Booth, Sarah (1844 - 1928)

Sarah Crisp Booth (1844-1928) was instrumental in making a success of the first Melbourne Young Women’s Christian Organisation, which was officially recognised by the Young Women’s Christian Organisation of Great Britain on the 21st May 1883.

Initially a reluctant recruit, Booth (together with her sister E.W. Booth), became the first General Secretary of the Melbourne Young Women’s Christian Organisation of Melbourne. She is listed as Honorary Secretary 1882- 1910.

As part of the ‘midnight missions’, library development, ‘gospel temperance union’ and factory visit programs, Booth – keenly aware of space restrictions – set up a building fund in 1886. This resulted in the purchase of the “Christian Home for Girls” in Jolimont in 1888.

Membership

• Melbourne Young Women’s Christian Association (Melbourne Y.W.C.A.), World Young Women’s Christian Association (World Y.W.C.A .1855 –) (1882 - 1999)

  Founding Member; first General Secretary of Melbourne Young Women's Christian Organisation

Related Cultural Artefacts

• Women's Suffrage Petition (Monster Petition) (1891)

  Sarah Booth signed the Monster Petition in 1891

Books

• Booth, S. C. (Sarah Crisp), 1844-1928, Dinna forget : stories from real life, George Robertson & Co.,, Melbourne ; Sydney, 1908, 312 pp. [ Details... ]

See also

• Dunn, Margaret, The dauntless bunch : the story of the YWCA in Australia, YWCA,, Clifton Hill, Vic., 1991, 264 pp. [ Details... ]
• Durrant, Leoni, Y.W.C.A. 1882-1982 : Melbourne pictorial history, Ian Murray and Associates, [Melbourne], 1982, 91 pp. [ Details... ]
• 1891 Women's Suffrage Petition, with Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Genealogical Society of Victoria, League of Women Voters Victoria, Public Record Office Victoria, WCTU, Parliament of Victoria, http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/womensPetition/. [ Details... ]
• Warne, Ellen Mary, 'The Mother's anxious future : Australian Christian Women's Organisations meet the modern world, 1890s-1930s', PhD thesis, University of Melbourne, Department of History, 2000, 313 pp. [ Details... ]