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slang was unacceptable. On many occasions Miss Brennan quietly and discreetly supported staff members. This
included offers of assistance, including taking people to the airport, a shoulder to cry on and advice on who to see
or contact with regard to a problem. If a staff member was admitted to Darwin Hospital, Miss Brennan always
made a point of visiting them during their period of hospitalisation. In the event the staff member was hospitalised
interstate, time was always found to write a Get Well letter. During the 30 years Marian knew Miss Brennan,
she never heard her refer to anyone by his or her given name. Surnames and correct titles were always used. In
addition, she recalled that on formal occasions Miss Brennan always wore a hat and gloves. She was often seen
sharing joyous and sad events with her staff and multitude of acquaintances. When there were staff shortages or
industrial disputes, Miss Brennan would always ensure the clients were not disadvantaged. On such occasions she
would be found where she was most needed whether it be in the kitchen, laundry or working on a ward.
Miss Brennan supervised the transfer of the Darwin Hospital to the Casuarina Hospital in 1980. She was the
incumbent Matron when the hospital’s name was changed to Darwin and later when it was approved by the Queen
to be known as the Royal Darwin Hospital. She retired from the nursing profession in 1983.
Early in 1981 she had purchased a newly constructed house in the northern suburb of Tiwi. This was in close
proximity to the hospital. She shared this house with Puss-puss, her feline companion. Over the years she spent
many a happy hour in her garden tending her favourite plants, which included frangipanis, hibiscus and orchids.
She enjoyed scrabble, mah-jong and card games such as bridge and with her friends attended film evenings.
She made many of her own clothes and her embroidery and tapestry won prizes at the Darwin Show. Although she
never married, for almost the whole of her time in the Northern Territory her friend and confidant was Tom Kilburn.
With him she could shed the public face of ‘Matron’ and relax. They shared many common interests which included
camping, fishing and swimming and travelling in the Northern Territory and Asia. They also shared a common
interest in diamonds and jade.
She was actively involved in the Northern Territory Chapter of the College of Nursing Australia. Under her
stewardship as treasurer it was put on a sound footing. Nursing was not her sole interest. At various times she was
involved with the Young Women’s Christian Association, Christ Church Cathedral, where she was a regular and
active communicant, the St John Ambulance Association Committee and the Handicapped Persons Association
Committee. After her retirement she was a home tutor with the Adult Migrant Education Centre and worked with
Project Read at the (then) Darwin Institute of Technology.
On 1 January 1971 Alice Kathleen Lorraine Brennan was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire
(MBE) in recognition of her contribution to Australia as a nurse. In 1978 the Quota Club of Darwin bestowed
on her the title of Woman of the Year. In 1988, Miss Brennan was nominated by the Royal College of Nursing,
Australia (Northern Territory Chapter) to attend a Bicentennial function in Canberra. In recognition of her services
to nursing the local Chapter established the ‘Lorraine Brennan Scholarship’ now the most prestigious Northern
Territory nursing award available.
She died in Sydney on 14 February 1992. There was standing room only at a service of thanksgiving held at
Christ Church Cathedral, Darwin, on 1 March. People from all walks of life took the opportunity to publicly say
farewell to a woman who had made an enormous contribution to the Northern Territory and to them personally.
L Brennan’s own notes; information from J Brennan, M Clinch, J Docker, M Doherty, E Jones, T Kilburn, Bishop K Mason, M Grayden,
J O’Brien, M O’Neill, M Slade.
CECILIA BATTERHAM, Vol 3.BRENNAN, HAROLD CHARLES (TIGER) (1905–1979), prospector, soldier and politician, was born on
18 June 1905 in Calcutta, India, the son of T H Brennan, who was involved in sisal plantations and mining.
He was educated at Saint Joseph’s College, Darjeeling, and Saint Edmund’s College, Shillong, both in India,
before attending Saint Edmund’s College at Ware in England. He appears to have travelled around Africa for a few
years in the 1920s, developing an interest in prospecting, before migrating to Australia in about 1933.
He first went to Melbourne and then made his way to Central Australia, where ‘gold fever’ was in the air.
By 1935 he had joined the Tennant Creek gold rush and in 1936 worked for a while as an assistant to the Mount
Morgan development there. When the company pulled out in November 1936 he went to Wauchope and worked
on the wolfram mines.
When the Second World War broke out he enlisted, claiming to be the first to do so from the Northern Territory.
He rose to the rank of Major and served with the 23rd Field Company and the Royal Australian Engineers,
First Australian Corps. He was later posted to General Headquarters, South West Pacific Area, and was seconded
to work with American engineer units that specialised in the camouflage of units moving to the front line.
He contributed significantly to these units’ successes and at the end of the war was presented with the United States
Medal of Freedom, a very high award. On 27 August 1945 Major General Hugh Casey, the United States Army’s
Chief Engineer, wrote to him, ‘You have been most observant in noting deficiencies and suggesting improvements.
Your inspection reports have on many occasions furnished the basis for corrective action.’ Casey highlighted some
attributes that emerged strongly in Brennan’s later political career.
On returning to the Territory after the war, Brennan soon established a reputation for tackling the ‘blinking
bureaucrats’ and what he regarded as uncaring public service incompetence in administering the Territory.
Immediately after his discharge from the Army he returned to Tennant Creek, where he again took up prospecting
but ‘went broke’ in 1948. He then moved to Maranboy and gouged tin. Next, he prospected in the Bulman area, a
lead and zinc deposit in South East Arnhem Land. With no roads and few suitable vehicles about, Brennan came
and went into Katherine by packhorse. During these prospecting years, he located many of the mineral deposits on