People Australia

Ada Louisa Turnbull, née Taylor (1861-1899) governess and community activist

Birth: 1861 at Geelong, Melbourne, Victoria, daughter of Richard Taylor (1816-1890), gentleman, and Sarah, née Burgess, late Medworth (1827-1888). Both parents were probably born in England. Marriage: 17 June 1879 at Christ Church, Geelong, Victoria, to Reverend James Archibald Turnbull (1843-1901), Christian Socialist clergyman, born in Sydney. They had one daughter and one son. Death: 19 June 1899 in her residence at Rathdown Street, Carlton, Melbourne. Religion: Anglican. 

• Governess prior to marriage. Moved to country Victoria with her husband after their marriage, then to Adelaide, South Australia in 1884, Sydney and Cobargo, New South Wales, in 1886-1890, and Hobart and Perth, Tasmania, in 1890-1896.
• With her husband she agitated for relief of Hobart unemployed 1894 and formed the Labor & Political League, living a poverty-stricken existence after her husband was defrocked for criticising the Bishop.
• In 1896 the couple moved to Carlton, Melbourne, where she assisted her husband in the formation of the Labour Church, Bourke Street, and participated with members of the Victorian Socialist Party in organising May Day celebrations.
• In 1898 she founded the Women's Social and Political Crusade to campaign for the inclusion of female suffrage in Federal bill.
• Turnbull “was a good musician and reciter”. During her husband’s protracted illness, she “managed the Labor Church”. He described her as his 'indispensable' colleague, “comrade wife” and “greatest chum”; to their friend Stephen Barker she was “a good earnest worker in the Labor movement”. Tocsin’s obituarist wrote that she was “a first-class platform speaker and played a highly important part in all agitations held in support of women’s franchise, factory legislation, co-operation, old age pensions, &c”.
• Cause of death: pneumonia and heart failure.

Sources
Verity Burgmann, In Our Time: Socialism and the Rise of Labor, 1885-1905, (Sydney, 1985).