Labour Australia

Frances Hickman (1851-1937) Labor activist and woman suffragist 

Birth: 2 January 1851 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, daughter of William Harding, glassmaker, and Hannah, née Blackwell, clothier, who signed with a mark. Marriage: 18 November 1873 in St Luke's Anglican Church, Birmingham, to Harry Albert (Albutt) Hickman (1854-1925), silver electro-plater. They had one daughter. Death: 11 August 1937 at Ardrossan Private Hospital, Rose Bay, Sydney, New South Wales. 

• In 1871 she was working as a warehouse woman in Aston, Warwickshire, and living with her married sister and family.
• Came to Australia with her husband c. 1880, and became 'enthusastic supporter' of socialist movement. She was one of the first women to join the Political Labor League after the 1890s strikes. She and her daughter May were the only women members of Woollahra Labor Electoral League working for the return of Rev. Phillip Moses, unsuccessful Labor candidate in the July 1894 parliamentary elections.
• Prominent in women’s suffrage movement.
• Became active in Paddington branch and delegate to Political Labor League [Australian Labor Party] annual conference. Sometime vice-president of the Women’s Organising Committee.
• Was no longer politically active after she and her husband moved to Wentworth Falls in 1913. Twenty years later she returned to live with her daughter and son-in-law in Rose Bay.