Florence Broadhurst - Biography

Biography

Broadhurst was born in rural Queensland, at Mungy Station, near Mount Perry. She became a singer, winning local eisteddfods, and joined a group known as the Diggers who performed in Toowoomba. In 1922 she joined a comedy sextet known as the "Globe Trotters" and later the "Broadcasters", who toured South East Asia and China. In 1926 she established the Broadhurst Academy in Shanghai, offering tuition in violin, pianoforte, voice production, banjolele playing, modern ballroom dancing, classical dancing, musical culture and journalism.

After her return to Queensland in 1927, she sustained head injuries in a car accident. She then went to England and married Percy Walter Gladstone Kann, an English stockbroker; they co-directed Pellier Ltd, Robes & Modes. Kann and Broadhurst separated, and Broadhurst became involved with diesel engineer Leonard Lloyd Lewis, living in Banstead from 1939. During World War II she joined the Australian Women's Voluntary Services, offering hospitality to Australian soldiers.

In 1949, the couple and their son moved to Australia. She travelled widely and produced 114 landscape paintings, which were first shown as "Paintings of Australia" in 1954 at David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney, then later in Brisbane and Canberra. She was a foundation member of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales and a member of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia, was a teacher of printmaking and sculpture at the National Art School and was also involved in a variety of charitable activities. Her husband left her and their son in 1961.