Eleanor MacKinnon

Eleanor MacKinnon born Eleanor Vokes Addison aka Mrs. R. R. S. Mackinnon (February 8, 1871 – January 31, 1936) was an Australian Red Cross leader credited with founding the Junior Red Cross.

Life MacKinnon was born in Tenterfield in 1871. She attended Sydney Girls High School. Notable fellow students at the school were Louise Mack and Ethel Turner.

In April 1915, Australian troops first saw action when they landed at Gallipoli. Thomas Allwright Dibbs was the manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney who owned a number of properties. Dibbs donated his home, Graythwaite, to the state as a convalescent home for soldiers returning from the front. Dibbs presented the deeds of Graythwaite to the Premier of New South Wales who handed the property on to the NSW branch of the Red Cross. MacKinnon became a committee member of the convalescent home.

MacKinnon and Lady Edeline Strickland and the Junior Red Cross at Government House in Sydney in about 1918 In 1925, MacKinnon was the substiute delegate for the sixth general assembly of the League of Nations.

Death and legacy MacKinnon died in Royal North Shore Hospital in 1936. She was survived by her two sons.

The Eleanor MacKinnon Memorial Home in Cronulla, New South Wales was established in 1951 and named in her honour. It closed in 1997.

Private life She married on 16 September 1896 a physician named Dr Roger Robert Steel MacKinnon. She would sometimes use the name "Mrs R R S MacKinnon". They had two children who were born at their home called Warialda.