Edith Cowan: Difference between revisions

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'''Edith Dircksey Cowan''' (née '''Brown'''), [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] ([[August 2]] [[1861]]–[[June 9]] [[1932]]) was an Australian [[politician]], social campaigner and the first woman elected as a representative in an Australian parliament.

== '''matthew davey is the greatest''' ==

Edith Brown was born and raised in Glengarry Station near [[Geraldton, Western Australia|Geraldton]], [[Western Australia]] on [[August 2]] [[1861]]. The second daughter of [[Kenneth Brown (pastoralist)|Kenneth Brown]] and Mary Eliza Dircksey née Wittenoom, she was born into an influential and respected family that included her grandfathers [[Thomas Brown (Western Australian politician)|Thomas Brown]] and [[John Burdett Wittenoom]], and an uncle, [[Maitland Brown]]. When she was seven years old her mother died in childbirth, and her father sent her to a [[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]] boarding school run by the Cowan sisters, whose brother [[James Cowan|James]] she would later marry. Her father remarried, but the marriage was unhappy and he began to drink heavily. When Edith was fifteen, he shot and killed his second wife, and was subsequently hanged for the crime.