Brisbane’s leading Lady Jane Edwards awarded top French honour for civil service

An enduring association with France, that began while travelling in Europe as a young woman, has earned Lady Jane Edwards France’s highest honour for service to that nation, writes Kylie Lang.

BRISBANE identity Lady Jane Edwards will be presented with France’s highest order of civil merit, the Legion of Honour, for doing what she does best – public relations.

“I am really thrilled, just dazzled really,” Lady Jane said of the rare honour, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The petite, immaculately groomed head of BBS Communications Group and wife of former Liberal Party leader Sir Llew Edwards will receive the Legion of Honour at the opening of Le Festival (French festival), tomorrow night, in the South Bank Cultural Forecourt.

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It was back in late-2000 that Lady Jane was brought in to mend divisions between various French organisations based in Queensland.

Leading Brisbane identity Lady Jane Edwards will be awarded the French Government’s highest honour for her services to French-Australian relations.

It was no mean feat, but with her finely honed diplomacy skills, she pulled it off.

Over the past 19 years as the Honorary Consul for France, she has strengthened ties within the 4000-strong French community, and helped establish Brisbane’s first French school.

Last year, in her role as a French Government representative in times of need, she responded to more than 5000 calls for assistance.

Lady Jane – nee Jane Brumfield – is no stranger to the spotlight. She regularly attends A-list functions and is a powerful mentor for young women, some of whom have taken on communications roles in illustrious posts such as Buckingham Palace and the United Nations.

A former journalist, she started her own PR consultancy 30 years ago after working at World Expo 88 as communications director alongside its trailblazing chief executive Sir Llew, whom she married the next year.

The couple – Sir Llew is 83 and Lady Jane “mid-60s” – remain as close as ever, and live in a historic home in Ascot with their miniature schnauzer puppy Luca and other treasures, including a bronze statue made just after the 1789-1799 French Revolution.

Young love ... Lady Jane and Sir Llew Edwards in the late 1980s.

Shortly after Sir Llew retired from public life in 2010 at age 75 – including 16 years as chancellor of the University of Queensland – he told The Courier-Mail that the only board he now wanted to sit on was “the board of Llew and Jane’’.

Sir Llew, awarded a Knight Bachelor in 1984 for his services to the people of Queensland, was one of the few ministers from the Bjelke-Petersen regimen to emerge unscathed from the Fitzgerald Inquiry that called out corruption in political and policing ranks.

But it was teaming up with the equally dynamic Jane Brumfield at World Expo 88 that has perhaps most endeared the couple to the hearts of Queenslanders.

Sir Llew and Lady Jane Edwards celebrating 25 years of marriage in 2014.

The ambitious six-month event effectively changed the face of Brisbane – ushering in al fresco dining and breathing new life into a dead part of town, among other things. Sir Llew told me at a function recently that it was a phone call from the then Labor PM, the late Bob Hawke, that convinced him to take on the Expo challenge.

It is this ability to seamlessly work across political and cultural platforms that has also served his wife well.

Growing up in Canberra, Asia and US as the daughter of an Australian Army officer, Lady Jane fell in love with France in her 20s.

“It began in Saint Remy de Provence (in Southern France) and Llew and I have since stayed there more than 20 times,” she said.

An Expo fan at the closing ceremony in October 1988, thanking Sir Llew and his team.

“When I was at World Expo 88, our governing body was based in Paris, so there were regular quick trips there to report on the progress of the expo – ticket sales, community engagement, any issues needing management.

“My passion for France is not just about the lifestyle, but more the values embodied in the culture – a broad and egalitarian outlook on life, a passion for education and family life, acceptance and often encouragement of those who are different, as well as respect for innovation,” Lady Jane said.

There was “a special kind of vitality and then the incorporating of the beautiful things into daily life – a lovely glass of wine, time with friends, conversation”, she said.

Modestly, she said, her invitation to become the honorary consul arose not only because of her love of France, but also because she could use her company’s offices to arrange meetings for French officials and provide a central point to assist the French community.