Euphemia BOWES

BOWES, EUPHEMIA (née ALLEN) (b. Edinburgh, Scotland, 1816; d. Sydney, NSW 12 Nov 1900). Philanthropist.

Euphemia Allen was a devout Wesleyan who arrived in Sydney as a servant and bounty immigrant in 1838. She helped found the Parramatta Prayer Union that year. In 1842 she married John Bowes, baker, Wesleyan lay preacher and later minister. They had eleven children.

The Bowes family were regularly moved around the colony until John retired to Sydney in 1880 as supernumerary minister. Later the Bowes family also ran a ladies' college from their home. Euphemia quickly assumed a leading role in Sydney's major women's evangelical organisations, very similar to that of Pottie and Ward (qq.v.). Like them, she supported all evangelical-backed measures for the increased protection of women and children. She joined the Sydney Ladies' United Evangelistic Association and became a founding member of the Ladies' Committee of the Sydney City Mission, where she coordinated the 'rescue' of prostitutes. She was also a committee member of less successful Homes for 'Blind', 'Inebriate' and 'Working' women. In 1897 she was a founding member of the Sydney Needlework Guild which made 'useful' clothes for charities.

Her major contribution began in 1882 when she helped found the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Sydney. Elected president in 1885, she ensured the Union's power base by actively promoting the founding of 42 other unions throughout the state. She retired from active leadership of the Union to become honorary life president in 1893. Her daughter Eva also became a leading member of the Union.

Euphemia also actively campaigned for women's franchise as a means of promoting temperance, morality and social reform. F B Boyce (q.v.) claimed that she first publicly advocated women's suffrage in 1887.

Euphemia also worked for the greater protection of women and girls as a founding member of the Ladies' Committee of the Social Purity Society in 1886. Issues such as raising the age of consent and preventing child prostitution gained her warm support.

While her death after a long illness was little noted, Euphemia was eulogised by her temperance colleagues as having had 'magnificent power' and for carrying a Bible ever ready to save a soul.

ADB 7; J Godden, 'Philanthropy and the Woman's Sphere' (PhD thesis, Macquarie Univ. 1983)

JUDITH GODDEN