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The suffrage campaigns of the early twentieth century were marked by a series of sensational cases and legal battles for which campaigners attempted to achieve as much press coverage as possible. When Lloyd George addressed a meeting at Woodford in 1912 certain suffragist hecklers were violently ejected from the meeting. One of these then brought a legal action against several prominent members of the Walthamstow Liberal and Radical Association. Mark Wilks was a teacher and the husband of Elizabeth Wilks (1866?-1956) nie Bennett, physician, suffragist and member of the Tax Resistance League. Elizabeth refused to complete a tax return or to pay taxes herself and informed the tax authorities that as a married woman her tax papers should be forwarded to her husband. He, in turn, claimed that he had neither the means to obtain the necessary information to complete the forms nor to pay his wife's tax bill and was imprisoned for debt. The League took up the case and achieved much publicity for it.

The Cat and Mouse [Temporary Discharge for Ill-health] Act of 1913 became infamous in the suffrage campaigns. Under this legislation a prisoner on hunger-strike and whose health was determined to be endangered by such actions might be released and then re-arrested once their health had improved. Mrs Ellen Mary Taylor (alias Mary Wyan of Reading ) refused release under the Act, claimed complete discharge and declined to give the prison governor any address. When she was conveyed to a nursing home she refused to enter until her full release was granted and continued her strike on a chair in the road outside. The police then removed her to the Kensington Infirmary where she eventually gave up her protest. Eliot Crawshay-Williams (1879-1962) was Lloyd George's Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1910 and MP for Leicester, 1910-1913. Whilst being in favour of women's suffrage, he condemned militant suffragette tactics and as a result organized lobbying against the Conciliation Bill in 1912. T. Smithies Taylor was a supporter of the militant suffragettes based in Leicester. He wrote letters to the national and local press on this and related subjects. Lloyd George addressed a meeting at Llanystumdwy in North Wales in September 1912. He was heckled by suffragists who were then turned upon by the crowd and scenes of violence against the protestors ensued. By three successive decrees in 1864, 1866 and 1869, known as the Contagious Diseases Acts, in certain towns containing military bases, any woman suspected of being a prostitute could be stopped and forced to undergo a genital inspection to discover if she had a venereal disease. If she did not submit willingly, she could be arrested and brought before a magistrate. If she was found to be infected, she could be effectively imprisoned in a 'lock' hospital. Josephine Elizabeth Butler ( 1828-1906 ) feminist and social reformer was one of the most celebrated campaigners against the Acts and the double sexual standard that they enshrined. The Acts were repealed in 1886 but the debate was not over either in Britain or other countries within the Empire.

Edith How-Martyn (1875-1954) nee How, mathematician, suffragist and birth control campaigner, was an early member of the Women's Social and Political Union, one of the founders of the Women's Freedom League in 1907 and the first female member of the Middlesex County Council (1919-1922). She was also the founder of the Birth Control Information Centre in 1929 and remained active in this movement, along with establishing the Suffragette Fellowship in 1926. At the outbreak of the Second World War she moved to Australia and due to ill-health remained in that country until she died in 1954.

The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service (1914-1919) was part of the suffrage response to the First World War. At the outbreak of the First World War, a large number of the existing suffrage societies put their administrative skills at the disposal of the war effort. The Scottish Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, at the suggestion of Dr Elsie Inglis, put forward the idea of female medical units to serve on the front line. The War Office rejected the idea, but nonetheless private donations, the fundraising of local societies and the support of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies financed a number of units staffed entirely by women. The organisation's headquarters were in Edinburgh throughout the war, with committees also in Glasgow and London, working closely with the London office of the Croix Rouge Francaise. The Fawcett Society was particularly involved with the London Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. The first unit mobilised established a 200 bed Auxiliary Hospital at Royaumont Abbey in Dec 1914. In Apr 1915, Dr Inglis herself was at the head of a unit based in Serbia. By Jun 1915 SWH had responsibility for more than 1,000 beds with 250 staff including 19 women doctors. The Austrian offensive of that summer led to their camps being overrun and a number of the staff including Inglis herself being taken prisoner, only to be released after negotiations. By the end of the war there were fourteen Scottish Women's Hospitals in France, Serbia, Russia, Salonica and Macedonia. Inglis herself was ill with cancer by 1917 while working in Russia. She and her unit were part of the retreat of forces to Archangel and she was evacuated to Newcastle on the 25 Nov 1919 of that year, only to die the following day. The Scottish Women's Hospitals work continued until the end of the war.

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (1898-1919) was established out of collaborative efforts by the various suffrage societies. In the 1890s, after the death of Lydia Becker, the suffrage movement suffered from a lack of unified leadership and divisions developed between groups. However, in 1895, with a general election imminent, the two main London societies and the other provincial organisations agreed to co-ordinate their activities. This temporary alliance worked well so that in Jun 1896 the London and Manchester groups formed a joint parliamentary lobbying committee, the Combined Sub-Committee, which representatives of Edinburgh and Bristol soon joined. At a conference in Brighton in Oct 1897 at which the country was divided up into administrative areas, it was recognised that there was a need for a national body and twelve months later a system of federation was agreed and the Combined Committee was reconstituted as the executive committee of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. The new body's overall aim was to co-ordinate the various existing groups, act as a form of liaison committee between these groups and parliamentary supporters and thereby help obtain parliamentary franchise for women. These included the North of England Society (formerly the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage), the Central and Western Society (formerly the Central National Society for Women's Suffrage), the Central and East of England Society (formerly the Central Committee for Women's Suffrage) which the previous administrative division of the country had created as well as the provincial groups which existed throughout the country. Each of these independent organisations was represented by members on the NUWSS Executive Committee while the overall structure remained decentralised, with each local body autonomously responsible for work in their area. The constitution strictly forbade party political activity or affiliation on part of the parent or constituent bodies and this political neutrality was mirrored in the diversity of opinion within its leadership which included Millicent Fawcett, Lady Frances Balfour, Helen Blackburn, Priscilla Bright McLaren, Eleanor Rathbone and Eva Gore-Booth. Despite the formation of the new NUWSS, there was a marked decline in suffrage activity around the turn of the century as interests became focused on individual issues such as licensing and education while the Boer War overshadowed politics. A remedy for this inertia was sought through the National Convention in Defence of Civic Rights for Women, and in its wake the NUWSS's role changed as it began to implement a policy of creating local pressure committees financed and supported by the central body, creating more centralised planning. However, until 1906 their approach remained focused on supporting Private Members Bills in the House of Commons. The lack of success led some members to envisage a more radical method and in 1903 Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in affiliation with the Independent Labour Party. Two years later, they left the North of England Society, and with it the NUWSS, to concentrate on the militant strand of the movement. The NUWSS continued alongside and subsequently in public opposition to the civil disobedience of the WSPU, preferring to persist in using constitutional means although they began to also undertake public activities such as marches, demonstrations, rallies and pageants in addition to their parliamentary work. By 1907, it was necessary to reorganise the system of regional federations due to their increasing numbers and which rose to nearly 500 by 1913. In addition, changes in the makeup of membership had an effect on the nature of the organisation. Increasing working-class participation, particularly in the Northwest, combined with disillusionment regarding the Liberal Party, which for decades had been their main parliamentary support, led to closer collaboration with the Labour Party. In 1912, the Labour Party made support for female suffrage part of its policy for the first time. When, that same year the NUWSS launched the Election Fighting Fund policy, which promised support to any party officially supporting suffrage in an election where the candidate was challenging an anti-suffrage Liberal, the effect was to effectively support the Labour Party. In 1914, dissension occurred in the NUWSS due to the groups' official stance of subordinating campaigning to support for war work. Many members, including a majority of the executive, left the group and many joined the Women's International League in 1915. However, political activity did not end: a National Union of Women's Interest committee was established to watch over the social, economic interests of women. Suffrage agitation was resumed in earnest in 1916, when the Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women's Suffrage Societies was established in Mar 1916 in response to the government proposed changes to the national electoral register, to take effect at the end of the First World War with the aim of petitioning the government for the inclusion of women's suffrage in the franchise Reform Bill. Consequently the NUWSS was key in the final creation of the women's franchise section of the Representation of the People Act of 1918. However, from Apr 1919, they redesigned their aims to promoting equality of franchise between men and women and allowing the affiliation of societies with this object, becoming the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship in the process.

