Kate Shepherd was born Catherine Wilson Malcolm on 10 March 1848 in Liverpool, the daughter of Scottish parents, and was one of the most ground-breaking and successful suffragettes in history. Catherine was named after her paternal grandmother, also Catherine Wilson Malcolm, but preferred to spell her name 'Katherine' or to abbreviate it to 'Kate'.
She was educated in Liverpool, where she gained a reputation for her fierce intellect and strong sense of social justice. Moving with her family at first to London and then at a young age to Scotland, where she was subsequently raised and educated. In 1862 her father died and in 1868 she moved with her mother, two brothers and a sister to New Zealand, where she soon met and married a shopkeeper named Walter Allen Sheppard. The couple went on to have one a child together, a son named Douglas, born in 1880.
Here she became a key figure and one of the most influential people in women’s suffrage. In 1885, she founded the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and, two years later, became leader of its suffrage campaign. She promoted women's suffrage by organising petitions and public meetings, by writing letters to the press, and by developing contacts with politicians. This work culminated in a petition with 30,000 signatures calling for women's suffrage that was presented to Parliament and the successful extension of the franchise to women in 1893. As a result, New Zealand became the first country to establish universal suffrage. Over the next several years, Kate threw her weight and support behind a number of women's rights issues, from the advantages of contraception and the right to divorce, to the guardianship of children and the abolishment of corsets. Additionally, she promoted the benefits of bicycling and other physical activity for women.
Several suffrage bills failed before New Zealand Parliament finally granted women the right to vote in 1893. She also became the editor of New Zealand's newspaper, 'The White Ribbon', the first to be owned, managed and published by women in 1895. Kate was later active in woman suffrage movements in other countries. Sheppard died on July 13, 1934, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Her influence and legacy, however, have endured. Not only is her image displayed on the front of New Zealand's $10 note, replacing Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1991, the Kate Sheppard Memorial in Christchurch was unveiled in 1993—the centennial of New Zealand's passage of the women's suffrage bill.
see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2020/07/james-clarke-liverpool-hero.html
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