Helen Kirk

Helen Kirk (1827–1895) was a 19th-century Scottish reformer, temperance worker, juvenile magazine editor, and religious writer. She was the first President of the Edinburgh Ladies' Prayer Union as well as the President of the Young Women's Gospel Mission. She was intimately associated with the leaders of the Women's Temperance movement in Great Britain and the United States, and was a regular contributor to the press. She was author of numerous tracts and pamphlets, and for 40 years, editor of Dewdrops (juvenile monthly).

When a child at home, her father removed from a cottage home into a two storied house, which he converted into a public house, and despite all his own and his wife's efforts, sights and scenes were enacted before the children which they ought not to have witnessed. When about 12 years of age, Helen became the subject of serious religious impressions which were strengthened, and culminated in her conversion while on a visit to her brother at Edinburgh. On her return home, she frankly told her parents that she could no longer sell liquors.

Selected works Est. 1851, The Dew-Drop, a monthly magazine for the young (1859, 1866) 1861, Woman and Prayer; Or, The History of the Ladies' Union Prayer Meeting, Held in Bristo Place Hall, Edinburgh (text)