; the conversation and discussions were vital and marvellously passionate. I may not have understood much of it, but I loved the atmosphere. Mentone wasn't that far from town and people would drive down from the city. Being a celebrant, my father married many rationalists in our house. It was a jolly place as much as anything else; serious and jolly. As our family grew, and by the time my parents had the five of us, we needed somewhere bigger to live, so they rented another place in Mentone. My parents never owned a house in their lives, because they didn't believe in it. They were Socialists. Everything was on principle. They never owned or drove a car. As children, we girls weren't given dolls or other 'girly' things, and the boys weren't allowed to have guns or war-like toys. We were just given books and more books. While my mother was a feminist and a communist, my father was not a communist, though perhaps a little 'pink'. He believed in changing the world through education". Jean loved her childhood. She said, "I spent all the time at the beach...We were dreamy little kids...as free as seagulls. I ran wild on the beach. I was popular because I was so much a madcap, and a witty and sharp little thing. How could they not like me? There was little control over us. We were given an extraordinary amount of freedom, which was wonderful. My parents believed in responsibility; I was responsible for my two younger siblings, and so on. We were taught that we had a responsibility to neighbours and society, and to ideals. The only thing we had to abide by was the truth. My father believed that children should be taught to be civilized. The Society"s principle was that one should not live with the threat of Hell and the promise of Heaven, but to do good because good is good to do. That was the sort of principle that guided their lives and our".
The Langley family, from the right, John, Jean, Elizabeth, Vera, Bob and Margaret at Mentone c.1932
Jean began her schooling at Mentone State School. She recalled, "At School there were these five children with a mad English father who lectured every Sunday night saying, 'Why believe in God?' and this sort of thing, and a mother who strode around with superior airs, and a cigarette in her hand. It made the ordinary state school kids look upon us as if we came from another planet". Jean progressed to Mordialloc High School. Remembering school, she said, "I wasn't a good student, and I didn't get any certificates of any sort, much like it had been at primary school. There were pranks, like hiding underneath the school, and going down the creek in a broken-down boat and nearly drowning. There were endless adventures; it was a continuation of the madcap spirit, but I was always interested in art. From the moment I can remember, I was drawing and planning on becoming an artist. It was my whole dream; a dream which was very foreign to my parent".. Jean left school in the early days of the War and worked as a telephonist. Wanting to be an artist, she applied for a position at Manton's department store in Bourke Street in their advertising department. They trained artists to be commercial artists. Jean took in some of her drawings and they accepted her. Jean said, "At Mantons, I trained in fashion drawing, but I didn't like it much. I got bored sitting at a desk...I talked my way into the display department. We made all the prop ourselves. We'd do drawings for the window displays, and that sort of thing. It might take a month to make a window display. I loved it". Jean was at Manton's for about two years. She lived in bungalows and rooms in inner-city Melbourne in places like St. Kilda and Prahran, saying, "We all lived like that. Melbourne was...full of people living around the city, which is very different to today"
Jean and Bob Langley at Mentone beach c.1948
It was while Jean was at Manton's that she got, as she said, very carried away with the idea of being a serious artist. "I was getting a broader feeling about art and people in the art world. Cinders Coffee Lounge was a meeting place.
"
Sourced and extract taken from >
Jean Langley Painter & Artist
Jean Langley was born in Melbourne bayside suburb of Mentone in 1926. Artist and painter of landscapes and seascape on and around the Mornington Peninsula, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria.www.members.optushome.com.au
Sent from my SM-A305YN using Tapatalk
