Thank you and farewell to CWL Kingswood Branch
Local
There was plenty to reminisce about at a gathering held to mark the closure of the Catholic Women’s League’s Kingswood branch in March. Members and friends gathered at Kingswood Parish Hall to celebrate everything their branch has achieved over 37 years.
“CWL was founded in South Australia in 1914,” said branch president Lyn von der Borch.
“When a general meeting was held in 1916, Mitcham was named as one of the CWL branches. The Kingswood branch was founded in 1966 and Mrs Pat Milne was the first president.”
The branch operated until 1980 when numbers and Fr Cronin officially closed the branch.
“The branch reopened in 1988 at my instigation and I was the first president,” Lyn said.
“As of 2026 there have been five presidents and I have had this role four times.”
Lyn also reminisced about past leaders and supporters and recalled many happy memories of events, especially the bus trips which ventured as far north as Tanunda and as far south as Yankalilla.
“For some years we had two bus trips per year. We hired the Mitcham community bus which had a hire fee capped at $200 regardless of how far we went,” Lyn said.
“We once went to the St. Kilda mangroves and Karen de Sousa and Fr Bob entertained us with their antics in the Adventure Playground.
“We always asked for Peter Williams as our driver and his kindness and care in looking after us all day even to the extent of dropping off people to their own homes was greatly appreciated. Both Peter and Fr Bob were honoured guests at our CWL lunch and we thanked them sincerely.”
The Mass was celebrated by Fr Bob Wilkinson who spoke about the service the women showed to their parish, the community and each other during CWL Kingswood’s existence.
Catholic Women’s League SA State president Sue Williams congratulated members on their strong and faithful service. Sue acknowledged the many energetic leaders who encouraged many branch activities and fundraising events, as well as attending Archdiocesan and State meetings.
“Kingswood members constantly appear in minutes of CWL meetings in the Archdiocese of Adelaide and their accomplishments have been recorded for posterity,” Sue said.
In 2018 Kingswood members acknowledged their membership was dwindling and ageing but, in a positive twist, younger women were encouraged to start their own branch for younger parish members.
This has been a major achievement because not only has this new branch – known as Next Gen – grown to be one of the largest in the state, but its young women have taken on key roles across the Archdiocese and the State as well as internationally through World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO).
“Next Gen was started by Karen de Sousa and Michele Coolahan who were both members of our branch when they arrived here and were so well looked after that they later wanted other young women to have that experience too,” Lyn said. “Hence Next Gen – with our blessing.”
Sue reminded Kingswood members to be proud of nearly four decades of achievements and friendship.
“The Catholic Women’s League SA is very grateful for their work.”