Elsie Inglis (1864-1917) was a suffragist, doctor and founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals movement. Inglis enrolled as a student at Sophia Jex-Blake's Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in 1886 but in 1889 moved to the new Medical College for Women, founded by her father and influential friends. She completed her clinical training in Glasgow, qualified in Aug 1892, and then spent a year in London, working at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's New Hospital for Women. It was in London that she first found herself working with suffragists, and with their encouragement took up public speaking. On her return to Scotland in 1894 Inglis became increasingly involved in suffrage work. She disapproved of militancy, and spoke regularly at meetings of the constitutional Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage (ENSWS); as a professional woman who had worked in the slums and seen the effects of poverty, she was a convincing speaker, and much in demand. She subsequently became Honorary Secretary of both the ENSWS and of the Scottish Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies (SFWSS). In 1894 Inglis founded a small hospital for women and children in Edinburgh, The Hospice, while maintaining a consultant post at the Bruntsfield Hospital for women, and in 1911 the two hospitals were amalgamated under her directorship. Soon after war broke out in 1914, the 50 year old Inglis offered the services of a mobile women-run hospital unit to the Scottish military authorities, an offer that was firmly turned down. Undaunted, she went to the SFWSS for support, and it was under the aegis of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies that fundraising began. The first 'Scottish Women's Hospital' units were established by Jan 1915, and the organisation expanded rapidly till by the end of 1919 it had organised 14 hospitals in France, Serbia, Russia, Romania and Macedonia, all staffed by women, the largest and best-known being at the Abbey of Royaumont, in France. Elsie Inglis herself led two units in the Balkans between May 1915 and Oct 1917, despite being ill for the last year. She died in Nov 1917, a few days after her return to England, but her organisation continued its work well into 1920. In 1925 the surplus funds of the Scottish Women's Hospitals organisation were used to found the Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital, which opened in 1925.

Unknown.

(Marie) Cécile Matheson (c 1870-1950) was educated privately and at Bedford College, London. She did not proceed to a degree, but studied English Language, Latin and Maths for two years, additionally taking French and Physics in her second year. She matriculated in Class II in 1892. Cécile worked as a teacher and secretary, moving to Birmingham and living at Selly Oak from 1904. She participated in club work and wrote Women Work and Wages with Edward Cadbury and Clr. George Shann. In 1906 she took up a post at the Birmingham Women's Settlement (Summer Lane) as joint warden (junior to Miss Allbright), becoming sole warden from 1910-1916. In this post she became well known and did much public speaking, leaving only after wartime conditions and staff shortages caused her health to fail. While at Birmingham, Cécile was a prominent member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. In Aug 1911 she did a caravan tour in Shropshire, speaking on women's suffrage for Common Cause. She was also a supporter of the temperance movement, serving on the Women's Advisory Committee: Board of Liquor Control (1915). After leaving the Settlement Cécile was a member of the Departmental Committee on Old Age Pensions (1919) and the Cutlery Safeguarding Enquiry: Board of Trade (1925). She lectured on social economics for the Delegacies of Extra-Mural Studies of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London and undertook research and commissions in England, Europe, India and the USA for the Board of Education and various government and private enquiries. She was a member of the British Industrial Court and served on Trade Boards. Cécile Matheson published widely on women's wages and employment, the teaching of domestic science, citizenship, Indian industry and social work and welfare. She was active in the Women's Industrial Welfare Society, the London Council of Social Service and the National Women Citizen's Association. Cécile Matheson was obviously very well known in her day and, unusually for a woman of her generation, featured in Who's Who. On leaving Birmingham she said ‘I came here a theoretical suffragist and I leave here thinking it is one of the most important of pregnant and urgent reform problems of the country'. She died 28 Apr 1950.

The Central Employment Bureau for Women (1899-1974) was established in 1899 and provided employment advice for women through the twice-monthly journal Women's Employment. In the years 1913-1914 it established The Women's Employment Publishing Company Ltd to continue with this and to produce other occasional publications. In addition to the main periodical, the press was also responsible for the publication of numerous editions of 'Careers (later, 'and Vocational Training'): A Guide to the Professions and Occupations of Educated Women and Girls', 'The Finger Post', 'Hints on how to find work' and 'Open Doors for Women Workers'. Despite a decline in the number of readers the company survived and continued publishing 'Women's Employment' until 1974. The Bureau seems to have ceased functioning at around the same date.

The Women's Employment Publishing Company Ltd (1913-1974) was established by the Central Employment Bureau for Women around 1913-1914 in order to deal with its publications. The Central Bureau had been issuing the twice-monthly journal 'Women's Employment' since 1899 and other occasional publications in connection with their work and the Women's Employment Publishing Company continued this work from the head office in Russell Square. In addition to the main periodical, the press was also responsible for the publication of numerous editions of 'Careers (later, and 'Vocational Training'): 'A Guide to the Professions and Occupations of Educated Women and Girls', 'The Finger Post', 'Hints on how to find work' and 'Open Doors for Women Workers'. The directors just before the outbreak of the Second World War were H John Faulk (Chair), Miss ER Unmack (Managing Director) and Miss AE Hignell (secretary). Despite problems caused by this disruption and a decline in the number of readers in this period, the company survived and continued publishing 'Women's Employment' until 1974. The Bureau seems to have ceased functioning at around the same date.

Unknown.

The Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women's Suffrage Societies (1916-1918) was established in Mar 1916 by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in response to the government proposed changes to the national electoral register, to take effect at the end of the First World War. Its first meeting was held on 5th May and on the committee were representatives of twenty societies, with three more joining the following year. The first Chair elected was Eleanor Rathbone, the honorary secretary was Dr Gwynne Vaughn (replaced by Miss Ayrton Gould in 1917), the treasurer was the Countess of Selborne and the secretary was Helen Wright. It was through the medium of this committee that the suffrage societies co-ordinated the constituent societies efforts and petitioned the government for the inclusion of women's suffrage in the franchise Reform Bill. The committee's efforts were initially unsuccessful: the government's Electoral Reform conference that took place in Oct 1916 to address the issue initially refused to allow the Consultative Committee to give evidence. However, when Asquith was deposed from the premiership in Dec 1916, they were able to present their arguments to the authorities. In particular, the Consultative Committee was able to organise a Joint Parliamentary Committee comprising an equal number of MPs and women's representatives, which was active during the passage of the bill and produced a report in Jun 1917. When the prospect of a positive outcome became clear, the Consultative Committee called a conference in Jan 1918 to consider the possibility of joint action by Women's Societies after the passing of the Electoral Bill in the fields of political, economic and social equality between the sexes. The constitution was changed to accommodate these changes and 1918 it became the Consultative Committee of Women's Societies Working for Equal Citizenship.

The Hitchin, Stevenage and District Women's Suffrage Society (1909-1918) was originally established as the North Herts Women's Suffrage Association in 1909 with Lord Lytton as its president and with Lady Constance Lytton and Lady Betty Balfour as members. By 1911 the organisation had expanded to such an extent that it was necessary to split it into two separate bodies: the Hitchin, Stevenage and District Women's Suffrage Society and the Letchworth and District Women's Suffrage Society. Both were affiliated to the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. This remained the situation until 1918 when the HSDWSS became a Women's Citizenship Association.

The Oldham Women's Suffrage Society (1901-1921) was established in 1910 with Margery Lees as president and quickly joined the Manchester and District Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. By 1911, in addition to a suffrage shop, the branch comprised of 120 members, a figure that rose to 857 in 1913. That year, a number of members, including Lees joined the Manchester contingent of the Pilgrimage to London. In 1919 the body was transformed into the Women Citizens' Association and amalgamated with the National Council of Women in 1921.

The Women's Freedom League (WFL) (1907-1961) was formed in Nov 1907 by dissenting members of the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU). The cause was the WSPU's lack of constitutional democracy, an issue that came to a head on the 10 Sep 1907. Mrs Pankhurst announced the cancellation of the annual conference due on the 12 Oct 1907 and the future governance of the party by a central committee appointed by herself, effectively overturning its original constitution. Several members, including Charlotte Despard, Edith How Martyn, Teresa Billington-Greig, Octavia Lewin, Anna Munro, Alice Schofield and Caroline Hodgeson, broke away and continued with the conference. Here, the new constitution was written which encoded a system of party democracy. Its first committee consisted of Despard as president and honorary treasurer, Billington-Greig as honorary organising secretary, honorary secretary Mrs How Martyn, and Mrs Coates Hanson, Miss Hodgeson, Irene Miller, Miss Fitzherbert, Mrs Drysdale, Miss Abadam, Mrs Winton-Evans, Mrs Dick, Mrs Cobden Sanderson, Mrs Bell, Mrs Holmes and Miss Mansell as members. The following month, They renamed themselves the WFL, having used the title of the WSPU until that time: this had prompted Mrs Pankhurst to add 'National' to the name of her own organisation for this brief spell. They classed themselves as a militant organisation, but refused to attack persons or property other than ballot papers, unlike the WSPU. Their actions included protests in and around the House of Commons and other acts of passive civil disobedience. Their activities in 1908 included attempts to present petitions to the king and have deputations received by cabinet ministers while further protests were held in the House of Commons such as Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox chaining themselves to the grille in the Ladies gallery. That same year, they were the only militant group to be invited by the National Union of Women's suffrage Societies to take part in the Hyde Park procession on 13 Jun 1908. Despard was the first woman to refuse to pay taxes as a protest, an action which quickly inspired others to form the Women's Tax Resistance League. These activities were expanded upon in Apr 1911 when women householders either spoilt or failed to complete their census forms. This escalation of action did not prevent them joining a Conciliation Bill committee with other suffrage groups in 1910 in response to Prime Minister Asquith's offer on a free vote on extensions to the franchise. A truce was called with the government until the failure of such a bill for the third time, but by 1912 the organisation had already announced that it would support Labour Party candidates against any of the government's Liberal candidates at elections. This practice of working with other groups was one which the WFL supported, having ongoing links with the International Women's Franchise Club, the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the Suffrage Atelier. During the early part of the First World War, like most of the other suffrage organisations, the League suspended its practical militant political action and began voluntary work, though not the 'war work' of the type advocated by other suffrage groups. The group formed a number of women's police services and a Woman Suffrage National Aid Corps that provided some help to women in financial difficulties and limited day care for children. Furthermore, in 1915, the WFL founded a National Service Organisation to place women in jobs. However, the following year, political activity began again when they joined the WSPU in a picket of the Electoral Reform Conference. When women were granted suffrage after the war, they continued their activities with a change of emphasis. The organisation now called for equality of suffrage between the sexes, women as commissioners of prisons, the opening of all professions to women, equal pay, right of a woman to retain her own nationality on marriage, equal moral standards and representation of female peers in the House of Lords and they continued with this programme of social equality until the dissolution of the group in 1961.

