Gladys – a Pub, a Pharmacy and 100 Years

Ingham Lodge in Queensland is proud to welcome our newest 100 club member to the exclusive club – Gladys. When Gladys was asked what her secret was for reaching 100 she said she’ll be the first to admit she’s not entirely sure. “I don’t know, my mother lived till 98, I think dad died at 85,” she says with a smile. Perhaps good genes played a part; perhaps it’s something harder to name. 

Gladys was born on 24 May 1926, the second of five children to Rupert and Nellie at the family home in Anne Street, Ingham. She was quickly followed by Isabel, Lila, Rupert and Alan. Her father was a family grocer and well known figure in the community. 

The town of Ingham was home to a thriving Chinese population, with many businesses owned and run by people of Chinese population, with many businesses being owned and run by people of Chinese descent, and Gladys grew up proudly part of that community.  

Lee’s Hotel on the main street, hold a special place in history for both the Herbert Valley and Australian musical folklore. It was the Day Dawn Hotel, now Lee’s Hotel, that American soldiers from the 22nd Bomb Group in 1943 drank the pub dry during wartime.

Local sugarcane farmer Dan Sheahan was frustrated with no beer on arrive, wrote the poem “A Pub with No Beer,” which was later made famous by  Slim Dusty. Both Gladys and her brother Rupert became local legends in their own right – Rupert for the hotel and Gladys for her very own pharmacy located just a few doors up.  

Gladys attended boarding school at St Patrick’s College on the Strand in Townsville, it was a long way from home, but a formative chapter that shaped her independence. It was at the convent that she discovered music, and the love of music stuck with her for life. She graduated from the Australian Music Examinations Board with the prestigious Associate in Music – a remarkable achievement.  

From school she enrolled at the University of Queensland to study a Bachelor of Arts. When she moved to Brisbane, Archbishop Duhig had arranged accommodation for country female students at Villa Maria on St Pauls Terrace.

When Duchesne College opened in New Farm in 1947, Gladys was among its inaugural cohort – a group of trailblazing young women, many of whom went on to become doctors, pharmacists, lawyers and business leaders.

It was there that she made many of her lifelong friends. Later in life she enjoyed attending the symphony concerts in Brisbane, a pleasure rooted in those years. 

Although the arts were her passion, Gladys felt her calling was clinical. With the help of the Sisters of Mercy, she became the first female layperson apprentice pharmacist at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane – a Chinese-Australian woman from rural Queensland entering a profession that was, at the time, almost entirely male dominant.

After graduating with her Bachelor of Pharmacy, she worked in Brisbane before moving back to Townsville to be closer to her parents, where she spent many years at Duffield’s Pharmacy in the CBD. When a retail space became available following the opening of the new Lee’s Hotel, Gladys opened Lee’s Pharmacy in Lannercost Street and went on to build a distinguished and much-loved career there. 

Gladys is a woman of many passions. She painted local landscapes for years alongside her late friend Kitty Dennis. She was an enthusiastic quilter and made great friends through the Ingham Quilters Group.

Her house in Anne Street holds thousands of books – everything from the history of the Ottoman Empire to Dorothy L. Sayers. She also dabbled in leathercraft and took night courses in woodwork; her sturdy outdoor furniture still has pride of place on the veranda at Anne Street. 

Throughout her life, Gladys has been blessed with wonderful friends. Many of them are gone now, but she remembers them all. She thinks fondly of the women she knew from the Air Force and the Army.

“I remember all the girls who were in the Air Force or the Army, and we would write letters to each other,” she recalls. In an era before the internet and text messages, those handwritten letters kept close friendships alive. 

When we asked her what one thing she could wish for everyone, she said “a lovely family”. In a hundred years of living, she knows what matters most. 

At her birthday celebration, her family shared a quote from Gertrude Stein that had appeared in the very first edition of the Duchesne College newsletter back in 1947 – the year Gladys was among its founding students.

It feels like it was written for her: “My dear, you forget we were young then, and we did a great deal in a year.” 

Happy 100th birthday Gladys, you’re a true Ingham icon!