Blanche Edith Baughan (16 January 1870 – 20 August 1958) was a New Zealand poet, writer, botanist and penal reformer.

[3]: 42  Similarly some sources assert that Ruth murdered John[5][6] but Markwell’s research found that he died of natural causes.

[3]: 34–37 After John’s death the family of six children continued to live in Montpelier Rd, Brighton with the eldest daughter Kate as head of the household.

[3]: 46 [7][8] After graduation Baughan lived and worked in the Settlement Movement in Shoreditch and Hoxton in the East End of London.

[1][3]: 67  She was active in the suffrage movement,[1] having attended Royal Holloway College at the same time as suffragist Emily Davison.

[1] She became part of the literary community making friends with other writers such as Jessie Mackay, Johannes Carl Andersen, James Cowan and the Australian A.G.

[3]: 128–138  Baughan, Jessie Mackay and another writer Mary Colborne-Veel founded the Canterbury Women's Club in 1913 to learn about topics of interest in the wider world such as social work, education, the arts and current events.

[3]: 174–175 [8] Her association with that cause, support for conscientious objector Archibald Baxter and the fact that she spoke German put her under some scrutiny at that time.

[23] Baughan wrote for periodicals in New Zealand, Australia and Britain, including The Spectator which paid her for her essays and poems.

[1][24] Whitcombe and Tombs published a number of her essays as books and booklets including ones on Arthur's Pass and the Otira Gorge in 1925 and on Mt Egmont in 1929.

[3]: 262–272 As a result of her spiritual beliefs, being able to live on private means and her experience of social work in London, Baughan was committed to, and campaigned for, civil liberty and prison reform.

[3]: 186  An article in The Spectator prompted her, with her friend Berta Burns, to found the first branch of the Howard League for Penal Reform outside Britain in 1924.

[6][11] Using her writing talent Baughan penned many letters and articles in newspapers and gave lectures on prison reform.

[3]: 191  In 1936, assisted by another penal reformer Frederick de la Mare and printed by Bob Lowry, she published the book People in Prison using the pseudonym 'TIS'.