Rosetta Jane BIRKS

BIRKS, ROSETTA JANE (née THOMAS) (b. Adelaide, SA, 12 Mar 1856; d. College Park, SA, 3 Oct 1911). Philanthropist, YWCA president.

Daughter of William Kyffin Thomas, a founder of Flinders Street Baptist church, Adelaide, and his wife Mary, Rose Thomas began her close ties with Flinders Street church as an original Sunday school scholar in 1861 and a dedicated member from 1868. Although later regretting her youth's comparatively 'wasted' years—possibly when she painted skilfully—she devoted most of her life to Christian social service. In 1879 she married her sister's widower, wealthy Baptist merchant Charles Birks and became beloved stepmother to his children. Through her sincere belief, unselfconscious evangelism and energetic leadership she spread the Christian message and furthered women's welfare.

Rose Birks worked on the Social Purity Society Adelaide ladies' branch committee and in 1888 became treasurer of the South Australian Women's Suffrage League, cooperating with Mary Lee and Mary Colton (qqv). The Baptist church backed women's suffrage in 1889. On visits to London she forged Australian links with English women suffragists. Following South Australian women's enfranchisement she joined the idealistic Woman's League committee, and was among the earliest women appointed to the Adelaide Hospital board, in 1896. Later she worked on the Queen Victoria Maternity Home board. In 1902 she helped found the SA National Council of Women and became its vice-president. Her paper on 'Work among girls' presaged her appointment as president of the YWCA later that year.

She smoothly steered the YWCA's rapid expansion and guided its members with prayer and loving counsel. Mrs Birks represented Australasia in London in 1906 on the YWCA's world committee, and attended international conferences in Paris that year and in Berlin in 1910. She established connections between Australian associations and YWCAs in Europe and North America, organising a United States secretary for Adelaide's YWCA in 1906. Essentially practical, she launched the local YWCA's re-formed Travellers' Aid Society in 1911, a matron met girl arrivals at ports and railway stations to protect them from danger and direct them to Christian influences.

In 1909, as president of the Flinders Street Baptist Mothers' Union and a prayer circle leader, she initiated the Women's Guild to unite Baptist churchwomen in effective Christian endeavours. Inspired by her leadership the guild thrived, and extended social welfare and evangelism in the city. She died suddenly in a Congregational church, presiding over a women's interdenominational missionary meeting.

Southern Baptist 12, 19 Oct 1911

HELEN JONES