Lucy Drake grew up in Abbotsford, the third daughter of head teachers, Anne and John Drake. At the age of 14 she joined the Education Department and rose through the ranks, finally being appointed chief instructress of cookery at Swinburne Technical College. During her tenure she published many popular cookery books which were re-published in new editions for years after her untimely death.
The Drakes were well-known residents, very much part of the local community. Anne and John were headmistress and headmaster at St Philip’s Denominational School on the corner of Regent Street (later called Nicholson Street) and Marine Parade (later a Common School and finally Abbotsford State School, number 5) Drake family members participated in the popular annual East Collingwood Flower Show which raised money for St Philip’s; John was a keen gardener and produced some impressive prize-winning flowers in the large garden of their double-fronted house on the corner of Regent (Nicholson) and Yarra Streets. Lucy shared this interest and won first prize for her ‘hand bouquet by a young lady’.
Records show that sister Edith attended ‘Drake’s School’ as it was known and we can assume that Lucy and the other Drake children attended there for their early years of schooling, probably commencing at a young age.
Anne Drake was without doubt a truly impressive woman. Arriving in Melbourne in 1857, she immediately started work at St Philip’s School despite having given birth during the voyage, then gave birth to another eleven children, while progressing in her career. What was the childhood environment of Lucy and her siblings like, and did it contribute to their future career success? As inspectors commented Anne was ‘able, energetic and reliable’ as well as ‘skilful and vigorous’. And it seems the children either inherited her traits, or learned them at their mother’s knee.
Anne was transferred to Cambridge Street school when it opened in 1877 and Lucy, by then nine years of age, followed her there for several more years of schooling. In 1881 she joined the Education Department as a pupil-teacher; her sister Edith had already commenced in 1876, initially at Abbotsford and from 1882 at Vere Street Collingwood. The girls start on the employment ladder as pupil teachers at a very young age contrasted with their brothers who were sent to Carlton College, King’s College, or Melbourne Grammar.
Soon after Anne retired in 1889 she and John moved to Fairlea 63 Charles Street, Kew. Lucy worked at a range of schools, became the first cookery teacher at the Wangaratta High School, set up a new cookery school in Beechworth, and did stints in other country towns including Warrnambool and Ballarat. Her training was practical and in most of these towns included running public lunches, giving pupils experience in front of house and kitchen work. She also offered night classes for housewives. In 1905 she undertook training at the National Training School of Cookery in London and in 1913 was appointed as instructress at Eastern Suburbs Technical College (later Swinburne). It seems that Lucy really found her niche at Swinburne. Her first cookery book was published in 1915 as a textbook for Swinburne students. Her earlier inspectors’ reports, though largely positive about her energetic capable style, sometimes found her ‘noisy’, ‘rather too much talk and bustle’ ‘needs to be more systematic’. Now she became immensely popular and produced an impressive array of books, including topics as diverse as confectionary making, invalid cookery and stove management. As reported in The Herald in 1920 ‘Seats for her afternoon demonstrations are as eagerly sought as matinee tickets for a popular theatrical entertainment’.
Lucy went to work on Monday 12 February 1923, was taken suddenly ill on Tuesday, underwent an emergency operation, but died that evening. As her obituary in The Australasian pointed out, she was ‘A woman of strong personality and great ability’. Lucy was by then comfortably off, with her will listing property, shares and savings to be distributed to her nieces, with the greater share going to Dorothy Giles, daughter of her older sister Edith. Dorothy was her assistant at Swinburne and took over after Lucy’s sudden death. Books Lucy had been working on were published posthumously, and Dorothy continued to edit and update them while always retaining Lucy’s name as the author (maintaining the Lucy Drake brand identity as we would say nowadays). One book was assembled from individual recipes Lucy had been documenting or publishing in the magazine Everylady’s Journal, and was enticingly entitled Everylady’s cook-book: containing 1000 recipes tested and proved good, with many splendid lessons on every sort of cookery, edited and compiled by Lucy Drake. A 1935 edition added this subtitle: a guide for all young brides, a friend to all housekeepers.
Swinburne University of Technology has curated a detailed dossier of Lucy’s work. In addition, personal stories give an indication of the place of Lucy’s books for home cooks as well as students. See for example this writer’s discussion of Miss Drake's home cookery as used by her mother and grandmother. A nurse, in the context of complaining that when called to nurse an invalid at home she was often expected to do housework and cooking, averred ‘I would never go to a case without Lucy Drake’. Lucy's work also merits comparison with Flora Pell of the Collingwood School of Domestic Arts Economy.
| Birth Date |
Birth Place |
| 16 July 1867 |
Collingwood |
| Home Street |
Home City |
Status of Building |
| Nicholson Street (earlier known as Regent Street) |
Abbotsford |
Demolished |
| Church |
Lodge |
| St Philip's Anglican, Hoddle Street Abbotsford |
|
| Work Street |
Work City |
Status of Building |
| Cambridge Street |
Collingwood |
Extant |
| Death Date |
Death Place |
Cemetery |
| 13 February 1923 |
Hawthorn |
Box Hill |
