Margaret Wintringham was the first female Liberal MP and the first British-born woman to take a seat in Parliament. Winteringham had begun her working life as a school headmistress, a magistrate and a member of the Grimsby Education Committee. She was a member of the National Union of Women Workers, the British Temperance Association, the National Union …
Alice Paul was an American suffragist and feminist who dedicated her life to women’s rights. She was one of the leaders of the campaign for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Paul first learned about the fight for women’s suffrage from her mother, Tacie Paul who was a member of the National American Woman …
Sophia Jex-Blake was an English physician and feminist who led the Edinburgh Seven, the first women to matriculate at a British university. Jex-Blake was dissuaded from pursing an education by her parents, who did not believe that women were entitled to equal education. She eventually managed to attend Queen’s College, where she impressed the faculty …
Elsie Edith Bowerman was a suffragette, RMS Titanic survivor and the first woman barrister at the Old Bailey. Bowerman was born in 1889, when she was 11 years old she became the youngest girl to attend the prestigious Church of England girls’ boarding school Wycombe Abbey. In 1907, she travelled to Paris before continuing her …
Dora Montefiore was a women’s suffragist, socialist, poet and writer. Montefiore was born at Kenley Manor near Coulsdon, Surrey. She was educated at home, before being sent to Mrs Creswell’s school in Brighton. In 1874, she travelled to Sydney where she met and married George Barrow Montefiore. They had two children before he was tragically …
Edith Margaret Garrud was one of the first female professional martial arts instructors in the Western world. She trained the Bodyguard unit of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in jujutsu self-defence techniques. Garrud was in born Bath, Somerset and later moved to Wales. She met and married William Garrud, a physical instructor specializing …
I illustrated Dora Thewlis, Leonora Cohen, Selina Cooper & Florence Lockwood for Big Issue North’s celebration of #suffrage100 this week! The following is taken from the Big Issue North’s Facebook page This week we mark 100 years since some women gained the right to vote. Behind the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst were lesser-known figures …
Rosa May Billinghurst was a suffragette and women’s rights activist known as the “cripple suffragette” as she campaigned using a modified tricycle. Billinghurst had survived polio as a small child and as a result was unable to walk unaided, she wore leg-irons and used either crutches or a modified tricycle. Billinghurst was active in social …
Sylvia Pankhurst was an English campaigner for the suffragette movement and was imprisoned and force-fed more than any other campaigner. Pankhurst was the daughter of prominient suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. After training as an artist, first at the Manchester School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art she worked full-time for the Women’s …
Flora Drummond was a British suffragette and an organiser for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). She was imprisoned nine times for her activism. Drummond was born in Manchester, but moved to Glasgow at the age of 14 to take a business training course to become a post-mistress. Although she passed, the minimum height …