
Annette
Bear-Crawford photograph neg.691 National Library of
Australia
|
THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S FEDERATION
GATEWAY
BEAR-CRAWFORD, ANNETTE (1853-1899)
Born in East Melbourne, from a
well- to-do family, Annette Bear spent her early years in Victoria and England.
Her father established the Chateau Tahbilk vineyard in Victoria's north western
region.
Annette was one of the leaders in the Victorian womens
suffrage movement from the 1880s. She believed 'the vote (for women) would be
the most effective instrument for improving the conditions of life'. During
1884 with Henrietta Augusta Dugdale (1826?-1918) in Melbourne she formed the
Womans Suffrage (Franchise) League.
She took a strong role in
educating women, together with Vida Goldstein and was also instrumental in the
establishment of the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women. West Australian and New
South Wales women formed several Federal leagues in 1898. In Western Australia
and South Australia women voted in the 1899 and 1900 referenda.
She
died of pneumonia in London, on 7 June 1899 and is commemorated by a statue in
London and a bronze plaque in Christ Church, South Yarra.
Books of interest Australian
Dictionary of Biography, vol. 7, pp. 230-1.
Freeman, Shirley Ruth.
(1986). Nineteenth Century Reformers Constance Stone and Annette
Bear-Crawford. Thesis (B.A. Hons). (MS 7900)
Oldfield, Audrey.
(1992). Woman suffrage in Australia: a Gift or a Struggle? Cambridge;
Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. |