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Minnie Isabel (Belle) Long (1867–1947)

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Minnie Isabel (Belle) Long (1867-1947) Socialist and Labor activist

Birth: 24 February 1867 at Marylebone, London, England, daughter of Richard Long (1840-1919, merchant, later engineer, and Maria, née Hooppell (1840-1913). Unmarried. Death: 11 September 1947 in her residence at Bluff Road, Sandringham, Melbourne. 

  • She arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, with her mother and siblings aboard the Kent on 1 July 1879. Her father had presumably reached Australia previously.
  • Pioneer Socialist and member of the Free Religious Fellowship. For many years from about 1914 she was superintendent of Victorian Socialist Party Sunday School whose 'understanding and zeal in her unselfish work for Labor ideals' influenced John Curtin and John Cain Senior.
  • Sister of R. H. (Dick) Long (1873-1948), anti-conscriptionist and polemicist. Belle was accompanist at Socialist musical gatherings, and ran the cake stall at the Christmas fair. In 1916 she was secretary pro tem of the Socialist Esperanto Group.
  • For many years she and her brother lived in the family’s house at Sandringham, where she hosted refreshments for visiting Sunday school Rambling Club scholars and their parents.
  • Worked alongside her brother for various causes. Went with him to England in 1925 to attend the War Resisters’ International Conference at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
  • In the 1920s she was associated with the Labor Guild of Youth and she and her brother again provided their Sandringham house and grounds for picnics, one of which raised funds for the British Miners’ Relief Fund.
  • Cause of death: pneumonia (7 days) and chronic nephritis (6 years).

Sources
Common Cause
, 18 October 1947.

Additional Resources and Scholarship

Citation details

'Long, Minnie Isabel (Belle) (1867–1947)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/long-minnie-isabel-belle-34285/text43014, accessed 7 November 2024.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012

Life Summary [details]

Birth

24 February, 1867
London, Middlesex, England

Death

11 September, 1947 (aged 80)
Sandringham, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Cause of Death

kidney disease

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Passenger Ship
Occupation or Descriptor
Key Organisations
Political Activism