Catherine Helen Spence

Catherine Helen Spence was born on October 31, 1825 in Melrose, Scotland, Australian, is Author, Journalist & Politician. Catherine Helen Spence was one of the most prolific Australian authors who drew a vivid picture of South Australia through her writings and lectures. She won reputation as a literary critic and social reporter and her articles were published in many South Australian newspapers and magazines like the ‘Cornhill Magazine’, ‘Fortnightly Review’ and ‘Melbourne Review’. She was also a famous suffragist and Georgist and Australia’s first female political candidate to run for the elections. She was 67 when she started her campaign but her enthusiasm was that of a young woman. She represented the Federal Convention at Adelaide though unsuccessfully. Catherine Helen Spence contributed to the accomplishment of the women’s suffrage movement and showed extraordinary resilience in transcending patriarchal restrictions on rightful activities. Spence dedicated her life for the education of girl children and betterment of the poor. Miles Franklin called her the “Greatest Australian Woman”. On her eightieth birthday, the image of this “Grand Old Woman of Australia” was placed on the Federation Australian five-dollar note. As a sign of her ever-present influence, Adelaide's daily newspaper ‘The Advertiser’ included her name in its list of the ten greatest South Australians of the 20th century. Spence described herself as 'a clear-brained commonsense woman of the world'.
Catherine Helen Spence is a member of Writers

Does Catherine Helen Spence Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Catherine Helen Spence has been died on 3 April 1910(1910-04-03) (aged 84)\nNorwood, South Australia.

🎂 Catherine Helen Spence - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Catherine Helen Spence die, Catherine Helen Spence was 84 years old.

Popular As	Catherine Helen Spence
Occupation	Writers
Age	84 years old
Zodiac Sign	Scorpio
Born	October 31, 1825 (Melrose, Scotland, Australian)
Birthday	October 31
Town/City	Melrose, Scotland, Australian
Nationality	Australian

🌙 Zodiac

Catherine Helen Spence’s zodiac sign is Scorpio. According to astrologers, Scorpio-born are passionate and assertive people. They are determined and decisive, and will research until they find out the truth. Scorpio is a great leader, always aware of the situation and also features prominently in resourcefulness. Scorpio is a Water sign and lives to experience and express emotions. Although emotions are very important for Scorpio, they manifest them differently than other water signs. In any case, you can be sure that the Scorpio will keep your secrets, whatever they may be.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Catherine Helen Spence was born in the Year of the Rooster. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Rooster are practical, resourceful, observant, analytical, straightforward, trusting, honest, perfectionists, neat and conservative. Compatible with Ox or Snake.

Some Catherine Helen Spence images

Biography/Timeline

1839

Spence was born in Mel Rose, Scotland, as the fifth child in a family of eight. In 1839, following sudden financial difficulties, the family emigrated to South Australia. Arriving on 31 October 1839 (her 14th birthday), on the Palmyra, at a time when the colony had experienced several years of drought, the contrast to her native Scotland made her "inclined to go and cut my throat". Nevertheless, the family endured seven months "encampment", growing wheat on an eighty-acre (32 ha) selection before moving to Adelaide.

1850

Around 1850, having become disillusioned with some doctrines of the Church of Scotland, she began attending the Adelaide Unitarian Christian Church in Wakefield Street. She preached her first sermons there in 1878, (though she was not the first woman to preach there, that honour going to Martha Turner of Melbourne, sister of Gyles Turner) and filled in for the pastor Dr John Crawford Woods during his absences 1884–90.

1854

Her first work was the novel Clara Morison: A Tale of South Australia During the Gold Fever. It was initially rejected but her friend John Taylor, found a publisher in J W Parker and Son and it was published in 1854. She received forty pounds for it, but was charged ten pounds for abridging it to fit in the publisher's standard format. Her second novel Tender and True was published in 1856, and to her delight went through a second and third printing, though she never received a penny more than the initial twenty pounds. Then followed her third novel, published in Australia as Uphill Work and in England as Mr Hogarth's Will, published in 1861 and several more though some were unpublished in her lifetime including Gathered In (unpublished until 1977) and Hand fasted (unpublished until 1984).

1888

In 1888 she published A Week In the Future, a tour-tract of the utopia she imagined a century in the Future might bring; it was one of the precursors of Edward Bellamy's 1889 Looking Backward.

1905

She was an early advocate of the work of Australian Artist Margaret Preston and purchased her 1905 still-life "Onions". Preston received a commission to paint a portrait of Spence in 1911 from a citizens' committee of Adelaide; now held by the Art Gallery of South Australia.

1975

In 1975 she was honoured on a postage stamp bearing her portrait issued by Australia Post.

2001

Her image appears on the commemorative Centenary of Federation Australian five-dollar note issued in 2001.

2013

Although Spence rejected both of the two proposals of marriage she received during her life, and never married, she had a keen interest in family life and marriage – as applied to other people. Both her life's work and her writing were devoted to raising the awareness of, and improving the lot of, women and children. She successively raised three families of orphaned children – the first being those of her friend Lucy Duval.