The Sheffield branch of the Women's Freedom League (1908-1919) was founded in Dec 1908, a year after the beginning of the parent body. That, in turn, had been constituted by dissenting members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). All levels of the overall group classed themselves as a militant organisation, but refused to attack persons or property other than ballot papers, unlike the WSPU. Furthermore, they operated on the basis of party democracy that had been the initial cause of the break from the WSPU. The body continued its activities until the 1918 bill granting women limited franchise. The organisation was wound up in May 1919.

Henry Joseph Wilson (1833-1914) was born on the 14 Apr 1833 in Nottingham. One of the 7 children of William Wilson, cotton spinner, and Eliza Read of Sheffield. His parents were non-conformist radicals and his father was the Chair of the Nottingham Anti-Slavery committee. Wilson was sent to London University College to study in 1850, but returned home the following year when his mother died. After this, he was sent to work on a farm in Gloucestershire and then to his father's own farm in Mansfield in 1853 where he remained until his father's death in 1866. There he was deeply involved in non-conformist religion, the temperance movement and he was instrumental in the foundation of the Mansfield Co-operative Society of which he was the first president. It was in the 1860s the three Contagious Diseases (or CD) Acts were passed in an effort to regulate prostitution and the spread of venereal disease. Wilson was one of the many that opposed the Acts on the grounds that it would establish the state regulation of vice. He and his wife Charlotte [nee Cowan], whom he had married in 1859, began their careers of public speaking and political activism. In 1871, they attended a meeting of the Royal Commission on the implementation of the CD Acts in Sheffield that was also attended and addressed by Josephine Butler. When the latter perceived in 1872 that it would be impossible to run the whole anti-CD Acts campaign from London, Wilson became one of those who were to be central to the formation of the Northern Counties Electoral League for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (known as the Northern Counties League). Branches of the National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts had already been set up in the north east but it was felt that a strong central body was necessary. Edward Backhouse was the first Chair with Joseph Edmonson as the Treasurer and Wilson as the secretary. Their aim was to make known in their area the 'atrocious character' of the Acts and to raise the issue of them at elections. The group immediately began to send out petition forms and circulars were distributed to churches and chapels throughout the region. It was with their support that Josephine Butler came to Pontefract to address the crowds at the by-election and was caught up in the chaos that ensued. In 1877 it was decided to broaden the objects of the League and to reflect this change its name was officially changed to the 'Northern Counties League for Abolishing State Regulation of Vice and for Prompting Social Purity and the Rescue of the Fallen'. Wilson remained an integral part of the organisation, despite his growing number of commitments. He was present at a conference on the state regulation of vice which was held in Liverpool in 1875 and it was there that the British, Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution was established. Wilson became joint secretary along with Butler. However, the CD Acts did not solely occupy his attention. Since 1872 he had been the Chair of the Sheffield Reform Association, which had merged with the Sheffield Liberal Association two years later and in which Wilson remained the honorary secretary. In 1876 he was elected to the Sheffield School Board and in 1885 he was elected a Liberal MP for the constituency of Holmfirth in West Riding. He had been a fervent supporter of Home Rule for Ireland since the beginning of the 1880s and retained this position in the House of Commons. In 1892 he was selected to be a member of the Police and Sanitary Committee and then of the Royal Commission on Opium Traffic three years later, a position which involved him travelling to India in 1893-4. Despite the repeal of the CD Acts on British soil in 1886, they effectively remained in force in India through the Cantonments Act and the Contagious Diseases (India) Act and there were threats to re-introduce them in areas such as Guernsey after an increase in venereal disease in the 1890s. Consequently, his work in this area continued through the last decade of the nineteenth century. Despite his unpopular opposition to the Boer War, he remained an MP until his retirement in 1912. He died in 1914.

The British Vigilance Association (1953-1971) was founded in 1953. During the late nineteenth century, the widespread campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts had had the effect of focussing attention on the issue of prostitution. This resulted in the encouragement of groups like the National Vigilance Association whose aim until 1952 was to work against the trade and its causes. In 1898, following the precedent of the International Abolitionist Federation, the National Vigilance Association agreed to address concerns about the international aspect of prostitution and began laying the foundations of an international federation of bodies working towards the abolition of the trade. In 1900 this became known as the International Bureau for Suppression of Traffic in Persons.

Throughout its existence the National Vigilance Association provided the premises, secretariat and the major part of the funding for this officially separate international organisation and its executive committee initially formed the British National Committee of the larger group into the twentieth century. However, a financial crisis occurred within both the British National Committee (BNC) and the National Vigilance Association (NVA) in the early 1950s, closing down the latter's work administering the work of the Travellers' Aid Society that had been undertaken from 1939 to 1951.

The creation of the British Vigilance Association in 1953 was the result of the amalgamation of the BNC and NVA in 1952 after a period of work done by a joint committee of the two organisations. The new group retained the same areas of interest as the NVA, combining it with the BNC's relationship to the International Bureau. It also had the practical role of administering the day to day work of the International Traveller's Aid group of the international organisation until 1962, when the Young Women's Christian Association took over. The objects of the new group were to promote the principles of the International Bureau; to secure the recognition of a high and equal moral standards for men and women; to work for the suppression of criminal vice and against the exploitation of prostitution and public immorality; to promote appropriate legislative action and reform; and support activities in accordance with these objectives carried out by its constituent bodies. The structure of the Association was formed by: the Council which met four times a year and included the officers of the group and two representatives of each of the constituent societies; the Executive Committee, which met around ten times and was made of ten members elected by the Council; and the Finance Committee which consisted of seven members elected by the executive committee and met four times a year. Additionally, a sub-committee was established dedicated to the welfare of Irish Girls in England from 1953 to 1955, which was renamed the Irish Girls and Related Problems sub-committee between 1955 and 1957. Lady Nunburnholme was president until 1962 when Joan Vickers, MP and Chair of the UK Committee on the Status of Women, succeeded her.

Affiliated to the group were the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene, the British Social Biology Council, the Catholic Women's League, the Church of England Moral Welfare Council, the Mission to Seamen, the Mother's Union, the National Council of Women, the Public Morality Council and the St Joan's Alliance. Additionally, there were local branches such as the Liverpool, Hull and Scotland Vigilance Associations. The areas in which it worked revolved around the licensing of employment agencies and the overseeing of the au-pair network in order to prevent the abuses which, it was feared, they might hide. However, it was also active in protests regarding the Street Offences Act of 1959 that prosecuted female prostitutes for soliciting but not their clients. Furthermore, it also supported the Association for Moral & Social Hygiene in presenting evidence to the Wolfenden Committee on prostitution and in responding to the resultant report. The group continued its activities in these areas until the retirement of the General Secretary Richard F Russell in 1971, at which point the British Vigilance Association was wound up.

The Travellers' Aid Society was initiated in 1885 by the Young Women's Christian Association to aid female passengers arriving at ports and railway stations, where they were met by accredited station workers who reported to the Travellers Aid Society Committee. The committee included representatives from the Girls' Friendly Society, Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, National Vigilance Association, and the Reformatory and Refuge Union as well as individual members. Its framework consisted of a General and an Executive Committee that would persist until dissolution. Local branches were established in Southampton (1891), Edinburgh (1895), Bristol (1895), Liverpool (1898), Hull (1903), and Birmingham (1909). However, over time, early supporters dropped out and were not replaced so that administrative as well as financial problems resulted. In 1939, the Travellers' Aid Society entered into an arrangement with the National Vigilance Association wherein the Association administered the Society from their offices as a separate body. In subsequent years, the work was maintained largely by National Vigilance Association funds. Station work continued in co-operation with the Young Women's Christian Association until 1952 when a financial crisis overcame the National Vigilance Association itself and it was decided to terminate the Travellers' Aid Society work in May of that year.

