Women have Always Played a Significant Role in Toc H
Separate Women’s Branches were established in all Australian States and there have been some fifty of them since the late 1920s. Originally they were called The League of Women’s Helpers and they operated independently. They did, however, have the same Aims and Objectives as those for the men’s Branches and the focus was on Fellowship and Service to the community. In 1943 the name was changed to Toc H Women’s Association. Their contribution to Australian society was most significant. In 1970 the Toc H Women’s Association integrated with the Toc H Men’s Branches.
Toc H League of Women’s Helpers – Brisbane 1935.
The method of Toc H has always been to discover needs which were not being addressed in the community, and to find someone to do something about them. The roles of three people in a Branch were most important:
- The “Jobmaster”, whose role it was to discover the ‘need’ and to appoint someone to address it.
- The “Chaplain”, whose task was to ensure that the job was done in the right spirit.
- The “Pilot’, whose role it was to ensure that all members of the Branch knew Toc H and put into practice its Aims – referred to as ‘The Four Points of the Compass’ – To Love Widely; to Build Bravely; to Think Fairly; to Witness Humbly
