Ettie Annie Rout

Born in Launceston, Tasmania, on 24 February 1877, she moved to New Zealand as a child and grew up in Wellington. Before the First World War, she built a public reputation as an energetic, unconventional figure with interests that included physical culture, cycling, and social reform.

She is best remembered for her wartime campaign to protect soldiers from venereal disease. After organizing support work for New Zealand troops, she pushed for practical sex education and prophylactic measures, arguing that silence and moralizing were putting lives at risk. That blunt approach won respect from many soldiers and French authorities, but it also made her one of the most controversial women associated with New Zealand in the war years.

Later in life she continued writing and campaigning, though public recognition came unevenly. She died in Rarotonga on 17 September 1936. Today, she is often remembered as a bold and far-sighted advocate for public health who challenged social taboos long before such conversations were widely accepted.