Were the Salvos first to celebrate Mother’s Day in Australia?

The Charters Towers Corps band in 1912 ... many of these boys and men would have honoured their mums during a historic Mother’s Day service at the corps three years later.

 BY BARRY GITTINS

Like many trends and fads, things and observances, we Australians adopted the celebration of Mother’s Day from our cousins, the Yanks.

While the day was first celebrated in the United States in 1905, the annual giving of gifts to say thanks to ‘Mum’ here in Australia started with Leichhardt woman Janet Heyden in 1924. The Sydneysider was said to have been moved by the plight of isolated elderly mothers at Newington State Hospital. Read more here

However, in a June 1915 edition of The Salvation Army’s War Cry, it was reported that Charters Towers Corps in Central Queensland had set aside a Sunday in early May to celebrate ‘Mothers’ Day’.

It is the first reference to Mother’s Day that we have found in Salvation Army history in this country.

And not only that, but it is recorded that two mothers “found salvation” at the service.

The clipping from the War Cry in 1915.

The newspaper clipping states, “Our work at Charters Towers still continues to improve; a beautiful spirit of love and unity prevails throughout the corps, and the blessing of God is upon us. Sunday was celebrated as ‘Mothers’ Day’. Suitable songs and addresses were given by Officers and Soldiers, which created new interest in all meetings, and at the close two mothers knelt and found salvation. Both are doing well ...”

The corps, wanting to ‘improve a beautiful spirit of love and unity’ as they sought God’s blessing, organised a company of six sisters as ‘Visiting Sergeants’ to visit people in their homes and support them in everyday life. Women, empowered and empowering, have always been a source of strength for The Salvation Army.

A decade later, in the 9 May 1925 issue of War Cry, The Salvation Army described “a cause for great rejoicing [that] the practice of observing Mothers’ Day is spreading steadily year by year ... In Australia, an increasingly large number of churches call attention each year to Mothers’ Day and hold special services ... our organisation was one of the first in Australia to observe the custom.”

The Salvos believed that Mother’s Day served a dual purpose: giving us all the opportunity to thank our mothers for who they are, be they in this life or the next (‘young people are reminded of all they owe to their parents, and are urged to be dutiful sons and daughters’); and to remind ‘parents of their duties to their children’ (loving, caring and providing for them).

Let’s salute our mothers who are still with us and celebrate our memories of our departed mothers.

Women were the backbone of many Salvation Army families in the early days ... (Top) Six siblings of the Salvation Army Landers family: Cecil Alton, Elsie May, Albert Frederick, Gladys Victoria, Mary Jane and Esther Isabell. (Bottom left) Captain Charles and Mary Tyler pictured with a child and another unidentified officer couple. (Bottom right) Mary Berney (nee Druery) in a studio photo with her son John. Mary was a missionary to Java.