Serena Lake

Serena Lake (née Thorne) (28 October 1842 – 9 July 1902) was an English Australian suffragist, temperance activist, and evangelical preacher in South Australia.

[5] Lake shared platforms with suffragists such as Mary Lee, and used logic, wit and evangelical fervour to argue in favour of women's suffrage.

Lake was a strong believer in the evils of alcohol and felt confident that once women had the vote it would help to end the liquor trade.

She was, with Elizabeth Webb Nicholls (1850–1943), Maria Peacock Henderson, Mary Jane George, Hannah Chewings, and Sarah Lindsay Evans a trustee of the Union when it was incorporated in 1891.

[4] A quote from Lake's 1891 report states: "The aim of our work is to wake both men and women up to the injustice and absurdity of a national life in which the mother influence has no acknowledged authority or legal recognition.".

[9] A cousin,[10] John Thorne (17 April 1838 – 22 August 1914), served the church in the northern areas of South Australia, arriving in 1873.