Who was Sister Emma?
Emma Crawford came from Kent to Queensland to join the Society of the Sacred Advent (SSA) in September 1896, aged 33. SSA worked among the poor in England and had accepted Bishop Webber of Brisbane’s invitation to manage an orphanage, a home for women and babies and the Eton High School for girls.
Sister Emma, well educated and with teaching experience, was professed on 28 December 1897. She became sister-in-charge of Eton High, opening the way for more Anglican schools in Queensland. As SSA superior from 1905, she helped develop an industrial school for girls in Brisbane, and in 1909 re-founded a Stanthorpe school as St Catherine’s, Warwick.
During World War 1 Sister Emma accepted the invitation of Bishop Feetham of North Queensland to set up boarding schools for country girls in that diocese. St Anne’s, Townsville opened in July 1917; St Mary’s, Herberton in 1918; and St Gabriel’s, Charters Towers in 1921. All Saints’ Hostel, Charleville was later acquired to house far-west children attending the local state school. In 1922 Sister Emma accepted responsibility for St Martin’s War Memorial Hospital in Brisbane. Her last major Brisbane venture was founding St Aidan’s School in Corinda in February 1929. She took SSA to Rockhampton diocese in 1932, managing St Faith’s school in Yeppoon.
Sister Emma SSA died of cancer on 9 March 1939. SSA was then working in three Queensland dioceses, with similar uniforms and badges, high academic standards and trained staff. It never had more than thirty professed sisters: “responses to the call to the life of a sister are still very rare in Australia.” Mother Emma noted in 1906.
Bishop Feetham described Sister Emma SSA as “the principal benefactress” of his diocese. Her ministry played a significant part in moderating the materialism of many aspects of Queensland life. A society contemporary described her as “every inch a lady who could be icy if displeases but always remained calm, even under great stress.