Women for Westminster (1943-1949) was established in 1943. In 1940 Edith Summerskill raised the issue of women in parliament within the Six Point Group. This produced an initiative with the aim of returning 100 women to parliament. However, the war and other concerns meant that it was not until Mrs Rebecca Sieff and Teresa Billington-Greig established a committee within the Women's Publicity Planning Association (WPPA) to deal with the issue in Jan 1942 that attention was paid to this area by a single issue group. The committee eventually became an independent organisation the following year with the name of Women for Westminster. It was a non-party organisation with a number of local branches which aimed to encourage women in individual constituency parties to nominate a woman candidate, thus avoiding the hostility aroused when outside women's organisations attempted to apply pressure. Summerskill, Tate, Cazalet-Keir and Corbett Ashby were all members but the group had limited success: in 1945, out of 87 women candidates, only 12 were returned and they already held seats. Despite having 46 branches, financial problems beset the organisation, which received only £1,000 in 1946. By the end of the decade, they were under pressure to amalgamate with other organisations. They refused an approach from the Six Point Group but accepted a merger with the National Women's Citizenship Association in 1949.

The Campaign Against Pornography (CAP) (1987-1997) was established in 1987 as a response to Dr Clare Short MP's bill to ban erotica such as 'Page 3' in national newspapers. Its aims were 1) to promote equal opportunities for women and oppose discrimination, 2) to preserve and protect the health and safety of women and children through working towards the elimination of violent crimes against them, 3) to undertake research into the links between pornography and violence against women and children and their position in society and to publish the results of such research, 4) to gather information related to the production, publication, distribution and consumption of pornography and its effects on women and children's lives and their position in society, 5) to provide facilities for the relief of women and children affected by pornography, 6) to raise funds and receive contributions, 7) to co-operate and collaborate with any voluntary organisation and statutory authorities having similar objects and to exchange information and advice with such bodies. The group was incorporated in Apr 1989 and undertook a series of educational programmes that included training events, school workshops and seminars. It also set up a helpline and assisted with a research project with the University of Bradford's Violence Abuse and Gender Relations research unit on pornography. A number of unions and local union branches affiliated to CAP, include NUS, UNISON, CPSA and GMB. CAP focused on a number of specialised campaigns in addition to its general aims. Two main campaigns were 'Off the Shelf' (1989-c 1995), which protested the sale of 'soft porn' in retail stores, and Red Hot Dutch (c 1993) which helped prevent the launch of a hardcore porn satellite channel in 1993. Other campaign activities included petitions and picketing protests. One notable local event was the Jack the Ripper Exhibition at London Dungeon. CAP also undertook a letter writing campaign in 1995, by which time it had a number of local groups affiliated to it throughout the country. However, it ended its activities in the late 1990s through the effects of a financial crisis.

The creation of the Consultative Committee of Women's Organisations (1921-1928) in 1921 was very much at the behest of Lady Nancy Astor. Lady Astor was the first elected woman to take her seat in the House of Commons in 1919. After one year there, she had become concerned with the inefficacy of the women's groups' pressure on parliament. She organised a conference on the issue attended by a range of women's organisations as well as public, professional and academic women and sympathetic male MPs. At the meeting, it was agreed that its resultant report was to be discussed by a committee of interested organisations. This became the Consultative Committee of Women's Organisations in Mar 1921. It had no executive authority but functioned solely as a forum in which women's issues would be discussed and from which recommendations as to joint action between constituent bodies could be issued. Lady Astor was President until 1928 and her political secretary, Hilda Matheson, was Secretary during the early period. The committee focussed on co-ordinating the efforts of women's groups to lobby members of parliament for legislation to improve women's legal status. However, divisions appeared in the movement in the mid-1920s that would bring the group to an end. Disputes over whether to work solely for the equality of the sexes or to support women's increased independence through the provision of family allowances and similar social welfare projects led to the withdrawal of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship from the group in 1928. The Committee was dissolved in Oct 1928.

The National Federation of Women's Institutes (1915-fl 2008), founded in 1915, grew out of a need for a body to support women in rural communities

THE ORGANISATION

As at 2007 The National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI) consisted of all the Women's Institutes (WIs) in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The FUNCTION of NFWI was to put into effect the wishes of the members; the means by which this is done was laid down in the Constitution and Rules.

BACKGROUND TO NFWI

From 1915-1917 the Women's Institute (WI) committee of the Agricultural Organisations Society (AOS), a body funded by The Development Commission was responsible for forming the first WIs in Britain. The object of the AOS was to organise farmers into co-operative societies for the purchase of agricultural requirements and for the sale of produce but there were very few women involved in this work. John Nugent Harris, the secretary of AOS, heard about the Canadian WIs from Madge Watt who was visiting from Canada. Seeing the value of the WI movement, especially in war time, to get country women working co-operatively to increase food production, he persuaded AOS to employ Madge Watt to set up WIs. The first she started were in Wales soon followed by ones in England. AOS set up a subcommittee to oversee the WI work and appointed Lady Gertrude Denman as Chair on 3 Oct 1916. In Sep 1917 the Treasury refused the AOS a further grant for WI work, realising the movement was growing they felt it more appropriate that the funding for forming new WIs should be given to the Women's Branch of the Food Production Department of the Board of Agriculture (which also organised the Women's Land Army). Lady Denman did not wish the WIs to be taken over by a government department and negotiated an arrangement whereby the Board of Agriculture would fund the forming of WIs but the WIs, once formed, would be self-governing. Ongoing support and policymaking would be done by a separate organisation - a National Federation of Women's Institutes. On 16 Oct 1917 delegates from the 137 existing WIs were invited to a meeting at which they agreed to the setting up of the NFWI, its Constitution and Rules. They also elected a CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT. This was subsequently renamed the NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. At the first meeting of the Central Committee of Management Lady Denman was elected Chair. As well as the elected members the committee included appointed representatives from various government departments that provided financial support or had similar interests to the newly formed NFWI

In 1917-1918 these representatives were: Miss Talbot OBE - Board of Agriculture; The Hon Mrs Hanford - National Union of Women Workers; Mr J Nugent Harris, Mr GF Hooper and Mrs Roland Wilkins - AOS

1918-1919 representatives: Miss Talbot CBE - Board of Agriculture; The Hon Mrs A Lyttelton DBE - Board of Agriculture; Mr S Bostock, Mr GF Hooper, - AOS; Lady Cowan - National Council of Women Workers.

1919-1921 representatives: Miss Talbot CBE - Ministry of Agriculture; The Hon Mrs A Lyttelton DBE - Ministry of Agriculture; Mr S Bostock- AOS

1921-1922: Dame Meriel Talbot - Ministry of Agriculture; The Hon Mrs A Lyttelton DBE - Ministry of Agriculture; Mr ATA Dobson - Ministry of Agriculture; Miss Purves - National Association of Landswomen; Mr S Bostock- AOS.

The National Executive Committee continued to have representative members until incorporation in 1990. For example in 1988-1989 the representative members were: Mr CJ Hancock LLB BA ALA - Department of the Environment; Dr JM Graham - Principal Medical Officer, Department of Health and Social Security; Mr J Coe - Chief Information Officer, Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food; Dr D Hibbert - HMI, Department of Education.

PURPOSE OF THE NFWI

From 1915 - 1917 The WIs adopted rules based on the Canadian model and agreed that they would: "a) Study home economics; b) Provide a centre for educational and social intercourse and for all local activities; c) Encourage home and local industries; d) Develop co-operative enterprises; e) Stimulate interest in the agriculture industry"

From 1917-1919, under the Board of Agriculture, WIs concentrated on food production to help the war effort.

After the First World War ended, at the AGM in 1919, a revised form of the CONSTITUTION was agreed, which was further reviewed in 1928, 1948 and 1970. The following version was used in the 1950s and 1960s:

"CHARACTER: The Women's Institute movement is based on the spiritual ideals of fellowship, truth, tolerance and justice. All countrywomen are eligible for membership no matter what their views on religion or politics may be. The movement is non sectarian and non party-political.

OBJECTS: The main purpose of the Women's Institute movement is to improve and develop conditions of rural life. It seeks to give to all countrywomen the opportunity of working together through the Women's Institute organisation, and of putting into practice those ideals for which it stands. For the purpose of furthering the said objects, the Women's Institute shall have the power to: 1) Provide for the fuller education of countrywomen in citizenship, in public questions both national and international, in music , drama and other cultural subjects, also to secure instruction and training in all branches of agriculture, handicrafts, domestic science, health and social welfare; 2) Promote international understanding amongst countrywomen; 3) Provide a centre for social intercourse and activities; 4) Develop co-operative enterprise; 5) Receive and apply in and towards any of the above objects, and not otherwise, grants and other funds provided and sanctioned by the National Federation of Women's Institutes of England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man (hereinafter referred to as ' the National Federation'); 6) Buy on behalf of all or any members any commodity, approved by the committee, and distribute and allot the same either gratuitously or at cost; 7) Do such other things as may be incidental or conducive to the attainment of the purpose of the Institute"

Subsequently changes were made: 1) To clarify the meaning of 'non-party political - 'This shall not be so interpreted as to prevent WIs from concerning themselves with matters of political or religious significance, provided that the views of minorities are respected and provided that the movement is never used for party political or sectarian purposes' (1971); 2) To clarify the meaning of 'countrywomen' - 'Countrywomen shall mean women living in rural areas and women living elsewhere who are interested in the promotion of the arts crafts and sciences associated with rural life and the improvement and development of conditions of rural life'.

