13 Facts About Jessie Street

Jessie Mary Grey Street was an Australian diplomat, suffragette and campaigner for Indigenous Australian rights.

Jessie Street was referred to as "Red Jessie" by the Australian media, due to her support for the Soviet Union throughout World War II and the Cold War.

Jessie Street organised the 'Sheepskins for Russia' campaign during World War II, and she was notably one of two Australians to attend Stalin's funeral.

Jessie Street was Lady Street from 1956, with the elevation of her husband Sir Kenneth Whistler Street.

Jessie Street Mary Grey Lillingston was born on 18 April 1889 at Ranchi, Bihar, India.

Jessie Street was involved with Dorette Margarethe MacCallum and others who were challenging the patriarchy at the University of Sydney where the men were trying to monopolise the sports facilities.

In 1916, she married Kenneth Whistler Jessie Street, who was knighted in 1944.

Jessie Street was a prominent figure in Australian and international political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage movement in England to the Aboriginal Australian rights.

Jessie Street ran in the 1943 Australian federal election as a member of the Australian Labor Party against United Australia Party frontbencher Eric Harrison for the Sydney Eastern Suburbs seat of Wentworth, and nearly defeated him amid that year's massive Labor landslide.

Jessie Street led the field on the first count, and only the preferences of conservative independent Bill Wentworth allowed Harrison to survive.

Jessie Street's attempt was the closest a Labor candidate has ever come to winning the conservative stronghold of Wentworth.

In 1949, Jessie Street was made a charter member of the Australian Peace Council.

Jessie Street was posthumously inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.