Margaret Thorp
| Margaret Thorp | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Margaret Sturge Thorp June 12, 1892 Liverpool, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | May 5, 1978 (aged 85) Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Peace activist, labour activist |
| Parent(s) | James Herbert Thorp Annie Thorp |
Margaret Sturge Thorp (12 June 1892 – 5 May 1978), also known as "The Peace Angel", was a peace activist and labour activist active in Australia in the 20th century. A Quaker, her religious beliefs guided her to a life of advocating for a variety of pacifist and feminist causes.
Thorp was born in Liverpool in 1892, the second youngest of the five children of Dr. James Herbert Thorp, and his wife Annie. The family lived in a middle-class area not far from the slums of Liverpool, where the young Thorp would hear the sounds of "noise, shrieks, and drunken brawls" at night. Dr Thorp worked as a physician at the Richmond Road Medical Mission in the slums, and during her teenage years Margaret would often accompany her father to the mission where she would conduct discussions. While the Thorp family were committed Quakers, this religious philosophy having a profound effect and leading Margaret to a philosophy of pacifism that she would remain dedicated to for her whole life, the family had a rather liberal outlook for a Quaker family at the time. Musical entertainment, usually considered as frivolous by more conservative Quakers, was a constant feature at social gatherings and religious meetings held in the Thorp household.
In 1909, Thorp attended The Mount School in York, a girls' school run by Quakers, where social service and social justice were considered important aspects of school life. She went on to study at Woodbroke College in Birmingham in 1911, studying a mixture of subjects including international affairs and Quaker history. At Woodbroke, Thorp came into contact with a number of radical figures associated with the Young Friends Movement, including Barratt Brown, a member of the Independent Labour Party active in campaigning against conscription. At a Young Friends conference in Swanwick, Thorp was instrumental in the move to take a more active and assertive role against the practice of military conscription.
Thorp first visited Australia in 1911 with her family, at the age of nineteen. Originally arriving in Adelaide, they journeyed onto Hobart where Dr Thorp had been invited to temporarily fill in as the headmaster of the Friends' School there, in order to advise Quakers in Tasmania about the consequences of the Australian government's conscription policy. While in Australia, Dr Thorp also became interested in the issue of conscription, being involved in the formation of the Anti-Military Service League with members of other religious denominations. The Thorp family was shocked on their arrival in Hobart to find that the school was "over-run" by young military cadets in uniform, who would go as far as to salute the family when they walked past. Dr Thorp took steps to demilitarise the school, causing some controversy amongst the non-Quaker members of the community on whom the school relied.
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