Agnes Lee
1875-1907
In 1907 Agnes Lee (31) worked as a waitress at Fremantle’s Victoria Coffee Palace in Pakenham Street. It was owned and run by her sister Elizabeth ‘Eliza’ Lonsdale and brother-in-law William Wallace ‘Bill’ Cameron from 1905-1914. After falling pregnant and being abandoned by her boyfriend, Agnes procured an abortion in Perth. The decision proved fatal and highlighted the risks women took at that time, when abortion was neither safe nor legal.
"Seal your lips, and I will tell you. Don't say anything to my mother or sisters, or anyone. I have been taking medicine for a certain cause." ( reference)
Agnes Lee was born in Glenorchy, Victoria in 1875. She was named after her mother Agnes White Patience (1842-1881) who married her father Cuthbert Lee (1832-1915) in Victoria in 1864 and who died young in 1881. Together with her sisters Eliza (1876-1936), and Christina (1870-1942), Agnes came to Western Australia around 1900 when Eliza married New Zealander William Wallace Cameron (1878-1936) in Guildford, and Christina and her husband Ken McLoed settled in the Goldfields.
Agnes worked in the Coffee Palace along with her sister and brother-in-law and lived with them in Cantonment St.
From Federation in 1901, pregnancy terminations were illegal in every Australian state- under any circumstances. However illicit practices were common and abortions were performed despite the real risk of death - and the women, and men performing it, faced imprisonment if caught.
For women of the affluent upper classes, a private doctor was often found to perform the operation discreetly, at a ‘lying in’ residence. A ‘Dr. Bennett’ was accused of running such an establishment at 92 Wittenoom-street, Perth, in 1901…(reference)
For women of the working classes- abortion was often a brutal affair:
1903 Illegal operation- A conviction in Perth, May 20. Thomas Dunn was convicted today of having used an instrument on Mary O'Mahony, with intent to procure an abortion, and was sentenced to two years imprisonment. The Chief Justice, remarked that the offence of abortion was of very common occurrence, and its enormity seemed not to be realised by those who bought the aid of abortioniste… (reference)
In 1904 it was reported that some Fremantle chemists were making available pills which brought on abortion- and if unsuccessful, often referred women to other chemists in Perth for a more ‘successful’ procedure. (reference) These ‘pills’ were made variously of tansy oil, pennyroyal, rue, ergot, perhaps opium, and had dangerous side effects (damage internal organs, seizures, death) but in correct doses were sometimes effective in causing miscarriage. (reference)
It was even suggested that the pills were sold door-to-door:
“One of the chief offenders against the canons of public morality is a well-dressed female, who poses as the representative of a certain medical man residing at Perth, and who describes herself as "nurse, midwife and (if needs be) abortionist." If her remedies fail, she guarantees a cure by the more certain process of murder. She has made the rounds of nearly the whole of the villas in the aristocratic suburb of White Gum Valley, an unfortunate locality in more senses than one. The lady in question invariably turns up at specified hours during which the breadwinner is absent at his daily toil. She disposes of her deadly invention at 2s. 6d. a time…” (reference)
Abortion was a hot topic in 1907. Newspapers were linking ‘baby-farming’ to backyard abortions and doctors in Perth and Kalgoorlie were at loggerheads over the issue- some determined not to have any dealings with abortionist members of the profession, for the purpose of trying to suppress or mitigate the practice. (reference)
Agnes’s story:
Daily News, 25 September 1907
SUSPICIOUS DEATH- The Inquest concerning the death of Agnes Lee, who died in the Fremantle Hospital on September 7, was continued at the Fremantle Police Court this morning before Mr. R. Fairbairn, R.M. Detective-Sergeant Walsh conducted the inquiry.
William Cameron, brother-in-law of the deceased, stated that the deceased, had been employed as a waitress at the Victoria Coffee Palace prior to her illness. She complained of being unwell on Tuesday, September 2, and Dr White was called in, and after making an examination he ordered her removal to the hospital, whither she was conveyed next day. Witness did not find any medicine in the room that deceased had occupied.
On the previous Sunday evening the deceased left home, saying that she was going to Perth, and she came home rather late. Next morning she was too unwell to leave her bed. On the following day she was worse, and asked witness to go for a doctor. She said she had been taking medicine for a certain purpose, and he understood, from what she said that there had been a miscarriage. She asked him to keep the matter a secret from her relatives. Witness then went for Dr. White, and told him what his sister-in-law had said. The deceased was engaged to a man named Charles Dunn. Dr. White stated that the previous witness, called on him on September 3, and asked him to attend the young woman named Lee.
In consequence of what Cameron told him, he said he could not undertake the case. Cameron called again next day, and asked him to attend the case, and witness replied that he would see the patient only for the purpose of making an order for her removal to the hospital. Cameron agreed, and witness examined the woman. He found she was suffering from peritonitis, and her temperature was very high. He ordered her removal to the hospital, where she died on September 7.
He was present when the post-mortem examination was made, and there were marks which indicated that a miscarriage had followed a certain operation. When witness first saw the deceased she was in a very weak condition, and witness regarded it as a very bad case.
On the morning of September 7 the hospital authorities communicated with the police regarding the case. Dr. Young, house surgeon at the Fremantle Hospital, stated that Agnes Lee was admitted to the hospital on September 4. She was in state of collapse and he considered her condition was critical. She told witness she had taken medicine to bring about a miscarriage. She appeared to be fairly well on Friday night, but at 7 o'clock on Saturday morning he was summoned hurriedly, and found that she was in a hopeless condition. He telephoned to the police at about 8.30 o'clock that morning.
