By Lyn Collingwood, Bulletin 3/2025 (May)

Heritage NSW has just announced the latest successful nominations for a Blue Plaque. Among the 15 winners are two from our suburb. Bessie Guthrie (97 Derwent Street Glebe) and Les Tanner (12 Reuss Street Glebe) join Tibby Cotter (266 Glebe Point Road) and Dorothy Drain (52 Toxteth Road Glebe), whose plaques have been installed.

The Glebe Society suggested wording for the new plaques, but Heritage NSW will make the final decision.

Bessie Guthrie (1905-1977)

Bessie Jean Thompson Guthrie trained as an interior designer. A radical free thinker and feminist, she founded the left-wing Viking Press, opened her house to girls who were victims of abuse, reformed the child welfare system, joined the Women’s Liberation Movement and helped found Elsie.

Elsie, Australia’s first women’s refuge at 73 Westmoreland Street, was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register in September 2024.

Les Tanner (1927-2001)

Leslie Mervyn Tanner began his education in kindergarten at Glebe Public. He drew caricatures of his family from the age of five and illustrated his compositions. After leaving school, he made wooden toilet seats for Glebe Timber Mills before joining the Daily Telegraph as a 15-year-old printer’s devil. By the time he retired in 1997, Les Tanner was one of Australia’s best-known Press satirists with awards including ‘Cartoonist of the Year’, two Walkleys and a Golden Quill.

Blue Plaques previously nominated by the Glebe Society and which are in place: