page_title: Edith Cowan
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Edith Cowan / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: residence of Edith Cowan 1883-1896, 1912-1919, 31 Malcolm Street West Prth
context_page_description: Edith Dircksey Cowan OBE was an Australian social reformer who worked for the rights and welfare of women and children. She is best known as the first Australian woman to serve as a member of parliament. Cowan has featured on the reverse of Australia's 50-dollar note since 1995.
  Cowan was born on a horse breeding station near Geraldton, Western Australia. She was the granddaughter of two of the colony's early settlers, Thomas Brown and John Wittenoom. Cowan's mother died when she was seven, and she was subsequently sent to boarding school in Perth. At the age of 15, her father, Kenneth Brown, was executed for the murder of her stepmother, making her an orphan. She subsequently lived with her grandmother in Guildford, Western Australia until her marriage at the age of 18. She and her husband would have five children together, splitting their time between homes in West Perth and Cottesloe.
  In 1894, Cowan was one of the founders of the Karrakatta Club, the first women's social club in Australia. She became prominent in the women's suffrage movement, which saw women in Western Australia granted the right to vote in 1899.
context_section_description: At the age of 18, on 12 November 1879, Edith married James Cowan, then Registrar of the Supreme Court. They lived at Scotstoun, 71 Malcolm Street, West Perth for most of their lives, but are also well known for having one of the first houses in Avonmore Terrace, Cottesloe, where they lived from 1896 to 1912.
  Cowan was married in St George's Cathedral, Perth, Perth. She was one of the first women elected to the Anglican Synod in 1916.
  Following an extended period of ill-health Cowan died at the Avro Hospital, Subiaco on 9 June 1932, at the age of 70. After a short service at St. Mary's Church, West Perth, a large public funeral was held at Karrakatta Cemetery where she was buried.
caption: Cowans residence from 1883-1896 and then again from 1912-1919, added to the State register of heritage properities in 2016[3]
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