Cecilia John

Cecilia Annie John (5 November 1877–28 May 1955) was an Australian social activist, radical, and peace campaigner. Born in Hobart in 1877 to parents who were immigrants from Wales, she left her parents' home while young and moved to Melbourne to study music. Joining the Collins Street Independent Church, John became interested in social questions and adopted feminist and anti-conscriptionist views that were quite radical for the time. She was a friend of Vida Goldstein and assisted in her attempt to enter Parliament in 1913, and was a member of the anti-conscription Australian Freedom League.^[1]

When Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes proposed compulsory military service in order to provide reinforcements for the depleted Australian Imperial Force, John and other anti-war feminists reacted by forming the Women's Peace Army (WPA), which worked to oppose both conscription and militarism. John was especially noted for singing at WPA events, leading authorities to ban public performances of her signature song I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier;^[1] a ban that John proceeded to ignore.^[2]

John was also an expert in the field of raising poultry, having started her own poultry farm at Deepdene in order to finance her musical education.^[1] Following the war, John became interested in the Dalcroze Eurhythmic style of dance, and in 1921 moved permanently to London to study it further, in 1932 becoming the principal at the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics and continuing to hold that position until her death in 1955.^[3]

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