'Mrs Baeyertz' was born Emilia Aronson to a family of wealthy London Jews. In the 1860s she came to Melbourne where she met and married Charles Baeyertz. Following her husband's early death Mrs Baeyertz experienced a conversion to Christianity. Between 1878 and 1889 she traveled Australia conducting evangelistic missions. The propriety of women preaching was a much debated issue at the time, but the success of evangelists such as Emilia Baeyertz was impressive. It was claimed that there were 100 baptised converts at her 1880 Alberton mission. Her example encouraged other women to be active both in church circles and in wider arenas. The majority of her converts were women and girls, although a more noted local convert was John James Virgo, who went on to become the General Secretary of the YMCA and was a popular Adelaide preacher. Mrs Baeyertz later had a successful career in Britain and America.

Baeyertz, Emilia Louise