In 1990 NFWI became Incorporated - a charitable company limited by Guarantee

MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES

'PREAMBLE: The Women's Institute movement is based on the ideals of fellowship, truth, tolerance and justice. All women who are interested in the arts, crafts, sciences and other issues associated with rural life (called countrywomen in this Memorandum of Association) may join no matter what their vies on religion or politics may be. The movement is non-sectarian and non-party political. This does not prevent WIs from concerning themselves with matters of political or religious significance, provided that the views of minorities are respected and provided that the movement is never used for party political or sectarian purposes. WIs are charitable and everything they do must be consistent with that special legal status. OBJECTS: The objects of the National Federation are to enable countrywomen to take an effective part in the improvement and development of the conditions of rural life, to advance their education in citizenship, in public questions both national and international, in music, drama and other cultural subjects, and secure instruction and training for them in all branches of agriculture, handicrafts, domestic science, health and social welfare. It exists to give all countrywomen the opportunity of working together through the Women's Institute organisation, and of putting into practice those ideals for which it stands. POWERS include: To form, assist and advise Federations; To form, assist and advise WIs; To promote international understanding; To organise conferences, course of instruction, exhibitions, lectures and other educational activities; * To publish books pamphlets reports leaflets journals films tapes and instructional matter'.

From 2000 the full Memorandum and Articles were available as a down-load from the NFWI website

From 1990 the WIs and Federations elected an Executive committee/ Board of Trustees every two years by postal ballot. In 1990 the number of Trustees was 17 plus the chair of the Wales committee ex officio and the power to co-opt up to 4 others

In 2002 a revised constitution reduced the number on the Board of Trustees to 14 including the chair of the Wales committee ex officio.

SUBCOMMITTEES

From 1917 the Central Committee of Management (subsequently the National Executive Committee and then The Board of Trustees) appointed Standing Sub-Committees to consider and make recommendations regarding areas of interest and special issues within the scope of their terms of reference. The sub-committees co-opted people with specialist knowledge to give expert advice. Their recommendations and reports were passed to the Executive Committee for decision. Ad Hoc committees, and working parties were set up from time to time to complete specific tasks.

The committee structure has changed over the years, the names of the committees have been changed but similar areas of work have been covered.

CONSULTATIVE COUNCIL

In 1919 The Consultative Council was established as a forum where the National Executive Committee and the elected Consultative Council Representatives from every Federation could meet, usually twice a year, to discuss national policy and comment on budgetary and other financial matters including (from 1976) amount and division of the annual subscriptions of members.

In 1981 this body was replaced by the National Council, made up of the National Executive Committee and the Chairs and Treasurers of the Federations. The Council received reports from the Executive Committee had the power to make recommendations to the Executive Committee by majority vote. Until 2006 it met twice a year and at the spring meeting considered resolutions submitted for the AGM and advised the Executive Committee on which ones should be placed on the final agenda.

NFWI REPRESENTATION ON OUTSIDE BODIES

From 1917 onwards NFWI has nominated members, or employees, to represent them on other bodies with similar or complimentary interests. These people were listed in the Annual Report. Also listed there were those people who served on outside bodies in a personal capacity but reported to the NFWI.

INTERNATIONAL LINKS

The Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) was established in 1933, and NFWI affiliated to it and sent delegates to Area Conferences and to Triennial meetings.

FEDERATED STRUCTURE

When sufficient WIs were formed in a County the WIs joined together to form a County Federation. As at 2007 there were 70 county and Island Federations, each with a regional office, each level of the organisation was run by a committee of elected members. The NFWI Board of Trustees was democratically elected every two years by the members.

STAFF

The first paid staff members were employed by NFWI in 1918. NFWI employed staff for the London HQ and also various specialist organisers who travelled to advise the Federations and WIs on handicrafts, agriculture and horticulture, marketing, education and general organisation matters. From 1948 NFWI employed staff at Denman College

PUBLISHING (MAGAZINES)

1917-1919 - The Landswoman - (shared with The Women's Land Army)

1919-2006 - Home and Country - a subscription magazine, published monthly

2007 - WI Life - a membership magazine published eight times a year

PUBLICATIONS

1919 NFWI Publications Department, published leaflets and booklets providing advice to members to help them run the organisation, and also of an educational nature.

1977 - WI Books Ltd, published books and leaflets for internal use but also to sell on the open market and raise funds.

WI ENTERPRISES - incorporating the publishing activities and the production of the WI magazine as well as the trading arm of NFWI, was set up to raise funds and provide benefits for members.

WI MARKETS

1919 - First Women's Institute Market started in Lewes as an outlet for surplus produce. WI Markets spread to other areas to allow members and other share holders to market the products of their gardens, kitchens and craft skills.

In 1932 NFWI received a grant from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust to expand the markets and they were formally registered as co-operatives under the Industrial Provident and Friendly Societies Act.

Neither NFWI nor the County Federations had legal control over markets but had responsibility to encourage their formation and development and to provide education in marketing for all WI members wishing to participate

By 1992 the combined annual turnover of the Markets reached £10m and in 1995 WI Markets separated from NFWI were renamed WI Country Markets and became self-financing. In 2004 WI Country Markets Ltd shareholders voted to discontinue the use of the WI initials, at the request of NFWI, and became Country Markets Ltd. (www.country-markets.co.uk)

FUNDING

1915-1917 the work of forming WIs was funded by AOS. Once formed the WIs became self funded

1917-1919 the work of forming WIs was funded by The Board of Agriculture, and grants were provided for the formation of County Federations, after which they became self funded.

1920-1927 NFWI received grants for core funding from Development Commission, the amount given gradually decreased until they stopped in 1927.

1927 onward income to run NFWI came from: share of annual membership subscriptions; grant-making bodies, educational trusts; commercial sponsors; WI Enterprises trading arm; investments; gifts, donations, and legacies.

KEY DATES IN WI HISTORY

1915 the Agricultural Organisations Society (AOS) employed Madge Watt to start WIs in Britain (Aug 1915 )

1915 Madge Watt started the first WI in Britain at Llanfair PG on Anglesey (11 Sep 1915), President : Mrs Stapleton Cotton

1915 AOS started a WI sub committee (Nov 1915)

1916 (summer) Lil Nugent Harris became secretary of the AOS WI committee

1916 (autumn) AOS invited Mrs Drage and Mrs Stapleton Cotton onto the WI sub committee and Lady Denman appointed Chairman

1917 The Treasury refused AOS a further grant for WI work (Sep 1917). Responsibility for forming WIs passed to the Women's Branch of the Food Production Department of the Board of Agriculture (who were also concerned with the Women's Land Army)

1917 first County Federation formed (Sussex on 5 Sep 1917)

1917 first Annual General Meeting of WI delegates held on 16 Oct 1917

1917 NFWI formed

1917 Lady Denman Elected Chair of Central Committee of Management

1918 NFWI exhibition and sale in Caxton Hall

1918 first training school for Voluntary County Organisers(VCOs) held Burgess Hill, Sussex (on 6 - 24 May 1918)

1918 AGM decided not to form WIs in towns

1919 Home and Country published for the first time (Mar 1919)

1919 Special General Meeting agreed a new national executive committee structure (15 Oct 1919) the AGM on 16 Oct 1919 agreed new constitution and rules for post war times

1919 first Consultative Council meeting

1919 General Endowment Fund started

1920 Grant of £10,000 made from the Development Commissioners for general organisation, with promise of continuing but decreasing grants until the movement should become self supporting

1920 Guild of Learners of Handicrafts set up

1921 Endowment fund started £12,000 raised

1921 First grant received from Development Commissioners for work with handicrafts

1922 system of annual voluntary donations to NFWI funds from County Federations on behalf of WIs started

1923 AGM decided that WI membership was open to women and girls only

1923 Formation of Welsh Counties Conference

1926 Last grant received from the Development Commissions for general organisation

1926 NFWI's claim for exemption from Income Tax allowed on appeal

1928 First National Drama Festival

1928 First report on the Constitution

1932 AGM decided that fares of all delegates to the meeting should be pooled

1932 Carnegie United Kingdom Trust (CUKT) grant awarded for 3 years to organise and increase WI Co-operative markets

1933 Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) started

1939 First grant from the Development Commissioners for agricultural work

1939 Produce Guild Formed

1940 Questionnaire to WIs about experiences with housing evacuees, resulting in the report 'Town Children through Country eyes'

