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    Mrs Jean Beadle J.P. [picture], courtesy of SLWA online catalogue record.
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Beadle, Jean (1868 - 1942)

Born
1 January 1868
Clunes, Victoria, Australia
Died
22 May 1942
West Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Occupation
Feminist and Social worker
Alternative Names
  • Miller, Jane (Jean) (maiden name, 1 January 1868 - )

Summary

After being exposed to 'sweated labour' conditions while working in the Melbourne clothing industry during the 1880s, Jean Beadle was inspired to dedicate her life to the betterment of conditions for women and children. Known as the 'The Grand Old Lady of the Labor Party,' she was a founding member of the Women's Political and Social Crusade and the Labor Women's Organization in Victoria (1898), Fremantle (1905) and Goldfields (1906). She was also a delegate to the Eastern Goldfields District Council of the State Australian Labor Party. Beadle was one of the first women appointed as a Justice of the Peace in Western Australia, sitting for many years on the Married Women's Court. She was later appointed to serve as an honorary Justice on the bench of the Children's Courts. An official visitor to the women's section of the Fremantle Prison, Beadle also was instrumental in the building of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women. She was secretary, of the King Edward Memorial Hospital Advisory Board, from 1921 until her death. In recognition of her dedicated service the hospital annually awards a Jean Beadle scholarship.

Details

Events

1892
Organized a Victorian relief committee for the Broken Hill strikers
1898
Founding member of the first Labor Women's Organization in Australia
February 1898 - 1901
Vice-president of Women's Political and Social Crusade
1901
Jean with her husband, Harry, and family move to Western Australia
October 1905
Founding member of the first Western Australian Women's Political and Social Crusade (later the Women's Labor League) at Fremantle
December 1906 - 1911
Founding president of the Goldfields Women's Labor League
1912
President of the first Labor Women's Conference
1915 - 1929
Honorary justice on the Children's Court Bench
1919 - 1942
Justice of the Peace
1921 - 1942
Secretary of the King Edward Memorial Hospital Advisory Board
October 1927
Presided over the second Labor Women's conference
1930 - 1935
President of the Perth Women's Branch of the Australian Labor Party
1930 - 1938
President of the Women Justices' Association
1931
Invited by the Labor Women's Organisation to stand for Labor pre-selection for the Senate (unsuccessful)

Sources used to compile this entry: Birman, Wendy and Wood, Evelyn, 'Beadle, Jane (1868-1942)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, Australian National University, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070222b.htm; Popham, Daphne; Stokes, K.A; Lewis, Julie, Reflections : profiles of 150 women who helped make Western Australia's history; Project of the Womens Committee for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations of Western Australia, Carrolls, Perth, Melbourne [etc.]:, 1979, 266 pp.

Related entries

Membership

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Archival resources

JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia

  • Beadle, Jean, 1868-1942. Title Papers, [manuscript], 1899 - 1962, ACC 3114A; Beadle, Jean (1868 - 1942); JS Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of Western Australia. Details

Digital resources

Title
Mrs Jean Beadle J.P. [picture]
Type
Image
Control
State Library of Western Australia
Source
SLWA online catalogue record

Details

Anne Heywood

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