Annette Bear-Crawford

Annette Bear-Crawford
photograph
neg.691
National Library of Australia

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S
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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 women’s 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 Woman’s 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.

 

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