Bertha McNamara
Bertha McNamara | |
|---|---|
| Born | Matilda Emilie Bertha Kalkstein Template:Birth date Posen, Prussia (now Poznań, Poland) |
| Died | August 1, 1931 (aged 77) North Sydney, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, political activist |
| Known for | Australian labour movement activism, socialist pamphlets |
Matilda Emilie Bertha McNamara (born Kalkstein, formerly Bredt; 28 September 1853 – 1 August 1931) was a prominent Australian writer and political activist. Originally from Prussia, she migrated to Australia during her teenage years and became a significant figure within the Australian labour movement spanning the 1890s through the 1920s. McNamara ran a socialist bookstore in Sydney and produced numerous political pamphlets, earning recognition as "the mother of the labour movement." She was the mother of eleven children, including daughters who married notable individuals such as author Henry Lawson and politician Jack Lang.
Life
Born on 28 September 1853 in Posen, Prussia (present-day Poznań, Poland), McNamara was the daughter of Paulina Wilhelmina (née Berndt) and Karl Frederick Kalkstein, a government official. Due to financial difficulties, she relocated to Australia in 1869, initially settling in Melbourne before taking up a position as a governess in Bairnsdale, Victoria. On 26 February 1872, she wed Peter Hermann Bredt, an accountant originally from Prussia who served as secretary for the Bairnsdale Shire Council. Together they had nine children, six of whom survived infancy.
After becoming widowed in 1888, McNamara moved to Melbourne where she worked as a travelling saleswoman specializing in jewellery and sewing machines. She began her political engagement by publishing one of Australia's earliest socialist pamphlets, Home Talk on Socialism (1891). On 9 July 1892, she married William McNamara, a founding member and secretary of the Australian Socialist League. His outspoken criticism of banking institutions resulted in his imprisonment on libel charges.
In Sydney’s Castlereagh Street, she operated a boarding house alongside managing McNamara's Book and News Depot. Following her second husband's death, Bertha McNamara sustained her activism for more than a quarter-century, maintaining a strong presence in social reform movements.
Her daughter Bertha became the wife of writer Henry Lawson in 1896, while another daughter, Hilda, married influential Labor Party figure Jack Lang.
Affiliations
McNamara was affiliated with several organizations including the Social Democratic Federation of Australasia, the Australian Labour Party, the Labor Women's Central Organizing Committee, and the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales.
Death and legacy
She passed away from pneumonia on 1 August 1931 in North Sydney. Her legacy is commemorated by a bronze bas relief created by Lyndon Dadswell, which is exhibited in the foyer of the Trades Hall (Goulburn Street, Sydney).
Writing
- Commercialism and Distribution of the Nineteenth Century, Forgery and Workingmen's Homes (1894)
- How to Become Rich Beyond the Dreams of Avarice (1908)
- Shylock Exposed (1920)
- Paper Money (1910)