Ethel Castilla Explained

Ethel Castilla
Birth Name:Ethelrita Ramos de Castilla
Birth Date:1861 6, df=y
Death Place:Camberwell, Victoria, Australia
Birth Place:Kyneton, Colony of Victoria
Relatives:Amy Castilla (sister)

Ethel Castilla (19 June 1861 – 27 March 1937) was an Australian journalist, poet and short story writer. She was one of the founders of the Austral Salon and is best known for her poem, "The Australian Girl".

Early life and family

Ethelrita Ramos de Castilla was born in Kyneton, Victoria on 19 June 1861,[1] [2] daughter of May or Mary (née Robertson) and Frederic Ramos de Castilla.[3] [4] Her father, of Spanish descent, was a merchant and property speculator who in 1863 was in debt to the tune of £1,322 net.[5] He sought release from insolvency in 1864[6] and died in Kew, Victoria in 1869.[7] Her mother, a daughter of John Anderson Robertson, a Scotsman and Edinburgh writer to the signet, died in 1910.[8] Her younger sister, Amy Castilla (1868–1898) was a medical practitioner and co-founder of the Queen Victoria hospital in Melbourne.[9] In 1884 Castilla passed the University of Melbourne's matriculation examination.[10]

Career

Castilla contributed Melbourne news to The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser and worked for the Melbourne Daily Telegraph and the Weekly Times.[11] She wrote art criticism using the pseudonym Viva. She contributed short stories and poems to The Leader (1889–1904)[12] and The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (1890–1906). She also wrote poems for The Australasian (1904–1913) and articles for The Sydney Morning Herald, including a series on "The Flower of the Month".[13]

In 1890 she was one of the founders of the Austral Salon, a Melbourne meeting place for women intellectuals.[14] She regularly presented papers at meetings, including on "The Payment of Women", in which she "gave appalling statistics" and "oft-time painful information", concluding with a call for a union for women workers.[15] She nicknamed the club, "The Hen Roost".[16] In 1895, she, together with all the other founders were voted honorary life members of the Austral Salon.[17]

Her best known poem, "The Australian Girl", was first published in The Weekly Times and its associated Victorian country newspapers on 17 September 1887.[18] It was quoted at the Royal Colonial Institute in London by Professor Anderson Stuart of the University of Sydney.[19] [20] The poem was included in an English anthology, Australian Ballads and gave its name to her 1900 collection, for which Rolf Boldrewood wrote a "most complimentary preface".[21] The book was accepted by Queen Victoria as a gift, having been sent to London by the Governor of Victoria, Lord Brassey.[22]

Her poems, "The Australian Girl" and "A Song of Sydney", were included in Bertram Stevens' 1907 An Anthology of Australian verse.[23]

In the 1920s she served as honorary secretary of the Camberwell Municipal Library Committee and wrote letters to The Age,[24] The Argus[25] and the Box Hill Reporter[26] to garner support.

Death

She died at Camberwell, Victoria on 27 March 1937.[27]

Selected works

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: 26 June 1861 . Family Notices . 4 . . 4,700 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  2. Web site: Ethel Castilla . 2023-03-16 . AustLit: Discover Australian Stories . The University of Queensland.
  3. News: 11 February 1854 . Family Notices . V . 3 . . 190 . New South Wales, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  4. Web site: Frederick Castilla . 2023-03-16 . Births Deaths and Marriages Victoria.
  5. News: 30 May 1863 . New Insolvents . V . 6 . The Farmer's Journal and Gardener's Chronicle . 22 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  6. News: 27 October 1864 . Advertising . 3 . . 3,120 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  7. News: 25 January 1869 . Family Notices . 4 . . 7,060 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  8. News: 7 October 1910 . Family Notices . 1 . . 20,035 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  9. Web site: Obituary: Marie Elizabeth Amy Castilla . 2023-03-16 . Obituaries Australia.
  10. News: 10 January 1884 . The University of Melbourne . 9 . The Argus (Melbourne) . 11,717 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  11. News: 19 November 1898 . From the Gay Metropolis . 28 . Critic . South Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  12. Web site: Search for fiction in Australian newspapers: Castilla, Ethel . 2023-03-16 . The Australian Newspaper Fiction Database.
  13. News: 2 October 1907 . The Flower of the Month . 5 . . 21749 . New South Wales, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  14. News: 5 July 1890 . The Austral Salon . XXVII . 7 . . 14 . New South Wales, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  15. News: 29 January 1891 . Social . 13 . . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  16. News: 16 January 1891 . Personal . 4 . Table Talk . 291 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  17. News: 12 September 1895 . DUNLOP—SCOTT . 14 . Melbourne Punch . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  18. News: 17 September 1887 . Wit and Humour: The Australian Girl . 5 . Weekly Times . 940 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  19. News: 17 February 1893 . News and Notes . II . 4 . The Berrigan Advocate . 18 . New South Wales, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  20. News: 11 September 1907 . Women in The Arts . 5 . . 21,731 . New South Wales, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  21. News: 23 November 1899 . Lady's better . 15 . Melbourne Punch . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  22. News: 22 March 1900 . Lady's Letter . 15 . Melbourne Punch . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  23. Web site: An Anthology of Australian verse, edited by Bertram Stevens . 2023-03-16 . State Library of NSW . en.
  24. News: 26 November 1924 . Municipal Library for Camberwell . 14 . The Age . 21,732 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  25. News: 4 June 1925 . Library For Camberwell . 7 . The Argus (Melbourne) . 24,593 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  26. News: 24 December 1926 . Camberwell Municipal Library . XXXIX . 6 . Box Hill Reporter . 51 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  27. Web site: 286/259 Etheldritha Castilla: Will; Grant of probate . 2023-03-16 . Public Record Office Victoria Collection.
  28. News: 25 May 1889 . Sara Champion: A tale of the early days of Melbourne . 34 . The Leader . 1741 . Victoria, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.
  29. News: 27 June 1906 . Australian Short Stories: A Bush Violet . LXXXI . 1697 . The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser . 2329 . New South Wales, Australia . 16 March 2023 . National Library of Australia.

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