Caroline Chisholm

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Caroline Chisholm (1808 - March 25, 1877) was a progressive 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her involvement with female immigrant welfare in Australia. She is commemorated in the Calendar of saints of the Church of England. There are proposals for the Catholic Church to also recognise her as a saint.^[1].

Contents 1 Her Early life 2 Life in Madras, India 3 Life in New South Wales, Australia In The 1800's 4 Attributions 5 References 6 Further reading

[edit] Her Early life

Born Caroline Jones in the English county of Northamptonshire in 1808, Caroline's father was a landowner and pig farmer. She was the youngest of a large family and was raised by a governess, excelling in mathematics and French. At the age of 22, she married Captain Archibald Chisholm, of the East India Company, thirteen years her senior. Like her, Archibald came from a relatively privileged background, descended from Scottish land-owning highlanders whose fortune had dwindled over the years. Unusual among many of her contemporaries, Caroline agreed to marry Archibald on condition that he treat her as an equal and support her in her philanthropic activities. She did, however, convert from Protestantism to her husband's religion, Roman Catholicism.

[edit] Life in Madras, India

In 1832, Captain Chisholm was stationed in Madras, India. As an officer's wife, Chisholm enjoyed a lifestyle of comfort and luxury, which only served to highlight the stark privation and squalor she observed on the streets of Madras. The dire poverty of children begging for food and sleeping in doorways particularly affected her.

When Chisholm discovered that some of the destitute street urchins she saw regularly were actually the children of enlisted British soldiers, she decided to take action, establishing the Female School of Industry for the Daughters of European Soldiers. By removing these children from the streets and educating them, Chisholm hoped to eventually secure paid employment and better opportunities for them.

[edit] Life in New South Wales, Australia In The 1800's

In 1838, Chisholm and her family moved to Sydney in the colony of New South Wales in Australia as a result of her husband's sick leave. She met immigrant ships and, in particular, assisted young women who arrived in the colony alone.

Chisholm approached the Governor, George Gipps, with a plan for a house for immigrant women. Her first approach was turned down, but she went back twice to argue her case. Eventually Governor Gipps presented her with part of an empty immigration barracks.

When Chisholm first visited the immigration barracks, they were terribly filthy, plagued with rats and vermin. She worked hard to clean the area and, when the work was finished, a large number of women and girls flooded in to escape from life on the streets. Chisholm taught the women basics in cooking, cleaning, elocution, arithmetic and more. Once the girls were trained, the next part of Chisholm's mission started. Now that they were properly qualified for employment, the girls had to find a place to work. Caroline saw potential in the bush farms of the colony and organised drays to deliver the girls to the farms to become paid laborers.

Chisholm continued to help the women of the colony for many years. After completing her work, she and Archibald returned to England in 1848, where she worked with the British government to improve the conditions on ships destined for New South Wales. Caroline Chisholm helped at least 11,000 immigrants into the Australian colonies.

[edit] Attributions

• A suburb of Canberra, Chisholm, Australian Capital Territory was named after her.^[2]
• Caroline Chisholm School, an all-through 4-18 primary and secondary school, located in Northampton, England that opened in September 2004, is named after her.^[3]
• Caroline Chisholm College, from years 7 - 12, Highschool education, located in Glenmore Park, New South Wales, Australia. Opened in 1974, named after her. Website, [[2]]
• A residential college at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia was named after her.^[4]
• The character of Mrs Jellyby in Dickens' novel, Bleak House, is said to be based on her.^[5]
• Caroline Chisholm appeared on a five cent Australian postage stamp issued in 1968.^[6]
• The Australian federal electoral Division of Chisholm, based in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, was named in her honour.^[7]
• Chisholm Institute of TAFE is a provider of post-secondary education in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne.^[8]
• The Caroline Chisholm Education Foundation seeks to continue the work of Caroline Chisholm through school and community-based awards to enable students in the south-east region of Melbourne to continue their studies.^[9]
• The Centrelink National Support Office was named the Caroline Chisholm Centre

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations.

• Australian Dictionary of Biography entry
• De Vries, Susanna. Strength of spirit: pioneering women of achievement from First Fleet to Federation, Millennium Books, 1995. ISBN 0-7022-1346-2
• Lake, M./ McGrath, A. et al. (1994), "Creating a Nation", Viking: Ringwood
• Northamptonshire people: Caroline Chisholm from the BBC website
• Caroline Chisholm: Friend or Foe?, a subsection from the Gold! website on Australia's 19th century gold rushes
• Hoban, Mary. Fifty One Pieces Of Wedding Cake. A Biography Of Caroline Chisholm. Lowden, Kilmore Victoria, 1973
• mrschisholm.com A new Australian site dealing with many aspects of Caroline Chisholm's life and work and with aims to assist in the Catholic canonisation of Mrs Chisholm