Rachel Roxburgh

Rachel Roxburgh (1915–1991), artist, conservationist and architectural historian, grew up in Sydney's eastern suburbs and studied art at East Sydney Technical College and the Adelaide Perry Art School in the 1930s. She exhibited with the Society of Artists, the Contemporary Group and at the Macquarie Galleries; at the same time, she was a competitive horserider and keen surfer. In 1940, she first exercised what proved to be a formidable skill at fundraising by organising an exhibition in aid of the Journalists and Artists Ambulance Fund. The exhibition featured loaned works by British artists such as Augustus John and Duncan Grant, and locals such as William Dobell, and enabled the purchase of an ambulance for the army's Medical Services division. Roxburgh qualified as a nurse during the war; when it was over she went to London and studied at the Central School of Art. She worked in a number of jobs during her ten years abroad including dressmaking, nursing, creating costumes for the Old Vic Theatre and teaching art as therapy in hospitals. She also took up pottery, which she studied at the Hammersmith School of Arts and Crafts. After returning to Sydney she joined the Potters Society of New South Wales, exhibiting in its first group show at the Macquarie Galleries in 1958. The interior designer Marion Hall Best sold her pots, as did the David Jones Art Gallery. For many years she taught art and pottery at schools including Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School, Abbotsleigh and Ravenswood, and at East Sydney Technical College. From the 1960s onwards she was increasingly involved in built heritage conservation, serving on the council and the executive of the National Trust (NSW) and on its historical and architectural survey committee. Among her many contributions, she was integral to the fundraising for the restoration of Francis Greenway's St Matthew’s Church in Windsor; and she published a number of books on colonial architectural treasures. A committed bushwalker, she held roles with the National Parks Association and the National Parks Advisory Council and campaigned for the preservation of wilderness now contained in the South-East Forests National Park.