1940 First grant from Ministry of Food, NFWI began to administer the Ministry's fruit preservation scheme

1945 AGM instructed NFWI executive committee to establish a Women's Institute College

1946 Ministry of Food/NFWI preservation scheme ended

1946 NFWI Combined Arts Festival

1946 CUKT grant awarded to start WIs in the Channel Islands

1947 'Operation Produce' launched

1947 First WI in the Channel Islands established

1948 Denman College opened (24 Sep 1948)

1948 First grant received from the Ministry of Education of the 'development of liberal education for women'

1948 'Home Produce' Exhibition

1948 Second report on the Constitution

1949 First WI formed in the Isle of Man

1949 Federation of Wales committee set up

1950 Jersey and Guernsey Federations affiliated to NFWI

1950 National Singing Festival - 'Folk Songs of the Four Seasons' by Ralph Vaughan Williams - Albert Hall

1951 Isle of Man Federation affiliated to NFWI

1951 Denman College Endowment Fund established

1951 First WI Market Place at the Ideal Home Exhibition

1952 Crafts Exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum

1955 AGM decision led to formation of Keep Britain Tidy Group

1957 National Drama Festival - 'Out of this Wood' commissioned Robert Gittins

1961 AGM pledges WI support for Freedom from Hunger Campaign

1961 WI Market Place at the Ideal Homes Exhibition

1962 NFWI 'Country Feasts and Festivals' competition at the Dairy Show

1963 National Art Exhibition 'Painting for Pleasure' at the Galleries of the Federation of British Artists

1965 WI Golden Jubilee celebrated

1965 AGM - rule limiting the formation of WIs to places with a population of under 4,000 rescinded

1968 National appeal for half a million pounds launched, to improve the financial position of NFWI

1969 'The Brilliant and the Dark' specially commissioned operatic sequence for women's voices by Malcolm Williamson and Ursula Vaughan Williams Performed in the Albert Hall by WI members

1969 National appeal reached target

1970 Third report on the Constitution

1970 CUKT grant for three year 'Town and Country Project'

1970 Queen Mother opened the new Teaching Centre at Denman College

1971 AGM agreed change to interpretation of the non-party political and non-sectarian rules

1971 Olive Farquharson elected world president of ACWW

1972 'This Green and Pleasant Land?' exhibition at Ideal Homes Exhibition at Olympia

1972 Produce and Handicraft Guilds ceased, to enable all WI members to share these activities without additional payment

1974 Local Government reorganisation of boundaries and NFWI decided to realign Federation boundaries

1975 WI Diamond Jubilee celebrated

1975 'Tomorrow's Heirlooms' exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute

1975 Avon and West Midlands, new Federations affiliated to NFWI

1976 AGM decided to allow the amount and division of the annual subscription to be decided in future by NFWI executive committee in consultation with Consultative Council representatives

1977 Humberside Federation affiliated to NFWI

1977 WI Book Ltd registered as a privately owned company

1978 Tyne and Wear north and South Federations affiliated to NFWI

1979 The Queen opened the Home Economics Centre at Denman College

1980 National Drama Festival 'Scene 80' finals at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford on Avon

1980 NFWI Wales office opened in Cardiff

1981 Consultative Council disbanded and National Council formed

1982 'Early one Morning' composed by Antony Hopkins performed by WI choirs.

1983 WI Promotion 'Women in the Community' launched

1983 Cleveland, East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire East, North Yorkshire West, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire Federations affiliated to NFWI

1984 'WI Life and Leisure' Exhibition at Olympia

1985 £1 million appeal launched for essential repairs to Denman College and to set up .

1988 WI designed 'Countrywoman's Garden' won gold medal and the Wilkinson's sword at the Chelsea Flower Show

1990 NFWI became incorporated (company limited by Guarantee)

1990 NFWI HQ moved to Fulham;

1991 First Triennial General Meeting - Birmingham

1993 NFWI/NFU conference - 'Caring for the Countryside'

1994 'Rural Carers' conference

1995 WI Markets became independent of NFWI as 'Country Markets''

1998 'Pathway to the 21st century' launched

1999 'The Changing Village' published

2000 Prime minister Tony Blair spoke at AGM

2000 'Craft Spectacular' exhibition at Tatton Park, Cheshire

2000 NFWI web site launched

2002 'What women want' campaign

2003 'Chemicals and Health' campaign

2004 NFWI/National Needlework Archive project to record WI textiles

2004 NFWI archives deposited at The Women's Library

2005 '90@90' report published

MEMBERSHIP

Details of membership 1915-2005 are below. The year is given, followed by the number of WIs and then the total number of members:

1915 / 12

1916 / 37

1917 / 187 / 5,198

1918 / 773 / 12,007

1919 / 1,405 / 55,015

1920 / 1,914 / 99,418

1930 / 4,654 / 291,570

1939 / 5,720 / 331,600

1943 / 5,825 / 287,900

1947 / 6,682 / 379,000

1950 / 7,505 / 446,675

1954 / 8,178 / 467,000

1955 / 8,265 / 462,500

1956 / 8,314 / 457,000 (peak)

1960 / 8,489 / 444,737

1970 / 9,110 / 436,002

1981 / 9,306 (peak)

1985 / 9,242 / 353,502

1994 / 8,496 / 258,852

1997 / 8,047 / 257,700

2000 / 7,000 / 220,000

2005 / 6,800 / 211,000

The Feminist and Women's Studies Association (1986-fl 2008) was established in 1986 as the Women's Studies Network. Its aim was to promote feminist research and teaching, and women's studies nationally and internationally. Through its elected executive committee, the Feminist and Women's Studies Association was involved in developing policy on issues of central importance to feminist scholars in further and higher education, supporting postgraduate events and enabling feminist research. Committed to raising awareness of women's studies, feminist research and women-related issues in secondary and tertiary education, the Feminist and Women's Studies Association liaised regularly with other gender-related research and community networks, as well as with policy groups. It organised conferences and produced a regular newsletter.

As at 2008 the organisation was active.

