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Margaret Ann Swebleses (1868–1963)

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Margaret Anderson, 1906

Margaret Anderson, 1906

Margaret Ann Swebleses, née O’Brien, late Anderson (1868-1963) gaoled Socialist activist 

Birth: 30 August 1868 at Springfield, near Romsey, Victoria, daughter of William O’Brien and Margaret, née Quinn. Marriages: (1) 1894 at Ballarat to Hilbert Anderson (1866-1938) a miner. They had one daughter and one son. The marriage ended in divorce in 1917. (2) 1917 at Carlton, Victoria, to Joseph Swebleses (1883-1955), clerk and fellow Socialist. They had no children. Death: 12 January 1963 in hospital at Kew, Melbourne, Victoria, usual residence Crockford Street, Port Melbourne. Religion: cremated without religious service. Freethinker. 

  • After her marriage to Anderson she lived with him at Ballarat. Then moved to Melbourne.
  • In Melbourne she became a freethought activist. She was active in the Victorian socialist movement with Tom Mann in 1905. Colleague of Bernard O’Dowd and Harry Scott Bennett.
  • Honorary secretary and editor of the Socialist. Fined in November 1906 with others involved in the publication, she refused to pay and served three days in Melbourne Gaol. Later that year she went on a lecturing tour in Victoria and New South Wales with fellow prisoner Lizzie Ahern.
  • Her estrangement from Anderson reputedly “dated from 1911” when he “went to Broken Hill to work, remaining there until 1913” regularly sending her fortnightly payments. On his return to Melbourne she declined to cohabit with him. Decree nisi was granted in March 1917 and they both later remarried.
  • Margaret lived with Sweebles in Perth, Western Australia in 1916-1917, and in Sydney, New South Wales from 1918 to about 1945. Returned to Melbourne with him after he had retired from his last occupation as a public servant.
  • According to Bertha Walker, she died “leaving her children faithful to the cause”. Cause of death: bronchopneumonia and coronary atherosclerosis.

Sources
Bertha Walker, Solidarity Forever: the life and times of Percy Laidler (Melbourne, 1972), pp 24, 25 & 26; Ray Dahlitz, Secular who's who, a biographical directory of freethinkers, secularists, rationalists involved in Australia’s secular movement from 1850 onwards (Melbourne 1994).

Citation details

'Swebleses, Margaret Ann (1868–1963)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/swebleses-margaret-ann-34499/text43330, accessed 6 November 2024.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012

Margaret Anderson, 1906

Margaret Anderson, 1906

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Life Summary [details]

Alternative Names
  • O'Brien, Margaret Ann
  • Anderson, Margaret Ann
Birth

30 August, 1868
Springfield, Victoria, Australia

Death

12 January, 1963 (aged 94)
Kew, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Cause of Death

pneumonia

Religious Influence

Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included.

Occupation
Political Activism