People Australia

Mary Ellen Webb, née Butterworth (1861-1932) twiner and piecer (textile worker), Socialist and political activist 

Birth: 1861 at Oldham, Lancashire, England, daughter of Benjamin Butterworth (b.1838), cotton piecer, and Mary Ann, née Mills (b.1832), cotton weaver. Marriage: 30 August 1884 in the Anglican parish church at Werneth, St Thomas, Oldham, Lancashire, to William Thomas Webb (1861-1947), skip maker, later wicker-worker (basket maker). They had five daughters and one son. Death: 27 August 1932 at Murray Road, Preston, Melbourne, Victoria. Religion: married with Anglican rites. 

• Worked as a twiner and piece maker, in the cotton industry. Was involved in the co-operative movement at Oldham, England.
• Arrived in Australia with her husband and elder children aboard the RMS Orizaba on 1 February 1891. Settled in Victoria. For many years she “took an active part in Labor Party activities in Northcote”. Later moved with her family to Preston, Melbourne.
• Member of the executive committee of the Victorian Socialist Party in the pre-war period. A member of the Women's Socialist League during World War I, serving on its executive committee and as president of the Northcote branch.
• Active in Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Committee (established 1916) and of the Women's No Conscription Demonstration (Melbourne, October 1916), addressing various public meetings.
• In 1919 she was elected to the executive committee of the Labor Women’s Central Organising Committee and was auditor for the Labor Fair that year.
• In the last years of her life failing health compelled Webb “to relinquish active participation in the Movement, but she evinced a keen interest in its affairs right up to the last”. She had a genial and pleasing personality and was very highly respected.
• Cause of death: cancer of ovary and abdomen (2 years), and ingravescent heart failure and dropsy (2 months).
• Her son-in-law Allan Phillip McPhee (1879-1953), a grocer, and daughter Harriet McPhee, née Webb (1886-1952) were both long-standing members of the Victorian Socialist Party before World War I.

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