Marion Miller Knowles: a poet, journalist and philanthropist

MARION Miller Knowles was a well known Australian journalist, poet and charity worker.

She was born at Woods Point, the daughter of James and Anne Miller. Her father had a store in the town.
The family later owned and lived at St Fillans in Narbethong. St Fillans had been built by former Victorian Premier, James Munro.

Her first poems appeared in The Australasian in 1893, publishing under the pen name, John Desmond.

She soon began working as a journalist at the Advocate in Melbourne in 1899, running the Women’s and Children’s pages until she retired in 1927. In addition, she was involved in charities including the Melbourne Catholic Orphanage and Wattle Day appeals.

She married Joseph Knowles in 1901. Sadly, her husband died in 1918, aged 60.

In 1914, an event was held at the St Kilda Town Hall to honour her mother. The address stated, “Having learnt that St Fillans this year attains its 21st anniversary under your occupancy, we could not let this opportunity pass without expressing our congratulations and our sense of your unfailing personal kindness.

This address and the accompanying gift betoken our admiration, our affection, and our gratitude. It has fallen to few people to brighten, as you have done, so many lives.”

Another newspaper article in the same year stated, “Mrs Marion Miller Knowles is one of Melbourne’s foremost workers both in the literary world and in different branches of women’s organisations… Her mother who has a large boarding establishment in the hills at…