Marion Knowles

Marion Miller Knowles MBE (1865–1949) was an Australian journalist, poet, writer and Catholic charity worker.

Marion Knowles MBE
Born	Marion Miller (1865-08-08)8 August 1865 Woods Point, Victoria, Australia
Died	16 September 1949(1949-09-16) (aged 84) Camberwell, Victoria, Australia
Resting place	Brighton Cemetery
Pen name	John Desmond, Aunt Patsy
Occupation	Novelist, poet, journalist
Nationality	Australian
Children	2 sons

Early life and education

Born on 8 August 1865 in the Victorian gold-mining town of Woods Point, Knowles was the daughter of James and Anne (née Bowen) Miller. Her father was a storekeeper.^[1][2]

Career

She was a journalist for the Melbourne Advocate for 30 years and conducted the Women’s and Children’s pages until her retirement in 1927. She also was a charity worker for the Melbourne Catholic Orphanage and the Wattle Day appeals.^[3]

In 1893 her first poems appeared in The Australasian under the name "John Desmond".

In 1931 she received a pension from the Commonwealth Literary Fund.^[4]

Knowles was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1938 Birthday Honours, being recognised as "a well-known Australian writer of books for girls".^[5]

Works

Novels

• Barbara Halliday: A story of the hill country of Victoria (1896)
• Corinne of Corall's Bluff (1912)
• The Little Doctor (1919)
• The House of Garden of Roses (1923)
• Meg of Minadong (1926)
• Pierce O'Grady's Daughter (1928)
• Pretty Nan Hartigan (1928)

Poetry

• Songs from the Hills (1898)
• Fronds from the Black's Spur (1911)
• Roses on the Window Sill (1913)
• A Christmas Bouquet (1915)
• Shamrock Sprays (1916)
• Songs from the Land of the Wattle (1916)
• Love, Luck and Lavender (1919)
• Christmas Bells (1919)
• Ferns and Fancies (1923)
• Selected Poems (1935), republished in two volumes:
  • The Harp of the Hills (1937)
  • Lyrics of Wind and Wave (1937)

Short stories

• Shamrock and Wattle Bloom: A series of short tales and sketches (1900)

Personal

Knowles married Joseph Knowles at St Patrick’s Cathedral on 19 September 1901.^[6] Her husband died on 18 June 1918 at a private hospital in Melbourne, aged 60.^[7]

Knowles died on 16 September 1949 and was survived by her two sons, Adrian and William. Following a requiem mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Kew, she was buried in Brighton Cemetery.^[8]