People Australia

Margaret Watts, 1910s

Margaret Watts, née Thorp (1892-1978) peace activist and welfare worker

Birth: 12 June 1892 at Everton, Liverpool, England, daughter of James Herbert Thorp (1855-1919), medical practitioner, and Annie Sturge, née Eliott (1860-1931). Marriage: 1 October 1925 with Quaker forms at Killara, Sydney, to Arthur George Watts (1888-1958), a builder and also an active Quaker, born at Barton, Lancashire, England. They divorced in 1936. Death: 5 May 1978 at St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst, Sydney. Religion: Quaker. 

• Arrived in Australia with her parents and siblings in 1911.
• A Quaker like her parents, she became a leading activist in the Queensland branch of the Women's Peace Army (established in December 1915). She was also a member of the Queensland Anti-Conscription Campaign Committee.
• In June 1916 she delivered a public address condemning capitalist militarism. The following year she was a co-founder of the Children's Peace Army. She represented Queensland on the Federal Executive of Australian Peace Alliance in 1917.
• She maintained links with Quakers and other pacifists in England and New Zealand.
• Although never joining a socialist organisation, she welcomed the October 1917 Russian revolution and took an interest in the activities of the Russian Association in Queensland, teaching English to Russian emigres. She supported the formation of the Queensland Socialist League (1918) and H. E. Boote's agitation for the release of IWW prisoners.
• She declined an offer by R. S. Ross to become an organiser for the Victorian Socialist Party, with which she had personal links, following the resignation of her close friend Adela Pankhurst.
• In 1919 she was appointed assistant inspector of factories in Queensland and formed the Labor Girls' Club in the same year. In 1920-1921 she toured Britain and Europe, spending most of her time in Russia and, on her return, gave public lectures on conditions in Russia.
• Retired in 1962. Lived at Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point. Remained an active Quaker.
• Cause of death: cerebral haemorrhage (days) and hypertension. 

Sources
Joy Damousi, Socialist Women in Australia, c.1890-c.1918, Ph D thesis, ANU, 1987.