AustLit

Ruth Goldthorpe was the daughter of Charles H. Le Gallic and his wife Sarah (Shaw). For three years her father worked as an overseer in charge of the phosphate on the island of Nauru. He and his wife returned to SA three weeks before Ruth was born.

About three years later Charles and Sarah separated. Ruth rarely saw her father, who was mostly away in the Australian outback working as overseer on the railway lines. Her mother obtained work as a cook, taking her little daughter with her when she went to work. Sometimes the child was treated well, and sometimes not. In a personal communication Ruth says of this time that with "all the moving from place to place, having no place to call home, I think I developed an inferiority complex" . When Ruth reached school age and could no longer go with her mother, she was boarded with a family to go to school with their children. She had an extremely unhappy time with this family, and when her mother discovered how bad things were she was appalled and took her daughter away. Ruth ended up in hospital, and was later placed in the Salvation Army Home for Girls at Fullarton where she was well looked after.

In mid-1929 Ruth and her mother sailed for England, and Ruth grew up in Yorkshire. In 1940 she married Bert Goldthorpe, and they had one daughter. In 1962 they came to SA to live. In March 1968 Ruth attended the School for Poets at the University of Adelaide. She gained confidence and began to branch out, joining a number of organizations including the Writers' Fellowship of SA. She studied Theatre Drama at Betty Quin's 'Q' Theatre, Adelaide in 1971, and she took a correspondence course with the Australian School of Journalism, receiving a diploma in 1972.

Ruth Goldthorpe was a member of a number of writers' associations, both within Australia and overseas. In 1974 she was conferred with the title DANAE by the International Clover Poetry Association, Washington DC, and also became a member of United Poets Laureate International, Quezon City, Philippines, through which organization she was "crowned" at the World Congress of Poets in Baltimore, USA in 1976, and she has been Vice President for Australia, representing United Poets Laureate International World Congress of Poets since 1986. She was a Founding Fellow Member of the International Academy of Poets, Cambridge, England 1976. In 1979 she was the Public Relations Officer for the SA Branch of the Society of Women Writers and she has been a member of the Australian Writers' Guild since 1997. She has received awards from various associations, including A Woman of the Year 1975 (Philippines), the Laurel Leaves World Poetry Award 1980 (Philippines), the Jessie Litchfield Award 1980 (Melbourne), the Statue of Victory World Culture Prize 1982 (Italy), a medal for "Excellence in Poetry" 1995 at the World Congress of Poets (United Poet Laurete International), Memphis, USA and a second Excellence in Poetry medal 1997at the World Congress of Poets (UPLI), High Wycombe University, Bucks, England.

Goldthorpe wrote a number of songs, one of which was published, and published two non-fiction works, Talented Kangaroo Islanders (1981) and Our Honourable Inheritance: a History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Australia (1989). She worked for a while as Public Relations Officer & Social Relations Teacher Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1979) and as Secretary & Assistant Librarian for the Para Ward of the church.