AustLit

Daughter of S. Saunders, one of three children, Elizabeth Bridgland was educated at St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School. In 1929 she married Walter Lewis Bridgland in Adelaide's Jewish Synagogue, and they had one son and one daughter. She and her husband travelled extensively to the UK and continental Europe, to the Pacific and to Malaysia and Singapore. Her husband was Lord Mayor of Adelaide 1966-8, and Elizabeth threw herself whole-heartedly into the role of Lady Mayoress. She was a woman with a strong social conscience; an executive committee member and Glenelg representative for Cottage Homes Inc, a life Member of the Adelaide Children's Hospital and the Royal Overseas League. She was made Justice of the Peace in 1969 and qualified as Justice of the Quorum, sitting on many cases as Chairman of the Court. She was the first woman to sit at Darlington Court. She was chosen as one of the Australian Women of the Year on nine consecutive years.

Elizabeth was an inaugural member of the Society of Women Writers, South Australian Branch. Her first book, Poems for Children, was written in 1939 and proceeds given to the Red Cross Society. During World War II she wrote children's programmes for radio, and her poem 'Enlist Now' was used by Colonel W. C. N. Waite, Deputy Director of Recruiting. She wrote poems for family and friends, and wrote on events and personalities of her time, sending poems to Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother on special occasions.