Eleanor Mary Hinder

Eleanor Mary Hinder OBE (19 January 1893 – 10 April 1963) was an Australian social worker, public servant, and United Nations official. She lived in the Shanghai International Settlement from 1926 to 1942, working for the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and Shanghai Municipal Council. She later worked as an official with the British Foreign Office and the United Nations.

Early life Hinder was born on 19 January 1893 in East Maitland, New South Wales. She was one of eight children born to Sarah Florence (née Mills) and Robert John Hinder. Her father was a long-serving principal of Maitland Boys' High School, while her sister Marie Farquharson was a prominent community worker in New South Wales.

Welfare work In 1919, Hinder joined Sydney department store Farmer & Co. Ltd as welfare superintendent. She was also active in the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and with Jean Stevenson helped establish the City Girls Amateur Sports Association. She visited China, Japan, Canada, the United States, England, Switzerland and Norway, attending an International Federation of University Women conference in Oslo.

Personal life Hinder was in a long-term relationship with Addie Viola Smith, an American diplomat whom she met in Shanghai. They lived together in Shanghai until 1941 and subsequently in New York until 1959, frequently travelling together for Hinder's UN work. Hinder made several unsuccessful applications for permanent residency in the United States, leading them to opt to settle in Sydney in 1957. They occupied an apartment in Neutral Bay owned by Hinder's niece.

Hinder died from a coronary occlusion in San Francisco on 10 April 1963, while travelling to New York.