Caroline Chisholm: The Emigrant’s Friend by Joanna Bogle

Conferences – English Catholic History Association

Joanna Bogle gives an engaging presentation about the fascinating, little-known life of Caroline Chisholm, Catholic reformer and friend of emigrants in the Australia of the 1840s. Caroline travelled to Australia with her husband and family in 1838. Very soon she realised that little help was given to migrants, especially women, who often, as a result, ended up in prostitution. She set up a system to enable them to find respectable work, by the end of the 1840s she had assisted over 11,000 migrants, often without official support and working tirelessly to raise public awareness.

She was often successful in attracting influential people to her cause, especially when she returned to the United Kingdom in the late 1840s and gave evidence to a committee of the House of Lords – a considerable achievement for a woman at that time.

Joanna Bogle is an author, journalist, and broadcaster. Her interest in Catholic history of London led her to set up the website ‘Catholic History Walks‘. Her recent book, Caroline Chisholm: The Emigrant’s Friend is available online and at all good bookstores.

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