Lilian Staple Mead

Lilian Staple Mead was born on 30 June 1865, the eldest child of Baptist minister Silas Mead and Ann (née Staple).{{cite book|chapter=Lilian: 'An Awakened Woman'|first=Rebecca|last=Hilton|title=Silas Mead (1834-1909) and his Baptist family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9iRYzwEACAAJ|editor1=Rosalind M Gooden|editor2=Ken R Manley|editor3=Stefanie C Pearce|publisher=Morling Press|year=2023|pages=195–210}} Her mother died when she was nine. From age 13, she attended the Advanced School for Girls along with her sister Gertrude, completing classes in English Literature at the University of Adelaide in 1882,{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/43338174|title=Adelaide University|date=19 December 1882|work=South Australian Register|access-date=23 July 2021}} before moving to Prince Alfred College in 1883–1884 to complete her matriculation, where she was the only female student at the time and since.{{cite web|url=https://pac.edu.au/.../pac-s-only-female-enrolment-in-1883/|publisher=Prince Alfred College|date=6 March 2020|access-date=23 July 2021|title=PAC's Only Female Enrolment in 1883}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book|title=From Woolloomooloo to 'Eternity': A History of Australian Baptists: Volume 1: Growing an Australian Church (1831–1914)|first=Ken R.|last=Manley|year=2006|publisher=Paternoster|pages=113–114|isbn=9781597527194|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BaJLAwAAQBAJ}} She commenced a Bachelor of Arts at Adelaide University, but withdrew after the death of her stepmother in 1886 to care for her father.

Mead was a signatory on the Women's Suffrage Petition in 1894, which is acknowledged by the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme as an Archival treasure. In 1895, Mead gave an address title "The Awakened Woman" at the South Australian Woman's Christian Temperance Union state convention calling for equal education opportunities. She said,

'Why', the awakened woman asked, 'if the intellectually accomplished man is not unmanly, is an intellectually accomplished woman unwomanly? Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mary Somerville answered the question. Both highly intellectual women, both ideal wives and mothers, both occupying prominent and public positions, they were intensely and undeniably womanly. The awakened woman ... rightly reasoned that if even a moth does not exist only to subserve another's gain, much less does a woman.{{cite journal|url=http://www.baptistresearch.org.nz/uploads/6/2/0/4/6204774/pacific_journal_5-2_october_09.pdf|title='A Holy Liberty in the Lord'? South Australian Baptists and Female Gender Roles, circa 1870 to 1940|journal=Pacific Journal of Baptist Research|volume=5|number=2|date=October 2009|page=3962|first=John|last=Walker|access-date=23 July 2021|archive-date=4 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804192051/http://www.baptistresearch.org.nz/uploads/6/2/0/4/6204774/pacific_journal_5-2_october_09.pdf|url-status=dead}}

Mead was a leader alongside her father in Christian Endeavour and in 1897 gave an address at the society's international convention in California{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NIrOAAAAMAAJ|title=Official Report of the ... International Christian Endeavor Convention|year=1897|volume=16|publisher=United Society of Christian Endeavor}}{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/162381619|title=Religious News|work=Adelaide Observer|date=25 September 1897|access-date=23 July 2021}} called "The World's Prayer Chain" in which she called for prayers for, among other things, the downfall of caste in India and the abolishment of foot-binding in China.{{cite web|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1897-07-13/ed-1/seq-2/ocr/|title=Interesting Questions Discussed by Able Speakers|work=The San Francisco Call|date=13 July 1897|access-date=23 July 2021}}

Mead authored two children's fiction books, A Brother's Need{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mxNAAAAYAAJ|page=52|title=The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature|volume=79|year=1903|publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & Company}} and Patsie's Bricks,{{cite book|page=588|title=Bookseller|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0k8-AQAAMAAJ|year=1911|publisher=J Whitaker and Sons}}{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/208605877|title=The Bookshelf|first=Rosie|last=Ohlson|work=Evening Journal|date=2 February 1097|access-date=23 July 2021}} which was called by one reviewer "far superior to the general run of books for children."{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55657641|title=Personal Notes from England|work=The Register|date=20 November 1905|access-date=23 July 2021}} Her third book, Daring and Doing, was a collection of short stories of heroism, based upon true stories and "intended to inspire young readers to similar acts of unselfish devotion."{{cite book|page=132|title=The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record|volume=95|year=1911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2xNAAAAYAAJ}} She also had short stories published in The Quiver, a Christian magazine.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZqdpkWR8BiEC|page=500|title=The Quiver: An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading|volume=12|year=1907|publisher=Cassell and Company}}

Mead married Crosbie Brown, a tutor at the East London Missionary Training Institute, Harley House, who was also the child of a minister, on 16 August 1900 at the Baptist Church in Isle Abbots, Somerset{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/54532582|title=Marriages|work=South Australian Register|date=29 September 1900|access-date=23 July 2021}} and after honeymooning in Switzerland, they lived in London.{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/54565030/4101805|title=Personal Notes from England|work=South Australian Register|date=7 November 1900|access-date=23 July 2021}} They had one son, Roger Crosbie Brown, in 1902 in Bourneville. She remained in Britain for the rest of her life.

Mead died on 27 November 1936 in Newton Abbot. In 2019, to mark 125 years since the South Australian Parliament passed the Adult Suffrage Act, the first in the world to grant women the right to stand for parliament,{{cite web |title=SA Firsts – Timeline for South Australian Firsts |url=https://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/en/About-Parliament/Timelines-for-SA-Firsts |publisher=Parliament of South Australia |access-date=24 July 2021}} Mead was one of about 50 women celebrated on banners at the University of Adelaide.{{cite web|url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/hr/organisational-development/diversity-and-inclusion/gender-equity/womens-suffrage|title=Women's Suffrage|publisher=University of Adelaide|year=2019|access-date=23 July 2021}}

• {{cite book|title=A Brother's Need|year=1903|publisher=SW Partridge & Co|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SUM3MwEACAAJ|first=Lilian Staple|last=Mead}}
• {{cite book|title=Patsie's Bricks|first=Lilian Staple|last=Mead|year=1905|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=StBkNgAACAAJ|publisher=SW Partridge & Co}}
• {{cite book|title=Daring and Doing: True Stories of Brave Deeds|first=Lilian Staple|last=Mead|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3AHMwEACAAJ|year=1912|publisher=}}

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Category:1865 births

Category:Writers from Adelaide

Category:People educated at Prince Alfred College

Category:University of Adelaide alumni

Category:Australian suffragists

Category:Australian women's rights activists

Category:Woman's Christian Temperance Union people

Category:Australian Baptists

Category:Australian women children's writers

Category:Australian children's writers

Category:20th-century Australian women writers

Category:20th-century Australian writers

Category:1936 deaths

Category:People educated at the Advanced School for Girls

Category:Australian people of English descent