This cartoon from the Melbourne newspaper Truth notes Bella Lavender’s occupation as a schoolteacher. During the anti-conscription campaign she was the principal of the High School for Girls in Brunswick.

The High School for Girls was a private school in Brunswick. From 1890 until 1909 it was operated by Elizabeth McCowan, a schoolteacher recently arrived from Britain. At the beginning of 1909 Bella Halloran — Bella’s first married name — purchased the school, and commenced running it. (She married George Lavender later in 1909.)

At that stage the School was run out of the Congregational Hall at 327 Sydney Road. However a year later, this hall was sold by the Congregational Church, and Lavender needed to find a new venue.

This search was complicated by Education Department requirements. In older suburbs like Brunswick, halls like this were the only facilities available, and were used by both private and public schools. However these old halls often failed to meet the Health Department standards required. (Public schools were exempt from inspection, even when they rented exactly the same halls.) As a result, Lavender’s school moved to the Lyceum Hall, at 259 Victoria Street Brunswick.

In 1917, the combination of Lavender’s activism, and Education Department bureaucracy had taken their toll; only four students remained at the High School for Girls. Lavender bowed to the inevitable and closed the school.