10 Facts About Cecilia John

Cecilia Annie John was an Australian social activist, peace campaigner, and musician.

Cecilia John left her parents' home while young and moved to Melbourne to study music.

Cecilia John was a contralto and performed with the Metropolitan Liedertafel, the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society, and the German Opera Company.

Cecilia John became an expert in the field of raising poultry, having started her own poultry farm at Deepdene in order to finance her musical education.

Cecilia John 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.

Cecilia 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; a ban that Cecilia John proceeded to ignore.

In 1919, Cecilia John was among the three Australians who attended a postwar conference in Zurich, along with Vida Goldstein and Eleanor Moore.

Cecilia John was a strong supporter of the Save the Children Fund and visited Australia in 1923 and 1927 to raise funds to ease the plight of thousands of Armenian refugees in Syria.

Together with her friends and fellow activists Goldstein and Ina Higgins, Cecilia John helped to establish the Rural Women's Industries Co-operative Women's farm in Mordialloc, Victoria.

Cecilia John died on 28 May 1955 in Godalming, Surrey, England.