• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE0966

Booth, Sarah

(1844 – 1928)
  • Occupation Community worker, Women's rights activist

Summary

Sarah Crisp Booth (1844-1928) was instrumental in making a success of the first Melbourne Young Women’s Christian Organisation, which was officially recognised by the Young Women’s Christian Organisation of Great Britain on the 21st May 1883.

Initially a reluctant recruit, Booth (together with her sister E.W. Booth), became the first General Secretary of the Melbourne Young Women’s Christian Organisation of Melbourne. She is listed as Honorary Secretary 1882- 1910.

As part of the ‘midnight missions’, library development, ‘gospel temperance union’ and factory visit programs, Booth – keenly aware of space restrictions – set up a building fund in 1886. This resulted in the purchase of the “Christian Home for Girls” in Jolimont in 1888.

Archival resources

  • The University of Melbourne Archives
    • Young Women's Christian Association of Australia
  • Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre
    • Women's Suffrage Petition 1891

Published resources

  • Book
    • Dinna forget : stories from real life, Booth, S. C. (Sarah Crisp), 1844-1928, 1908
    • The Dauntless Bunch : The Story of the YWCA in Australia, Dunn, Margaret, 1991
    • Y.W.C.A. 1882-1982 : Melbourne pictorial history, Durrant, Leoni, 1982
  • Thesis
    • The Mother's anxious future : Australian Christian Women's Organisations meet the modern world, 1890s-1930s, Warne, Ellen Mary, 2000
  • Resource

Related entries


  • Membership
    • Melbourne Young Women's Christian Association (Melbourne Y.W.C.A.) (1882 - 1999)
  • Related Cultural Artefacts
    • Women's Suffrage Petition (Monster Petition) (1891 - 1970)