Elizabeth Webb Nicholls

Elizabeth Webb Nicholls
Elizabeth Webb Nicholls
Born	(1850-02-21)February 21, 1850 Rundle Street, Adelaide
Died	August 3, 1943(1943-08-03) (aged 93) North Adelaide
Nationality	Australia
Occupation	Suffragist
Known for	President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of South Australia

Elizabeth Webb Nicholls (21 February 1850 – 3 August 1943) was a key suffragist in the campaign for votes for women (also called 'suffrage') in South Australia during the 1890s. She took on several high-profile roles in the capital of South Australia, Adelaide and was President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of South Australia, one of the most prominent organisations in the successful campaigns which made South Australia the first of the Australian colonies to grant women the right to vote in 1894.

Nicholls was born on 21 February 1850 in Rundle Street, Adelaide to parents Samuel Bakewell, grocer, and his wife Mary Ann, née Pye. Following her mother's death when she was just three years old, Nicholls spent some years living with relatives in England before returning to Adelaide. Her father remarried, his new spouse being Mary Ann's sister Eliza Hannah. Nicholls herself married warehouseman Alfred Richard Nicholls on 2 August 1870, having one daughter and four sons as well as taking in two orphaned relatives who they also raised in their household.

As a young woman Nicholls is quoted as saying I long to have the will and the power to be very useful.

Her father Samuel and her uncle William both became members of the South Australian House of Assembly, providing her with some background in local politics.

An active member of the Archer Street Wesleyan church in North Adelaide, Nicholls taught Sunday School and distributed religious tracts.

Nicholls was said to be "short in stature, with a benign expression, she was a pleasant, unself-conscious speaker and quickly earned her members' approval for her efficiency and enthusiasm", Nicholls was described as being "prone to chafe quietly at 'unreasonable restraint'"

In July 1886, three months after its formation, Nicholls joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of South Australia. Becoming heavily involved in 1888, Nicholls became the provisional president of the Adelaide branch late that year and was elected colonial president in 1889, holding the position until 1897.

In 1891 Nicholls became one of the first women admitted to the South Australian Temperance Alliance.