1927 - 2011.
June Stewart’s brother Derry provided these details of June Stewart’s life.
She was born in Malvern in 1927. She attended St Margaret’s and Melbourne Church of
England Girls’ Grammar School. She was a prefect at the latter, including during the war
when the school had to be evacuated to Doncaster. She enrolled at the University of
Melbourne, residing at Janet Clarke Hall and graduated in 1948 with honours in French and
English.
She worked as secretary to Professor Belz, who although a Mathematics Professor was
active in French affairs. She moved to become secretary to Professor Joseph Burke,
Professor of Fine Arts, where she became Curator of their collection of photographs of Fine
Art objects. June co-authored with Franz Philip the book In Honour of Daryl Lindsay, who
was then Director of the National Gallery of Victoria. She contributed very largely to the book European Paintings before 1800 in the National Gallery of Victoria by Dr Ursula Hoff.
Later she travelled to England and worked at the Courtauld Institute of Fine Art in London.
Throughout her career her interests were in Fine Arts, Classics, Poetry, Music etc. She also
took part (backstage) in the Union Theatre.
After leaving the University of Melbourne, her health was unfortunately poor, leading to her
being incapacitated for the last few years of her life, but she still maintained association with
friends and colleagues. She donated the painting The Window Seat by Emma Minnie Boyd
to the National Gallery of Victoria. See http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/col/work/70471
June Stewart, a life member of Graduate Women Victoria, resigned in 2010 because of ill
health. The June Stewart Bursary was awarded to Catherine Fu, a student at La Trobe
University, in 2012.