BAINES, SARAH JANE (1866-1951), feminist, was born on 30 November 1866 in
Birmingham, England, daughter of James Edward Hunt, gunmaker, and his wife Sarah
Ann, née Hunt. At 11 Jennie was sent to work in Joseph Chamberlain's ordnance
factory. Three years later she joined her parents in Salvation Army work, speaking
from the platform and playing the cornet; on reaching the rank of lieutenant she
was appointed evangelist to an independent working man's mission in Bolton where
she also acted as police court missionary to women arrested. She later joined the
temperance movement and the Independent Labour Party. On 26 September 1888 at
Bolton she had married a bootmaker, George Baines; between 1890 and 1899 she bore
five children.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
Jennie Baines was a prominent feminist and socialist in both Britian and Australia. Born in Birmingham, the daughter of a gunamker, she was sent to work in a factory when she was just 11. She soon joined her parents in their Salvation Army work. She married George Baines in 1888 and had five children. In 1905 she jioned the Women's Social and Political Union, becoming a full-time organiser. She was imprisoned 15 times and in 1913 was smuggled out of the country to Melbourne with her family. Once there, she worked for the Women's Political Association and joined the Women's Peave Army. With Adela Pankhurst Walsh she campaigned tirelessly against the war and conscription. She also joined the Socialist Part in 1917. In the years after World War One she continued to work in both the Labor and Socialist parties.
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Australian Women's Register