Jeanne Young

Who was Jeanne Young?

Sarah Jane Young OBE, née Forster, known as Jeanne Forster Young was an Australian political reformer.

Born at Unley in Adelaide to smith John Forster and Sarah Jane, née Jarvis, she received a private education before becoming a governess and piano teacher; she also attempted freelance journalism, and lost the sight in one eye in an accident with a horse and trap. She married journalist Alfred Howard Young at her father's home in East Adelaide on 23 January 1889. She became secretary of the Effective Voting League in 1897 as Jeanne Forster Young and named Catherine Spence as an inspiration.

Young and Spence campaigned in Sydney in 1900 for the Hare-Spence method to be used for federal elections, staying with Rose Scott, and after Spence's death Young completed and published Spence's unfinished autobiography. Young joined the Australian Red Cross Society, the South Australian Soldiers' Fund and the Wattle Day League during World War I and directed a three-day exhibition for the WDL's motor ambulance committee in 1916. She left her husband, who had disagreed with her fervent nationalism, in 1917, although he continued to lend her his support. A justice of the peace from 1917, she was secretary of the Women's Representation League in 1918 and was an active member of the board of the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery from 1916, finally retiring in 1928. In 1930 she founded the Proportional Representation Group.