Ida Forsyth a notable caring Methodist in South Australia welfare sector: carries husband Samuel's Kuitpo project
Ida Muriel Forsyth became the standard bearer for Kuitpo industrial colony (pictured) founded in 1930 by Samuel Forsyth as superintendent of the Adelaide’s Central Methodist Mission (for a record 23 years). Kuitpo industrial colony, in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges, provided training for unemployed men.
Images courtesy Australian Virtual War Memorial and State Library of South Australia
Ida Muriel Forsyth followed her public-spirited Methodist parents in becoming one of Adelaide’s most prominent early 20th Century caring contributors to community.
Born in 1884 at Kooringa, South Australia, Forsyth was the daughter of Robert Brummitt, an English-born doctor, and his wife Jane who saw that her education, especially at Tormore House school under Caroline Jacobs reinforced her family tradition of intellectual inquiry and Christian service. She trained as a nurse at Adelaide Children's Hospital in 1909-12 before going with her father on a tour of Fijian Methodist missions.
In 1915, Ida Brummitt joined the Australian army nursing service. Discharged the next year because of “sickness at home”, she enlisted again as a staff nurse in 1918 and was appointed to the Australian Imperial Force. After serving in India, she fell dangerously ill with enteric fever and returned to Adelaide with her appointment terminated in 1920.
At her father’s residence in Medindie in 1923, Ida married Samuel Forsyth, a Methodist minister and widower with two children. They had one son.
Ida Foryth devoted herself to her family and supporting her husband. She contributed to the Methodist Ministers' wives circle and was active in Maughan Church branch of the women's auxiliary of overseas Methodist missions until 1951 (president 1929-37). With her husband, she visited British city central missions in 1929. Practical and adaptable, Ida Forsyth helped the Sisters of the People in the Adelaide Central Methodist Mission's social welfare and relief work and was a fearless publicist for the poor and the unemployed. She attracted support by her calm warm manner and skills in speaking and writing.
In 1929-52, Forsyth led the mission's mothers' meetings. A crèche freed tired mothers to enjoy their weekly bright hour with singing, talks, a thrift club, afternoon teas and parties at Christmas. From 1936, the Forsyths lived next to the Magill Methodist Children's Homes; Ida befriended the children and helped the staff.
In 1930, Samuel Forsyth as superintendent of the Adelaide’s Central Methodist Mission (for a record 23 years) founded Kuitpo industrial colony, in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges, to provide training for unemployed men. Ida Forsyth became a standard bearer for the colony. Her logical heartfelt articles and pamphlets warned that neglecting young unemployed men could make them “idle spongers”: Kuitpo's training could “stem this waste”.
As vice-president of the Kuitpo Helpers' Association from 1932, Ida Forsyth publicised the colony. The association supported her proposal to invite "people of ability and influence" to join in large-scale fundraising. The resulting nondenominational Central Mission Aid Society, almost continuously under her presidency in 1932-52, collected substantial sums for Kuitpo and mission relief work, especially through annual two-day galas in Adelaide's exhibition building when women from nearly all the churches and the Jewish Women's Guild worked together.
In 1936, Ida organised the ingenious pioneer ships competition where 12 young women from pioneer families competed for penny votes, raising more than £1000. She believed that, because Kuitpo lacked official Methodist sanction, help came from “every section of the community”. In 1944, Ida Brummitt gave biweekly talks called Between Ourselves, offering lonely people “something else to think about", on the mission's radio stations 5KA and 5AU
She and Samuel visited missions and churches overseas in 1950. He retired in 1952 and Ida wrote his biography, He Came from Ireland (Adelaide, 1954), characteristically barely mentioning herself.
