Lady

Born

1842
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Died

17 March 1918
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Occupation

Philanthropist, Suffragist and Welfare worker

Alternative Names

• Saunders, Elizabeth (Birth Name)

Summary

Lady Elizabeth Renwick and her husband, physician and politician Sir Arthur Renwick, were prominent in the nineteenth century evangelical reform movement in Sydney, New South Wales. They shared membership and often leadership of many of Sydney's major charitable insitutions, especially those relating to the needs of women and children. Their interests included the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, the State Children's Relief Board, the Children's Hospital, the Child Studies Association, the Australasian Trained Nurses Association and the Ladies' Sanitary Society, to name only a few.

Lady Renwick's charitable and evagelical work was undertaken through her involvement in the Sydney Female Mission Home, the Sydney City Mission and as president of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). She also served as a vice-president of the National Council of Women in New South Wales. A member of the Womanhood Suffrage League of NSW, she supported suffrage for women as a means of promoting evangelical values. She served as vice president of Sydney University's Women's Society while her husband was prominent in university affairs.

Sources used to compile this entry: Dickey, Brian (ed.), The Australian Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, Evangelical History Association, Sydney, 1994.