Ethel May (Monte) Punshon

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 (8 November 1882 – 4 April 1989) was an Australian artist and teacher. She was known for her kindness to Japanese internees during the second world war. After she reached the age of 100, she came out as a lesbian, she joined MENSA, she wrote her autobiography, she was given a decoration by Japan and she was an ambassador for Expo 88 at 105.

Punshon was born in 1882 in the Australian state of Victoria in Ballarat.

During her childhood, she was regularly mentioned in the Ballarat Star for things such as in 1895 at age 12, winning an essay competition and passing her exams, in 1896 passing her Art exams, and in the Prahran Chronicle in 1897 for reciting "Dumfounded" very nicely, and participating in a lovely rendition of "Birthday Greetings" with others in her class .

In 1910 she enjoyed a twelve year relationship with a woman named Debbie. They lived together until Debbie left her for another woman. Debbie died two years later and Punshon had no more long term relationships.

In 1923, Punshon started keeping scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, including women with non-traditional jobs, female adventurers, and what was termed at the time, transvestites. The Australian Queer Archives holds her scrapbooks from the 1920-1950s.  These books are one of Heritage Victoria's 'A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects'. You can read more about that and see the report here: https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/our-programs-and-initiatives/a-history-of-lgbtiq-victoria 

In 1943 she worked at the internment camp near Tatura for Japanese people who had been living in Australia during World War Two. Punshon looked after the compound set aside for those who could not speak English and for the school in the camp.

Moshi Inagaki, who had introduced the teaching of Japanese and who been her teacher when she was at University evening classes learning Japanese, was one of the internees.

After the war all the internees were released and Punshon took a variety of jobs assisting with the people displaced by the war. She was also in what is now Vanuatu where she founded a school in the New Hebrides. Punshon taught at Melbournes Swinburne Technical College from 1956 until she retired in 1959.

She came to the attention of the wife of a Japanese diplomat and she was impressed when she researched Punshon's work during the war. In 1980 Saburo Okita who was a Japanese minister gave her a certificate of appreciation.

In 1985 her sexuality was in the press where she was described as the "world's oldest lesbian" and that she had "come out". In 1987 her autobiography, Monte-San: The Times Between : Life Lies Hidden, was published but it did not mention her girlfriends.

She joined MENSA when she was 103 and when she was 105 she was made a roving ambassador for World Expo 88. She was given the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1988. Punshon died in 1989 in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg.

Introduction and main image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Punshon