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Tuesday, 6 November 2012

A riverside Peppermint Grove property will be auctioned on Saturday as part of a generous bequest to The University of Western Australia.

The ‘Sydney style' mansion is on the corner of the Esplanade and Forrest Street.  It was built in 1941 and commands uninterrupted views over Freshwater Bay.

Much of the proceeds from the property, owned by the Chapple family, will be used to fund professorial chairs in education and microbiology.

The property was the childhood home of Mrs Marjorie Le Souef and her sister Miss Joyce Chapple who lived there until they died in 2008 and 2010, leaving bequests to the University.

Mrs Le Souef was married to Dr Leslie Ernest Le Souef who was a surgeon with a distinguished military career.  He was one of the longest-standing members of UWA's Senate and a Warden of Convocation.  Dr Le Souef's Senate years were interrupted by the Second World War, during which he commanded the 7 th Field Ambulance AIF in Libya, Crete and Greece from 1940 to 1941.  He was a prisoner-of-war in Crete from 1941 to 1945 and rose to the rank of colonel.

Mrs Le Souef was Chairperson of the War Widows Guild of Australia, an organisation that established a UWA scholarship for breast cancer research and prevention.  A portion of the sale of her share in the house will help establish a Professorial Chair in Tropical Microbiology in the name of her late husband.

Miss Chapple joined the Peppermint Grove Red Cross in 1939 and was involved in fundraising.  The following year, both sisters became members of the Freshwater Bay Voluntary Aid Detachment and helped in hospitals.  Miss Chapple's first patients were survivors of the German ship Kormoran which sank the HMAS Sydney.  In the 1960s she was Commandant of the Australian Red Cross Field Force in Malaysia and in 1973 was awarded the Red Cross Society's Distinguished Service Award.

Miss Chapple's portion from the sale of her share in the house will help establish a Professorial Chair in Education in honour of the sisters' parents, Charles and Ethel Chapple, and will also set up a scholarship for a disadvantaged student.

The 1176sqm property, at 154 Forrest Street, will be auctioned at noon on Saturday 10 November.

Media references

Anne Liddle (UWA Manager Planned Giving, Development and Alumni Relations) (+61 8)  6488 8537
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783

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