Louisa Lawson

Louisa Lawson (née Albury) (17 February 1848 – 12 August 1920) was an Australian poet, writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist.

On 7 July 1866 aged 18 she married Niels Larsen (Peter Lawson), a Norwegian sailor, at the Methodist parsonage at Mudgee, New South Wales.

[1] He was often away gold mining or working with his father-in-law, leaving her on her own to raise four children – Henry 1867, Lucy 1869, Jack 1873 and Poppy 1877, the twin of Tegan[3] who died at eight months.

Louisa grieved over the loss of Tegan for many years and left the care of her other children to the oldest child, Henry.

[5] Lawson used the money saved while running her boarding houses to purchase shares in the radical pro-federation newspaper The Republican in 1887.

[citation needed][9] In 1889, Lawson founded The Dawn Club, which became the hub of the suffrage movement in Sydney.

[13][14] The Louisa Lawson House, a mental healthcare centre for women which operated from 1982 to 1994, was named in her honour.