Josephine Grey's father, a canon of Winchester Cathedral, believed in the equality of all humanity before God. Josephine attributed her faith in a loving and merciful God, to the teaching of her parents. She hated the divisions within Christianity and believed in equal rights, and that social action is a necessary manifestation of religious belief. Habits of prayer sustained her throughout her life, modelled on Catherine of Siena, whose life she published in 1878.

In 1852, Josephine married George Butler, an Anglican Priest & academic with similar political views. They had 4 children. In 1863, their 6 year old daughter died. To cope with her grief, Josephine threw herself into charity work, particularly related to the rights of women.

Becaming aware of the plight of destitute women who were given degrading tasks in the workhouses of Liverpool in return for a night’s lodging. This grew into righteous anger at the way contempory society treated prostitutes, most of whom were forced into that life through desparate poverty. She felt the need to fight the social conditions which made these women victims.

She fought to abolish legislation allowing forcible medical examination of women suspected of prostitution. Then she discovered girls as young as 12-13 years old, stolen from English villages, were being trafficked into the Brothels of Belguim. Belguim Police were in collusion with the brothel keepers. Josephine blew the case wide open, calling for a law to end organised prostitution and the sale of young girls for use in brothels. The head of the Belgium police was removed from office and his deputy convicted and imprisoned alongside the bothel owners.

In 1885 Josephine met Florence Soper Booth, the daughter-in-law of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. The meeting led to a campaign to expose child prostitution in Britain and its associated trade. They persuaded the editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, William T. Stead, to help their cause. He thought the best way to prove that the purchase of young girls for prostitution took place in London, was to buy a girl himself. He bought a 13 year old girl for £5, and took her to France. As a result of the publicity generated, the age of consent was raised from 12 to 16, and severe penalties imposed on those convicted of trafficking.

Josephine travelled over 4,000 miles and spoke to 99 public meetings in 1 year alone. A parliamentary petition was presented, and she was invited to appear before a Royal Commission. She founded the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene (later called the Josephine Butler Society) and the International Abolitionist Federation. While supporting British action and its imperialist policy, she spoke out strongly against casual racism. In her later years, as a widow she quietly withdrew from public life and spent more time with family. A devout anglican, and powerful worman of prayer, she died knowing that the fight against the legalised degradation of women had been won.

BORN:1828, Milfield, Northumberland

DIED: 30 December 1906, Wooler, Northumberland, England.