Leontine Cooper

Leontine Cooper (22 April 1837 – 12 March 1903) was a teacher, trade union organiser, suffragist and campaigner for women's rights in Queensland, Australia.

Leontine Cooper
Born
Leontine Mary Jane Buisson

(1837-04-22)22 April 1837
England
Died12 March 1903(1903-03-12) (aged 65)
Queensland, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Spouse
Edward Cooper
​
(m. 1866)​

Life

Leontine Mary Jane Buisson was born 22 April 1837 in Battersea, Surrey to Frenchman Jean François (aka 'John Francis') Buisson and his English wife, Dorothy.[1]

Leontine was the eldest of their children and she grew up first in Battersea then in Brighton.[2] A younger sister was the author Ada Buisson (1839-1866).

She married Edward Cooper on 31 January 1866 in Hampstead, north London and they emigrated to Australia about 1871. Leontine was employed as a teacher soon after her arrival in Queensland, working first at the Albany Creek School, then as the French teacher at Brisbane Girls Grammar School.[2]

She was also a writer, with her short stories appearing in The Boomerang and in the mid-1890s she combined two of her interests, as she edited Queensland's only women’s suffrage newspaper, The Star. Leontine was very well educated and was published several times on the 'letters to the editor' page of newspapers, having commented on issues of the day.[1]

From 1894, she was president of the Women’s Franchise League in Queensland.[3][4]

Leontine died on 12 March 1903[2] from pneumonia, two years before Queensland women gained the vote.

References
  1. "Leontine Cooper". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  2. "Cooper, Leontine Mary Jane (1837-1903)". Trove. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  3. Jordan, Deborah (1 July 2004). "'There Is No Question More Perplexing at the Present Time and More Frequently Discussed Than Women's Place in Society': Léontine Cooper and the Queensland Suffrage Movement, 1888-1903". Hecate. p. 81. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  4. "Leontine Cooper (1837-1903)" (PDF). Women's stories: 100 years of Queensland women's right to vote. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
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