AustLit

Melva Vincent was educated at Dorrigo Public School, Fort Street High School in Sydney and Grafton High School. After her schooling, Vincent worked on father's newspaper, the Don Dorrigo Gazette and became a member of Ethel Turner's (q.v.) Sunbeam Club. (Vincent's contributions to the Club, published in the Sydney Sun, appeared under the name 'D. O. S. David'.)

In the 1930s, Vincent's stories were published by the Australian Women's Mirror, Everylady's Journal and the Sydney Mail, sometimes under the pseudonym 'D. O. S.', and she contributed items to the Sydney Literary Society's competitions.

Following her father's sale of the Don Dorrigo Gazette, Vicent worked a secretary to A. D. Bourke, brother of John Philip Bourke (q.v.). She married Scott Thomas in 1940, but continued to use her maiden name for her writing. The couple lived for a time at Menangle and then moved to Queensland where Vincent worked for the Department of Primary Production and for an electrical supplier. Following World War II, they returned to Menangle.

Vincent continued to write and her stories were published in the ABC Weekly, Woman and the Bulletin and, later, in Meanjin and Coast to Coast. Although the stories were fictional, they often drew on Vincent's percpetions and memories of Dorrigo in the 1920s and 1930s.

Source: Baiba Berzins, Melva's Story: The Life and Writings of Melva Thomas (M. G. Vincent) (2009)