User:AdaWoolf/Clara Barron

Lady Clara Emily Barron formerly Clara Emily Kelly was the the founder and president of the Western Australian division of the Australian Red Cross.

She was born in Loughbrown, Kildare in 1857, to Clara Ward, and Thomas Conyngham Kelly.

On 20 August 1909 she left London heading for Australia on the HMS Himalaya.

Before departing she was asked to take the rold of President of the Alexandra Hospital.

When World War I broke out in August 1914, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson wrote to Barron, making her a member of the central branch of the Australian Red Cross, which Ferguson had formed in response to the war. Ferguson also invited Barron to form and preside over the Western Australian division as its president.

She had a daughter Lilian Vaughan Barron, born on 1 December 1878.

She had a son who was in the military in the Queen's Cameron Highlanders, and he died in February 1909.

Barron was an avid gardener, and when her request for the top growth of roses to be pruned at the Western Australian Government House gardens was ignored, she pruned the 700 rose bushes herself.

Barron who had been living in her residence Swiss Cottage in Waybridge, Surrey, died in London on 24 May 1936.