Detective Walsh: When you knew the nature of the woman's Illness, and that she was likely to die, why did you not communicate with tho police earlier? Witness: I had no suspicion that an operation had been performed. She told me she had only taken drugs, Witness, said he, made a postmortem examination on the following day, and, in his opinion, death was caused by septic peritonitis, following abortion, apparently caused by the use of an Instrument.
To Detective Walsh: He did not know it was his duty to inform the police as soon as he knew that tho woman had had a miscarriage, He had been practising since December last, and this was the first case of such a nature that had come under his notice.
Eliza Cameron, sister of the de-ceased, stated that her sister never spoke to her about her condition, and she (witness) never suspected any thing was wrong after her sister was taken to the hospital. Deceased had been residing with witness for the past two years.
Charles William Dunn stated that he was engaged to the deceased for about seven months. On the night of Saturday, August 31, he met the deceased and she told him she was going to Perth and told him she would not return until the following Tuesday. Witness saw her on Tuesday night. She appeared to be ill, and when witness questioned her she said she had an attack of Influenza. He asked her why she went to Perth on Saturday night, and she replied that she would tell him at a later date.
He was a married man. His wife was In Victoria, but he had not seen her for ten years. Mr. Fairbairn: Why did you keep company with the woman if you are a married man? Witness: I suppose I was fascinated, Mr. Fairbairn: Did she know you were a married man? Witness : Yes, about a month before she died. Mr. Fairbairn: How did she learn the truth? Witness: I went to bid her good-bye, and I confessed to her. Mr. Fairbairn: Were you going away? Witness: No I had come to the conclusion that I was doing wrong in keeping company with her, and I wished to terminate our acquaintance, Mr Fairbairn: Will you swear that your confession was not the result of a disclosure made by the deceased? Witness: Yes A Juror: Did you give the woman a ring?
The Coroner, in reviewing the evidence, commented strongly upon the actions of Dunn, a married man, in keeping company with a single girl. A month before the girl died he told her he was a married man. Possibly Dunn had spoken the truth, but the probability was that the girl made a certain statement to Dunn, and that he had then said ''I am a married man."
The evidence as to the cause of death was clear, but there was nothing to indicate who had performed the operation. The Jury, after a brief retirement, returned a verdict to the effect that death was due to peritonitis, and caused by an illegal operation. (reference)
Public opinion was often on the girl’s side and calls soon came for the need for a Foundling Hospital in Perth (reference)
Truth 28 September 1907: DESPICABLE DUNN. Married Man's Dreadful Deceit.
The inquest concerning the death of Agnes Lee, aged 27 years, the Fremantle victim of man's lust, discloses a very pitiful tale. A man named Charles William Dunn had paid his addresses to the woman for some time, and, under the belief that his intentions were honorable, she gave him her love and promised to marry him. Then he seduced her, and it was only when she found that she was to become a mother and pressed the creature Dunn to marry her, that she found he was a married man. The woman's death was due to septic peritonitis, the result of an abortion having been performed. Dunn admitted in evidence that he was a married man until about a month before her death. He denied, however, and his denial can be taken for what it is worth, that she induced him to make the confession by stating her true condition. Dunn had admitted so much that any one can see the kind of creature he is…However, there are others now keeping an eye on Dunn, and it is a bit early for him to rejoice over the woman's silence. It is believed that the unfortunate woman visited a well-known abortionist in Perth, and it is expected that an arrest may be made at an early date. (reference)
Agnes died in Fremantle on the 7 September 1907, and was buried in Fremantle Cemetery. Her age was reported as 27- however she was really 31.
LEE. The Friends of the late Miss Agnes Lee are respectfully invited to follow her remains to the place of interment, the Weslyan portion of the Fremantle Cemetery. The Funeral is appointed to leave the residence of her brother-in-law. Mr. W. W. Cameron, No. 51 Cantonment-street, Fremantle, (reference)
On 6 Dec 1907 Charles William Dunn received a Billiard Table licence at Wellington Mills. (reference)
William and Eliza Cameron had 4 children; Viney Margaret (1901-1920), Evangeline Agnes ‘Pete’ (1903-1994) who married Harold A Ellis in 1935, Wilma Jeanette (1907-1998) who married Eric W. L. Ranford in 1935 and Jean Winifred (1910-) who married Angus B Copley in 1935.
W.W. ‘Bill’ Wallace Cameron went on to become a well-known boxing promoter in Fremantle. He died on 21 August 1936, aged 58. Eliza Lonsdale Cameron died soon after- 24 November 1936, aged 60.
1936 CAMERON. at the Fremantle Hospital, William Wallace, dearly beloved husband of Eliza Lonsdale Cameron, of 1 Gibbon-street. Buckland Hill. WA, and loved father of Pete (Mrs. H. Ellis, Swanbourne), Wilma (Mrs. E. Ranford, Buckland Hill) and Jean (Mrs. A. Copley, Mullewa), and the late Viney Cameron.
In 1908, 61 year old Perth nurse Elizabeth Pears, was sent to prison for seven years for administering illegal abortions ( reference) and in 1909 Harcourt W. Ellis, a Dentist of Perth, was arrested in regard to causing the death of 25 year old florist, Mildred M Fitts. (reference)
Things did not improve for working class women. You can read the story of Alice May Pengel (1905- 1981) a working class, East Fremantle woman, who in October 1945, was convicted for giving an abortion to another local woman Mrs Joyce Bertha Cody (23) in the Plympton area. The woman died and Pengel’s work became very public. Alice (40), of 50 Duke Street, East Fremantle, and Mrs. Irene Gladys Ferrier (1909-1977) (36), of 79 King Street were found guilty of manslaughter. Alice Pengel was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment and Irene Ferrier sentenced to 18 months.
Written and researched by Jo Darbyshire 2022
Thanks to Bill Greggs, Margie Button and Don and Lee Ranford for photographs.
