photographer and secretary, was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, daughter of the farmers Gustav Schwamm and Ernestine, née de Cleene. She worked for the public service, then as secretary to Spencer Digby, the prominent Wellington society photographer. Schwamm came to Australia in 1948 and found employment as a secretary at the CSIRO. In November 1949 she took five months leave of absence during which she visited Brisbane and Adelaide and travelled throughout Victoria, south-west NSW and the Northern Territory.
In 1952 Schwamm travelled to Italy by ship via Indonesia and Suez with John Lennon, a teacher. For ten months they travelled extensively in Europe, Scandinavia and the UK. Lennon then returned to Australia and Schwamm worked in London for two months before returning to Sydney to marry him, on 5 May 1953. Raising their three children interrupted her career and her enthusiasm for travel. For several years in the 1960s and 1970s she again worked as a secretary, interspersing this with trips overseas. Over the past twenty years Schwamm has travelled extensively throughout Australia and in the Middle East, Asia, America and Europe, her destinations including Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, China, Japan, Alaska, Canada and Russia. Her husband died in 1986.
- Writers:
- Lennon, Jane
Note: Heritage biography.
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
