Families of Veterans Guild gathers for 80th anniversary meeting in Sydney

Celebrations will run from June 2026 until March 2027 with events across Australian cities and regional Australia.

The guild’s story begins on 4 June 1946, when more than 300 war widows gathered in NSW for the inaugural meeting of the War Widows’ Craft Guild; with 100 enrolling on the day, and another 280 joining by mid-July.

The organisation was the vision of Jessie Vasey CBE OBE, widowed just 15 months earlier when her husband, Major General George Vasey, was killed in a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft crash near Cairns in March 1945. Rather than retreat into grief, Vasey, by then already a seasoned political advocate who had spent the war years supporting soldiers’ families through the AIF Women’s Association, channelled her loss into action.

Her purpose was clear from the outset: war widows should not be pitied. They should be respected, given fair compensation, and supported to rebuild their lives on their own terms. As she put it, the guild existed to ask widows “to get back to the best that was within them”. She led the organisation she built for 21 years until her death in 1966.

“It is a privilege to welcome the Families of Veterans Guild to Government House and to recognise its foundational work over 80 years supporting women widowed by war, who struggled not only for recognition, but also for access to housing and other essential services for themselves and their families,” said Governor Beazley, patron of the Families of Veterans Guild.

“The guild’s enduring legacy is the community it has created founded on dignity, strength and mutual support. It is most fitting that we mark this significant milestone together.”

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The organisation evolved from a small craft-based support group into one of the most influential women’s advocacy groups of its time, lobbying governments on war widows’ pensions, recognition and the Repatriation Act, federating nationally by 1947, and building a community that, at its height, counted country members as 62 per cent of its base.

Today, as the Families of Veterans Guild, it provides connection, advocacy and support for war widows and all defence and veteran families across Australia, as a modern, growing and nationally significant organisation.

The 100 guests were chosen at random from the guild’s membership, a deliberate decision to make the afternoon belong to the community the organisation has served since 1946.

Among those in the room were individuals who have carried the loss of a loved one who served and families who know first-hand what it means to live alongside service: the same experience that brought the guild’s founding members to that first meeting in 1946.

“Eighty years ago, war widows came together to demand recognition and look after one another. Jessie Vasey CBE OBE and the women who built this organisation refused to be forgotten or treated as charity cases and created something that has lasted eight decades and counting,” said Tricia Hobson, Families of Veterans Guild board chair.

“Yesterday, gathering at Government House to open this anniversary year, we were honouring every one of our founding members and reminding ourselves that their work is still being done.”