Ada Bromham (20 December 1880 – 15 March 1965) was an Australian feminist and temperance activist.

Biography

Bromham was born in Gobur, Victoria to blacksmith Frederick Bromham and Charlotte, ''née'' Bradford. She was educated at

Yarck Yarck is a town in the upper Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Murrindindi and on the Maroondah Highway, north east of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Yarck and the surrounding area had a populati ...

before moving with her family to Western Australia in 1893. She attended school at

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

and then became a doctor's receptionist. Her mother died in 1908 and Bromham worked at a drapery shop in

Claremont Claremont may refer to: Places Australia *Claremont, Ipswich, a heritage-listed house in Queensland * Claremont, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart * Claremont, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth ** Claremont Football Club, West Australian Footba ...

, lodging with the daughters of former Fremantle mayor and temperance campaigner Thomas Smith. By the early 1920s, with the business prospering, she began to engage in social issues, and unsuccessfully contested the 1921 state election. She was president of the West Australian Temperance Alliance and secretary of the Australian Women's Equal Citizenship Federation in 1925 before becoming secretary of the Australian Federation of Women's Societies in 1926. In June 1926, Bromham led the Australian delegation to the International Suffrage Alliance Conference in Paris and then represented Australia at a conference of the British Empire League in London on emigration. She left Perth for Melbourne in January 1934 and further represented her union at conventions and conferences in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

and London. She became general secretary of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1937 and moved to Adelaide, contesting

Unley Unley is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Unley. The suburb is the home of the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Unley neighbours Adelaide Park Lands, Fullar ...

at the 1941 state election. She retired briefly in 1946 before returning to Melbourne in 1947 as general secretary. She retired again at the end of 1949. Following her retirement from the temperance movement, Bromham became involved in the Chinese-Australian Friendship Society, joining a peace delegation to Peking at a time when China was highly unpopular. She continued to support the WCTU but found her Christian Socialist beliefs increasingly at odds with the union's conservative agenda, and returned to Western Australia in 1959. She also campaigned for

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

rights. Bromham died at Brentwood Hospital of bronchopneumonia in 1965 and was cremated.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bromham, Ada 1880 births 1965 deaths Australian feminists Australian temperance activists 19th-century Australian women 20th-century Australian women Woman's Christian Temperance Union people