Henrike Margrethe "Henny" Dons (25 May 1874 – 14 June 1966) was a Norwegian educator and

inner mission The Inner Mission (german: Innere Mission, also translated as Home Mission) was and is a movement of German evangelists, set up by Johann Hinrich Wichern in Wittenberg in 1848 based on a model of Theodor Fliedner. It quickly spread from Germany to ...

ary. She was born at Aker in

Øvre Eiker Øvre Eiker is a municipality in the traditional and electoral district Buskerud in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Eiker. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hokksund. The old municipali ...

as a daughter of hospital manager Johannes Albrecht Dons (1839–1921) and Johanne Marie Fleischer (1850–1943). She was a sister of aviator Hans Fleischer Dons. The family moved to

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

in 1883. She finished middle school at Nissen Girls School in 1891, worked some years as a private teacher for the Bugge family in Rosendal and graduated from Asker Teachers' Seminary in 1897. She worked as a primary school teacher in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

until 1900, then in Kristiania from 1900 to 1917. She was also a leading figure in

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

already from her early twenties. She had undergone a Christian awakening while living in Rosendal, and was in 1897 selected as a teacher for a

Norwegian Missionary Society The Norwegian Missionary Society or the Norwegian Mission Society ( no, Det Norske Misjonsselskap, NMS) is the first and oldest missionary organization in Norway. It was started by a group of approximately 180 Stavanger residents in August 1842, ...

program in colonial South Africa, but she was prevented by illness. From 1917 to 1939 she served as the national secretary of children's work in the Norwegian Missionary Society. During her tenure, the number of local missionary associations for children rose from about 300 to 1,100. In the Norwegian YMCA-YWCA Association she served as deputy chair from 1905 to 1917 and 1932 to 1941. She was also a co-founder of the Women Teachers' Missionary Association in 1902 (chair 1905 to 1946), the Missionary Workers' Ring in 1907, the Norwegian Christian Teachers' Association in 1909 (now a part of KPF) and the Norwegian Missionary Studies Council in 1911. In 1910 both the Women Teachers' Missionary Association and the Missionary Workers' Ring became member bodies of the

Norwegian National Women's Council The Norwegian National Women's Council ( no, italic=no, Norske Kvinners Nasjonalråd) was founded on 8 January 1904 as an umbrella organization for the various Norwegian women's associations. It was established by Gina Krog whose international con ...

, and Dons was a board member here from 1910 to 1916. Together with people like

Bolette Gjør :''Should not be confused with Bolette Margrethe Nissen, born 1849, the mother-in-law of Hartvig Johannson.'' Bolette Margrethe Gjør, née Nissen (11 May 1835 – 4 November 1909) was a Norwegian writer and inner missionary. She was born in Tr ...

, in 1904 she proposed successfully that women be granted voting rights within the Norwegian Missionary Society. She also headed a campaign in 1911, together with five other women, to grant women the right of speech in churches of Norway. She contributed to the magazine ''Norges Kvinder'' and edited the magazines ''Missionshilsen'', ''Vort blad'' and ''Misjonsselskapets barneblad''. She also penned several books. Dons was awarded the King's Medal of Merit in gold in 1962, and was proclaimed an honorary member of the Norwegian National Women's Council in 1965. She did not marry. She died in June 1966 in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dons, Henny 1874 births 1966 deaths People from Øvre Eiker Schoolteachers from Oslo Norwegian Lutheran missionaries Norwegian magazine editors Protestant missionaries in Norway Recipients of the King's Medal of Merit in gold Clergy from Oslo