In 1939, when World War Two was declared in Europe, the people of Ipswich proudly did their bit for the war effort. One resident in particular, Mrs Emma ‘Ma’ Bentham, proprietress of the Commonwealth Hotel, went above and beyond during the war years, tirelessly raising funds for the community.
1939 would prove to be a tumultuous year for the Commonwealth Hotel’s husband and wife team. Mr Steven Bentham and his wife Emma, who were movers and shakers in Ipswich’s social and business landscapes, were extremely civic-minded.
The couple were famous for throwing their support behind numerous sporting clubs and musical and theatrical endeavours, all whilst running one of the more stylish hotels in the town, so no one would have been surprised when Ipswich’s power couple brought their formidable organisational and networking skills to bear for the war effort.
Constant news reports and bulletins from overseas would have alerted the Benthams, along with the people of Ipswich, that a war was inevitable, and on September 1, that became a reality that would shape the lives and businesses of Ipswich for the next decade and beyond.
First of all, every Ipswich resident would now be required to carry their gas mask and national identity card with them wherever they went.
Despite the start of the war, the Commonwealth Hotel remained a popular venue for Ipswich society weddings thanks to Emma Benton’s reputation for creating stylish and beautifully-themed wedding receptions. During the war years she regularly decorate dance halls and stages for many community events, and was publicly praised for her taste and style.
The January 1940 wedding of Henry Renton and Marie Coomber, whose reception was held at the Commonwealth Hotel, was no exception. It received a detailed story in the newspaper’s social pages, featuring in-depth descriptions of the bridal party’s attire and flowers.
Blackout laws kick in
In April 1940, Steven Bentham was one of 46 leading local businessmen to vote in favour of starting an Ipswich Eisteddfod. The vote was unanimous and the first local eisteddfod was held later that year.
It was a huge success and Steven, whose love of music and performance was well-known around town, remained heavily involved in the annual Ipswich Eisteddfod until his death in 1947.
In September 1940, the Benthams, along with the rest of the town, were instructed to cover all the doors and windows at the Commonwealth Hotel to ensure they complied with new blackout laws.
On the night of September 27, Ipswich held its first public blackout and air raid training. The Commonwealth Hotel was closed for the night, with all non-essential transport and car travel temporarily halted and their customers all at home ensuring that their own windows and doors were light proof. No light was allowed to show under any circumstances.
The blackout was designed to make finding targets as difficult as possible for the enemy. Spotter planes would fly overhead during the training to report on any visible light. Heavy fines could be issued for breaching the blackout regulations.
War bombings a real concern
Following in their parents’ footsteps, it appears that daughter Meg, and son Thomas, were keen entertainers and performers. Meg Bentham, who would go on to become a nurse, entertained patients at Goodna Hospital at a Christmas variety concert and took part in various concerts around Ipswich where she would perform “patter and a toe dance.”
Her brother Thomas was involved in the Ipswich Eisteddfod scene, regularly taking part in shows.
It was during 1940 that Emma Bentham’s stellar war efforts took off. She held regular meetings for the Ladies’ Welfare Committee held at the hotel and throughout the war years, Emma would receive a number of honorary titles including the Ipswich Girls’ Auxiliary Commandant, President of the Ladies’ Committee and Patroness of the Women’s All Services Club, thanks to her endless fund-raising work.
She organised dances, took part in organising fetes, manned jumble stalls, sold badges and buttons and organised collections.
In December 1941, when the Benthams read the news that Pearl Harbour had been bombed by the Japanese, they immediately had an air raid shelter installed behind the hotel.
The Bentham family, along with their hotel staff and customers, would seek shelter in the sturdy hardwood structure in the event that Ipswich was bombed by the enemy. If bombers were detected near Ipswich, the air raid siren would sound which warned people to get to their nearest bomb shelter. They would wait inside the shelters until the all-clear siren sounded.
Bombing was a very real concern, particularly during 1942, when the Northern Territory, Western Australia and North Queensland were bombed by Japanese flying boats during a sustained campaign that continued for almost the entire year.
10,000 meals from the hut
Towards the end of December 1941, Emma Bentham, along with members of her ladies’ committee volunteered at the Lands Office in East Street to assist with medical organisation and the reserve depot.
Emma’s strong organisational skills would stand her in good stead, as she also turned her hand to organising dances around town to raise money. Each of the dances she organised up until the end of the war required significant planning and work, from sourcing venues, to decorating, securing lucky door prizes, booking the musical acts and collecting the entry fees, which would then be donated to one of a number of causes such as the Red Cross, returned servicemen, a hostel for service women and much more.
She would hold multiple dances each week.
During 1942, Emma sponsored a Big Patriotic Carnival Dance featuring the Bell Boys, a jitterbug competition, waltzes and prizes. The event was in aid of the A.R.P (Air Raid Precautions) wardens, a group of local volunteers who nightly checked that residents were adhering to strict blackout rules, checked air raid shelters and ensured that residents were ever vigilant in the event that Ipswich was bombed by the enemy.
Emma Bentham’s fund-raising dances were well-known, and were extremely well-patronised by the Ipswich community.
During the six years of World War II she raised more than 12,000 pounds (equivalent to over half a million dollars in 2019). She was a key part of a local lady’s group to hold a fete to raise money for the building of an All Services Hut to be built in Memorial Park (outside the RSL building).
This was for service men and women to use as a recreational facility during the war. It was removed from the park at the end of the war.
By October 1942 the hut would provide around 10,000 meals per month to service men and women from all branches of the military. The hut was extremely well patronised during the war, both for the good affordable meals and convivial social atmosphere it provided to service men and women who were home on leave.
