Bessie Jean Thompson Guthrie

Bessie Guthrie (2 July 1905 – 17 December 1977) was an Australian designer, publisher, feminist and campaigner for women's and children's rights. She was one of the founders of the Elsie Women's Refuge Night Shelter, the first women's refuge in Australia.

Early life Bessie Jean Thompson Mitchell was born on 2 July 1905 at Rosalie, Church Street, Camperdown, New South Wales. The only child of James Buchanan Mitchell and his wife Jane Elizabeth Coulson. Janet Forbes Mackenzie Mitchell and Margaret Crichton Mitchell.

Bessie Guthrie continued her 20-year involvement with girls and women. She did extensive research of the network of Children's Courts, church and state homes and the child welfare system generally, and led protests and gained publicity that gradually led to change

Legacy Guthrie featured on a poster by Toni Robertson for the first Women and Labour Conference in 1978. A copy of the poster is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. The Women's Emergency Shelter and Training Scheme, established as a half-way house for women who had become part of the criminal justice system was renamed Guthrie House in 1995.

Personal life Guthrie was married to Ivor Ralph Michael Russell, a tailor, from 1935 to 1937. She later married Clive Guthrie in 1950, and was widowed when he died in 1971. Guthrie died on 17 December 1977 in Glebe.