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Annette Bear-Crawford

Australian suffragist and social reformer (1853–1899)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ4769050
Source-derived summary

Annette Ellen Bear-Crawford (née Bear; 23 February 1853 – 7 June 1899) was an Australian women's suffragist and social reformer in Victoria. She was instrumental in uniting and training the women's suffrage organisations in the Colony of Victoria to coordinate a sustained campaign for women to gain the vote. She established a shilling fund to found the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne. She was a social reformer, and successfully agitated to have the age of consent increased, and have women involved in factory inspecting, and policing to ensure the safety of women.

Bear-Crawford died unexpectedly from pneumonia, aged 46, while on a trip to England where she attended the Women's International Conference. She died before women gain the vote in Victoria or Australia. She also died a week before the opening of the Queen Victoria Hospital, Melbourne. In 2007, she was inducted into the Victorian Honour roll of women.

Early life

Bear-Crawford was born Annette Ellen Bear, in Collingwood, Victoria, on 23 February 1853 to Annette Eliza Bear née Williams, and John Pinney Bear. John was from Devon, England and made money on a stock and station agency in Australia, and with his earnings he established the Chateau Tahbilk winery on the Goulburn River.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Annette Bear-Crawford” as australian suffragist and social reformer (1853–1899). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Annette, Bear-Crawford and Australian.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1853, 1899, 2007—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1853-01-01, 1853-02-23—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Annette, Bear-Crawford and Australian providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Annette Bear-Crawford”, the useful work is to connect “australian suffragist and social reformer (1853–1899)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4769050. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1853, 1899 and 2007.

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Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Annette Bear-Crawford” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.