Debating the consumption of liquor
However, 1942 was not without its challenges, Emma Bentham was summoned to court following claims that she had unlawfully supplied beer to a customer after 8pm (outside of licenced hours), claims she strongly denied.
With the liquor laws in a state of flux during the war years, she received a fine of two pounds and ten shillings, and had to pay court costs of six shillings.
The indomitable Emma Bentham didn’t let her business worries impact on her war efforts. Around this time there was real fear in the community that Ipswich could be bombed, leaving its residents homeless.
She donated 25 pounds, a significant sum in 1942, to assist the Women’s Auxiliary Transport Service to make bedding for the people of Ipswich in the event that they are made homeless by bombings.
The national consumption of alcohol was a topic of much debate in 1942. The Federal Government tried to pass new legislation to restrict hotels to a seven-hour day for the duration of the war, which fortunately for the Benthams, was not passed.
The Federal Government then tries to reduce production and distribution of beer by one third to curb excessive drinking in the afternoons. Subsequent investigations show that hotel deliveries, at most, had reduced their consumption by 28%.
They also try to introduce new hotel trading laws to enforce a compulsory closure of all Australian hotels between 2 and 5pm which also does not pass.
In June, rationing is introduced in Ipswich, starting with clothing purchases. Adults received 112 coupons for all their clothing needs which needs to last indefinitely. Local businesses such as T.C. Beirne, Cribb and Foote and Bayard’s change their advertising to include the number of coupons required in addition to the purchase price of goods.
In August of the same year, a meeting is held by the Queensland Temperance League, presided over by the Reverend W Kidd, to discuss the evils of drink.
Members of the League suggested that alcohol sales be subject to rationing like food and clothing, or that the alcohol content in drinks be lowered. Particular concern centred around men working in munitions factories as they needed steady hands for the delicate work they performed.
Dancing to a popular tune
Undaunted by all the proposed changes to the hotel trade, and public sentiment around the consumption of alcohol, Emma Bentham continued to sponsor dances and raise funds for the war.
Her August dance featuring the Melodians Dance Band with old and new vogue music to raise money for the Red Cross’s mobile canteen, while an advertisement for one of her October dance invited attendees to ‘swing your cares away’ and offering the chance to win prizes and raffles with all money raised going to the war effort.
She also sponsors a dance featuring the Ambassadors’ Band and Russell Fitzpatrick (known as the boy with the golden voice) in aid of the Merchant Navy.
The Mayor of Ipswich publicly paid tribute to Emma Bentham and was quoted as remarking that it was “pleasing indeed that the city possesses a person of such patriotic fervour.”
Around this time, Steven Bentham held meetings with the Railway Union to ensure adequate supplies of beer were available for railway workers after 5pm. Prior to this, complaints had been made that local Ipswich hotels and pubs had been running out of beer in the afternoons.
In January 1944, meat rationing was introduced nationally, which meant that guests staying at the Commonwealth Hotel for six days or longer were required to surrender their ration vouchers to hotel management so that ingredients could be purchased for their meals.
In August, Emma Bentham, upon finding out about the hard work undertaken by the ladies of Ipswich who gave up their Wednesdays each week to offer clothing repairs for returned servicemen who’d experienced long periods of active service, donated a sewing machine to assist with their efforts.
Continuing with her tireless community and fundraising efforts, Emma Bentham then raised money to purchase a piano for the nurses at the Ipswich General Hospital, which is for their use during their breaks. This came about after one of the matrons joked to Emma that the nurses would love their own piano.
She also raised the funds needed to purchase a piano for the showgrounds which was for soldiers and returned servicemen to enjoy.
Pub helps with rations
In 1945, rationing of food became even more restrictive, with ever-decreasing amounts of butter, sugar, meat and tea, to name just a few, impacting the supply of food to customers.
Using the second world war’s ‘make do and mend’ ethos, the Commonwealth Hotel simply switched the bread on their menu for scones, when the city was impacted by a shortage of self-raising flour.
The Federal Government had also announced that meat rationing would become even more severe, and warned that hotels and restaurants would feel the most impact.
Hotel-keepers like the Benthams would have utilised some of the wartime recipes of the day like eggless, milkless cakes, lots of offal, spam and homegrown vegetables. Ipswich’s Grammar schools turned their formal gardens into vegetable gardens.
With the end of the war finally in sight, the Benthams advertise the removal and sale of their air raid shelter which must have come as a huge relief. While some of the more visible signs of war began to be removed from the town, and the threat of imminent attack lessened, rationing continued to be a daily struggle for Ipswich.
In December of 1945, the Federal Government issued a warning to Australian hoteliers warning against the purchase of cream on the black market with heavy fines threatened for anyone found breaching these strict laws.
After years of tireless work in the community, in 1946 Steven and Emma Bentham announced that they would be taking a 12-month trip around the east coast of Australia. Showing that they were indeed some of the leading socialites in town, a grand soiree was held for the Benthams bon voyage party, which was extensively written up in Patricia’s Patter, the social pages of the Queensland Times.
Their Commonwealth Hotel staff and party guests presented them with a going away present of a leather writing case and wallet for their travels. Emma Bentham, who wore “an attractive evening gown of mauve and the latest topknot hairstyle” was also presented with a floral spray. Friends again commended her for her work during the war.
When Steven passed away in 1947, the redoubtable Mrs Emma Bentham, known affectionately to locals as ‘Ma Bentham’, took over the family business of running the Commonwealth Hotel, no easy feat for a widow in the 1940s.
As well as continuing to run the hotel, Ma Bentham made improvements to her business, adding a bottle shop in 1948 and keeping up with the latest trends in drinks, advertising that the hotel now served gin slings. In the 1950s she opened Bentham’s Beer Garden in the hotel’s garden.