Euphemia Bridges Bowes

Euphemia Bridges Bowes (née Allen) (1816–1900) was a suffragette and social activist, who campaigned for the temperance movement and helped to raise the age of consent and fight against child prostitution.

Early life Euphemia Bridges Allen was born in Edinburgh in 1816 to Joseph and Eliza Allen. She was well-educated for a female in the early 19th century, and was able to read and write. Allen was selected to come to Australia as part of the Bounty Immigrants Scheme (1835–1941), under which new immigrants could be selected for employment by colonists who would pay for their passage. After arriving on 6 December 1838 upon the Fairlie, Euphemia worked as a house servant.

Allen married John Bowes, a baker and Wesleyan lay preacher, on 13 September 1842 in Parramatta. In 1848, the family moved to Wollongong where John was accepted into the Wesleyan Ministry. Euphemia gave birth to eleven children, with eight surviving into adulthood. After living in various rural townships as part of John's ministerial work, he and Euphemia returned to Stanmore in 1880. She felt that giving women voting rights would be an excellent means of establishing control over the sale and consumption of liquor.