Miss Great Britain (1945-c 1990) was one of several beauty contests introduced in seaside resorts around the country in the years after World War Two. Towns like Eastbourne, Weston-Super-Mare, Great Yarmouth, Cleethorpes and Skegness staged contests, but the main focus was the Lancashire and North Wales coast: Rhyl, New Brighton, Southport, Blackpool, Fleetwood and Morecambe. In Morecambe such beauty contests were staged in the resort in the new Super Swimming Stadium as entertainment spectaculars for the holidaymakers. Morecambe was home to the Miss Great Britain competition between 1956 and 1989. Originally called the Bathing Beauty Queen, the contest began in the Summer of 1945, as the "Bathing Beauty Queen", organised by the Local Council in partnership with the 'Sunday Dispatch' newspaper. The first final was watched by 4,300 people in a continuous downpour. The winner, chosen by the film star Michael Rennie, was an 18 year old Morecambe girl Lydia Reid, a civil service typist, who received a cup and a paltry prize (according to the local paper) of seven guineas as well as a swimsuit. Prize money increased over the years. The contests were a new kind of entertainment for the holiday-maker. Aimed at a family audience organisers hoped that the men would enjoy watching pretty girls, the women would enjoy picking their favourites (or commenting on the others) and the little girls would dream of being bathing beauties when they grew up. The entrants themselves had the promise of cash prizes, as well as possible fame and fortune to follow. In the early days Morecambe and Heysham Council in association with the 'Sunday Dispatch' hosted the competition. As a preliminary to the personal appearance heats at Morecambe, photographic heats held in conjunction with the newspaper attracted contestant from all over the country. In 1946 the first prize was increased by the local authority to £100. Due to the success and popularity of the contest, the prize was further increased in 1947 to £500, and then to £1000 in the fifties. This by any standards was rapid progress, and throughout the years the contest has continued to offer the largest prize fund of any competition run by a municipal authority. The 1950s and 1960s saw the hey-day of the seaside beauty contest, these decades also saw the zenith of the British seaside holiday. Increasing prosperity meant that more and more families could take a fortnight's holiday on the coast and seaside towns were in competition for a growing market. Many seaside towns believed that beauty contests were important in gaining publicity for the town, in Morecambe, beauty contests were seen as second only to the Illuminations as the major tourist attraction. Throughout the 34 years prior to 2004, judges for the heats and finals were selected from personalities from all walks of life. Press and publishers, stars of stage, screen and television, peers and politicians joining sportsmen and a bishop. Over the years the Competition was sponsored by various internationally known companies, in 1978 Pontin's Holidays Ltd were the main sponsors yet previous sponsors included supermarket companies. As the contest grew, heats were held at various ballrooms throughout the country and at events staged in conjunction with other local authorities. The winners of these heats, together with the winners of the weekly seasonal heats held each Wednesday afternoon in Morecambe during the summer, were invited to the Grand Final. The competition was held annually on the last Wednesday afternoon in August, a pattern followed up to and including 1970. Each Grand Final was a parade in swimwear before a panel of judges. The Foreword to the official 1962 Miss Great Britain programme states "when the Morecambe Corporation started the contest in 1945, they introduced to the attractions of the seaside holiday, a new form of entertainment which has now become a big part of Show Business. As the years go by, the size of our audiences shows no signs of diminishing, the standard of our beautiful competitors improves steadily and the Contest remains as popular as ever." But, during the sixties, the British seaside holiday started to lose out to other types of holiday. Increasing car ownership meant that many families had a wider choice of destinations and some families could afford to go abroad for certain sun, rather than taking pot-luck in Southport or Scarborough. And, the girls' names were changing. The Normas, Irenes, Margarets and Maureens of the early years were replaced in the sixties by Judiths, Cheryls, Carols and Sheilas. But the format - and the cliches - of the contests were well established: results in reverse order; mothers apparently entering their daughters without their knowledge; and the judges saying that they were looking for the "friendly, girl-next-door type". Usually over 20 contestants entered the heats. Their jobs were receptionists and models, secretaries and students, young women who either wanted to further their careers in fashion or beauty or who took the opportunity of the difference offered by the seaside scene to make themselves glamorous. 1971 saw a change in this pattern. This was brought about by the involvement of television. After long negotiations agreement was reached between the Council and Yorkshire Television Ltd. for the Grand Final to be recorded and for the event to be broadcast by the whole of the independent television network. It was suggested by Yorkshire Television that the Grand Final for 1971 should be changed in format to create a more spectacular programme for the viewers. The Grand Final was therefore recorded in three parts - Swimwear Parade (at the Super Swimming Stadium), Daywear Parade (at the Promenade Gardens), Evening Wear Parade (from the stage of a local theatre) followed by the presentation and Crowning Ceremony. This format was found to be completely successful and was followed to at least 2004. Prior to 1971 winners of the various preliminary heats automatically qualified to take part in the Grand Final of over 40 finalists. The changes in the Grand Final, the introduction of televised contest winners and the limitation of transmission time necessitated a curtailment of the numbers of Grand Finalists, achieved by introducing a semi-final parade. During more recent years the staging of many more heats throughout the country further enlarged the contest and necessitated the introduction of Regional Finals. In 1978, in co-operation with the main sponsors Pontin's Holidays Ltd. and other subsidiary benefactors, the local authority (now Lancaster City Council) offered a prize-fund of over £10,000 to encourage the most beautiful girls in the country to enter. During her term of office Miss Great Britain was contracted to Lancaster City Council who were her sole agent and she was to be available through them to undertake promotional personal appearances at home or abroad. Past title holders visited countries all over the world carrying out their duties as ambassadors for the resort (and indeed the country). Immediately after her crowning Miss Great Britain undertook a publicity tour of the country, lasting about eight days, making personal appearances and attending press calls. By 2003 this tour was arranged in conjunction with Button Farshaw Group, who lent one of their cars to the winner for her year of office, and Trust House Forte Ltd, who attended to accommodation arrangements. The falling popularity of seaside resorts was later mirrored by a fall in the popularity of beauty contests. In some ways, this was a contradiction since national and international contests were now being covered by television and, indeed, the Miss World contests had high audience figures in the 1970s. However, the British public were seeking more sophisticated forms of holiday entertainment, questions were being asked about what the contests represented and the opportunities open to young women were changing. The eighties saw the end of a number of seaside beauty contests. Rhyl, Great Yarmouth and Morecambe took decisions to end their contests. Other towns moved the contests from the swimming-pools to other venues and, more dramatically, New Brighton finished its contest when the swimming pool was destroyed by winter gales. So, the local councils that had started the contests after the War were now asking themselves whether these were events they should be involved with. The contests were becoming less acceptable and less popular as seaside attractions. But there were still attractive young women - now Debbies, Traceys, Clares and Joannes - interested in entering the contests, there were mothers right there behind them and there were still enough people prepared to watch for a pleasant hour or two.- Please note - the archive dates from 1945-1982 only. At the start of the 1990s, only Southport, Blackpool and Fleetwood were staging traditional seaside beauty contests and that decade saw further decline. There were decreasing numbers of contestants and fewer people wanting to watch. In particular, more young women had better career opportunities than in the past, meaning that fewer had the time to spend summer afternoons entering heats across the country. The seaside towns themselves were also adapting to the different ways in which people used their holidays. They had to re-think their marketing. By the 1990s Southport and Blackpool were able to do this successfully: Morecambe less so. By the end of the 1990s, Southport had finished its contest because it wanted to diversify its afternoon entertainments on the Prom and Blackpool's contest had changed from swimwear in the afternoon into club-wear for the evening. So Miss Wyre at Fleetwood was the only traditional seaside beauty contest to make it into the new century, finishing in 2002, although Miss Blackpool continued successfully in its new format. In the early 1990s the title 'Miss Great Britain' was purchased by new owners, an organisation that became known as 'Miss Great Britain Organisation'. By 2004 Miss Great Britain was still running as a beauty competition and was part of the growing commercialisation and publicity wing of the beauty industry. By 2004 the organisers sourced their own contestants, with applicants filling out a form and sending in a photograph. There were no local heats, rather a panel reduced the number to 60 finalists. The main winner of the Miss Great Britain competition then went on to enter the 'Miss Tourism' competition. Finalists other than the winner were also eligible to enter 'Model of the World', 'Miss Bikini', 'Miss Internet' and 'Model of the Universe', 'Miss Millionaire'. Whilst 'Mr Tourism World' was an equivalent male contest from the same organisation. A separate organisation provided the 'Miss World' competition, illustrating that beauty competitions were continuing well into the new millennium.

LIST OF WINNERS FROM 1945 - 1989

1945 Lydia Read

1946 June Rivers

1947 June Mitchell

1948 Pamela Bayliss

1949 Elaine Pryce

1950 Violet Pretty

1951 Marlene Dee

1952 Dorothy Dawn

1953 Brenda Mee

1954 Patricia Butler

1955 Jennifer Chimes

1956 Iris Waller

1957 Leila Williams

1958 Christine Mayo

1959 Valerie Martin

1960 Eileen Sheridan

1961 Libby Walker

1962 Joy Black

1963 Gillian Taylor

1964 Carole Redhead

1965 Diane Hickinbotham

1966 Carole Fletcher

1967 Jennifer Gurley

1968 Yvonne Ormes

1969 Wendy Anne George

1970 Kathleen Winstanley

1971 Carolyn Moore

1972 Elizabeth Robinson

1973 Gay Spink

1974 Marylin Ward

1975 Susan Cuff

1976 Dinah May

1977 Susan Hempel

1978 Patricia Morgan

1979 TV Strike forced re-timing of contest

1980 Sue Berger

1981 Michelle Hobson

1982 Tracey Dodd / Viviennne Farnen

1983 Rose McGrory

1984 Debbie Greenwood

1985 Jill Saxby

1986 Lesley Ann Musgrave

1987 Linzi Butler

1988 Gillian Bell

1989 Amanda Dyson

The Open Door Council (1926-1965) was established in 1926. After 1918, women over the age of thirty became entitled to vote for their MP and women's organisations that had previously campaigned for women's suffrage began to concern themselves with a wider range of issues. The sudden mass redundancy of women who had occupied traditionally male-dominated jobs between 1914 and 1918 focussed attention on the issue of women's employment and financial inequality. At the same time, they concerned themselves with the ongoing issue that had first been raised in the previous century: restrictive legislation such as limiting working hours which applied only to women and with the aim of 'protecting' them against industrial exploitation. However, there was no consensus within the movement regarding the appropriate response to protective legislation. An ideological split occurred at this time between those on the one hand who supported ideas such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' which was intended to be paid to women to ensure their financial independence and, on the other, those who adopted a more strictly equalist position. In the mid-1920s, the Labour government proposed a series of bills which would extend this protective legislation and the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship of the time was being pressurised to change its equalist policies on the issue. In response to this situation, the Open Door Council was established in May 1926 by Lady Rhonnda (Six Point Group), Elizabeth Abbott (NUSEC), Miss Clegg (London Society for Women's Service), Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (Women's Freedom League) and Virginia Crawford (St Joan's Social and Political Alliance). The new groups object was to ensure a woman's opportunities, right to work and to protection at all stages of her life were the same as those of a man. By Jun 1927, the six members of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship who resigned over the issue of protective policies had joined their organisation. From its creation, the group intended to organise an international group to further their aims. In its first year, an international committee was formed and in Jun 1929 it held a conference in Berlin for individuals and organisations concerned with equality within the workplace. From this emerged a group called the Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker. The British parent body continued its work through the next decade, from 1933 spearheading the movement for the right of married women to work. During the Second World War, they campaigned on issues such as female volunteers in the Civil Defence Services receiving two-thirds the man's pay and compensation rate provided for by the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1939 by traditional constitutional methods: deputations to the appropriate government ministers, public rallies and letters to major newspapers. They were also closely involved in the Equal Compensation Campaign from 1941 to 1943 and subsequently had representatives beside the Six Point Group and the Fawcett Society on the committee of the Equal Pay Campaign from 1944 to ensure equal pay in the Civil Service. The group was finally wound up in 1965.

Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker (1929-1974) was established in 1929. After 1918, women over the age of thirty became entitled to vote for their MP and women's organisations that had previously campaigned for women's suffrage began to concern themselves with a wider range of issues. The sudden mass redundancy of women who had occupied traditionally male-dominated jobs between 1914 and 1918 focussed attention on the issue of women's employment and financial inequality. At the same time, they concerned themselves with the ongoing issue that had first been raised in the previous century: restrictive legislation such as limiting working hours which applied only to women and with the aim of 'protecting' them against industrial exploitation. However, there was no consensus within the movement regarding the appropriate response protective legislation. An ideological split occurred at this time between those who supported ideas such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' to women to allow their financial independence and those who adopted a more strictly equalist position. In the mid-1920s, the Labour government proposed a series of bills which would extend this protective legislation and the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship of the time was being pressurised to change its equalist policies on the issue. In response to this situation, the Open Door Council was established in May 1926. Its object was to ensure a woman's opportunities, right to work and to protection at all stages of her life were the same as those of a man. From its creation, the group intended to organise an international group to further their aims. The Open Door Council always hoped to be an international group and in its first year, an international committee was formed. In Jun 1929 it held a conference in Berlin for individuals and organisations concerned with equality within the workplace. From this emerged a group called the Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker with Chrystal Macmillan as the first president. Sympathetic individuals and organisations from 21 countries supported the group until the Second World War, but when the first post-war meeting was called in 1945 for board members of international branches, several previously flourishing branches failed to send representatives. Conferences resumed in 1948, but its sphere of influence shrank to Scandinavia, Belgium and Britain in the 1950s and the decline continued through the next decade. The organisation dwindled until it came to an end, without any winding up meeting, in 1974.

The Six Point Group (1921-1983) was founded in 1921, soon after the granting of limited franchise to women in 1918. In this period the issues that women's organisations now had to deal with widened considerably to encompass general issues of women's social and economic status and their lack of equality with men under the law and in the professions. The Six Point Group was founded in 1921 by Lady Rhondda with six very specific aims in mind: 1) satisfactory legislation on child assault; 2) satisfactory legislation for the widowed mother; 3) satisfactory legislation for the unmarried mother and her child; 4) equal rights of guardianship for married parents; 5) equal pay for teachers and 6) equal opportunities for men and women in the civil service. These later evolved into six general points of equality for women: political, occupational, moral, social, economic and legal. During the 1920s, the group campaigned on strictly equality-based principles and was active in trying to have the League of Nations pass an Equal Rights Treaty. This was in direct contrast to other women's groups such as the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship, which supported protectionist legislation that applied only to women such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' that was intended to be paid to women in order to ensure their financial independence. Much of its work was done through its journal, Time and Tide. From 1933, along with the Open Door Council, it spearheaded the movement for the right of married women to work. It was responsible for establishing the Income Tax Reform Council and in 1938, the Married Women's Association. During the Second World War, they campaigned on issues such as female volunteers in the Civil Defence Services receiving two-thirds the man's pay and compensation rate provided for by the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1939 by traditional constitutional methods: deputations to the appropriate government ministers, public rallies and letters to major newspapers. They were also closely involved in the Equal Compensation Campaign from 1941 to 1943 and subsequently had representatives beside the Open Door Council and the Fawcett Society on the committee of the Equal Pay Campaign from 1944 to ensure equal pay in the Civil Service. They continued to have a significant political influence after the war, taking part in the protest to have the Matrimonial Proceedings and Property Act changed to give married women more financial protection. From 1967, they played an active part in the co-ordination of other women's groups on a number of issues through that decade and into the next. However, later in the 1970s the group declined through its failure to recruit younger women and went into abeyance in 1980, finally dissolving itself in 1983. Throughout its existence the Six Point Group stressed its feminism and its belief in practical politics. It always emphasized its non-party stance, although at one stage members were pleased to be thought as the left-wing feminist group. Such women as Elizabeth Robins, Winifred Holtby, Dorothy Evans, Sybil Morrison, Dora Russell, Monica Whateley and, for very many years, Hazel Hunkins-Hallinan, played active roles in the group.

Hazel Hunkins-Hallinan (1890-1982) was born in Colorado, in the United States, and brought up in Montana. She was well educated and became a chemist, but found her career both as an academic and as a practising chemist thwarted by discrimination because of her gender. Through a friendship with Anna Louise Rowe, Hunkins-Hallinan became a member of the American National Woman's Party (NWP) and an active campaigner for women's suffrage in America - in 1917 going to jail for her role as a protester. After meeting Charles Thomas Hallinan, a pacifist, she travelled to England and lived with Hallinan in London, having four children before they married at the end of the 1920s. In 1922 she joined the Six Point Group in which she became an active member, and the Married Women's Association. She also worked with the Abortion Law Reform Association from the end of the 1960s. Hallinan died at the age of 91 in London, she was buried in Montana with her parents and her husband.

The Wives' Fellowship (1916-fl 2008) is a Christian women's group founded in 1916 within the Church of England, but later was opened to members of all Christian denominations. It aims to bring together married women with a common interest in upholding Christian ideals in marriage, motherhood and community service. It functions as a network of local groups around the UK with a central administrative body run by volunteers. Membership has always been by invitation, with meetings held in members' homes. Annual Days (the yearly celebration of the founding of the Fellowship) and National Conferences are held in different locations around the UK. The group was originally called the Young Wives' Fellowship and aimed to provide companionship to young married women whose husbands were fighting overseas during the First World War. It was initially a sub-committee to the Mothers' Union, with strong links to the Girls' Diocesan Association. In 1921 it became independent under the title The Wives' Fellowship. It remained affiliated to the Mothers' Union until 1937. Most branches at that time were in the dioceses of the Church of England. During the 1920s groups were established in India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and, very briefly, in Cairo, Nairobi and Jakarta (Batavia). The Indian groups ceased after Indian independence and the Ceylon groups stopped in 1973. The central administrative body produces magazines, hosts events around the country, and organises the Annual General Meeting. It has always been active in charitable work. The main charities that have been supported are: the Josephine Butler house in Liverpool (funding the training of female social workers) 1921-1974; the St Michael and All Angels Fellowship, 1943-1976; the St Christopher's Hospice (for the terminally ill), 1975-onwards. It also had a 60-year affiliation with the National Council of Women. The Senior Wives' Fellowship was established in 1934 for members over the age of 40. The Wives' Fellowship and the Senior Wives' Fellowship merged on 11 Mar 2004. The organisation was still active in 2008.

The Women's Media Action Group (WMAG) was a voluntarily run feminist collective which campaigned against sexism and stereotyping of women in the media. It grew out of a previous organisation, Alliance for Fair Images and Representation in the Media, (AFFIRM), which was established in 1977. WMAG dissolved itself in 1989 due to lack of support. The organisation felt that the reason for this was that they had a negative mission, i.e. they campaigned against an issue instead of promoting a positive viewpoint. Meetings were held fortnightly and a newsletter was produced six times a year.

The Women's Research and Resources Centre (WRRC) was established in Jul 1975 as a library, information service and meeting place for people interested in developing Women's Studies, feminist research and the questions surrounding issues of sex equality and discrimination. In 1983 the name was changed to the Feminist Library.

The second wave of the feminist movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement, began in the 1960s. It moved beyond the action for social and economic equality with men that earlier liberal activists had focused on to undertake the theoretical study of social relationships and ways in which they created the oppression of women. Its emergence occurred at the same time as that of anti-imperialist, left-leaning political movements in the United States and Great Britain and was influenced by them. Large numbers of those involved in the women s liberation movement began to make a connection between working class oppression and women's oppression, resulting in the formation of socialist or Marxist feminism that aimed at a general social transformation which would also encompass a radical change in women's status.

The first Women's Liberation conference was held in 1970, at Ruskin College, Oxford and from it emerged four demands: equal pay, equal education and job opportunities, free contraception and abortion on demand and free 24hr nurseries. They did not, however, emphasis the end of capitalism as a means of achieving their objectives. Soon, however, socialist feminists began to predominate in the British Women's Liberation Movement, influenced by a strong British socialist tradition and recent events such as the strike at the Ford car factory in Dagenham by female workers campaigning for equality with male colleagues. Their analysis of women's situation as a combination of male domination and class exploitation came to dominate the movement in the early part of the decade and led many to call for the end of the conventional family as a key step towards women's liberation within communism.

Activists in both the feminist and the socialist movements shared aspects of their working methods . Both sought to develop strategy through both local groups and national conferences and carried out their analysis of the family and women's role in those contexts. In 1969 the Women's Liberation Workshop begun in London, publishing the SHREW newsletter. This was followed the next year by the first National Women's Liberation Conference in Oxford. In 1972 National Women's Liberation Conferences were held in London and Manchester, with one in Bristol the following year. It was largely from these events that future agendas for discussion of women and their roles evolved. Subsequently, the Conference on the Family took place at the Leeds Polytechnical University on the 12th and 13th May 1973. It included sessions on the History of the Family including work on the family in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century, the Family under Capitalism and the Family in the Post-Capitalist Society. Papers were read which also examined the socialist position on abortion and homosexuality in a capitalist society from a Marxist perspective. Another, more feminist-centred event took place in London that same year. The second conference on Women's Liberation and Socialism was held at the Conway Hall on the 22nd-23rd September. It was intended as a follow-up to the first conference that had been held in Birmingham at the request of a local political study group holding on-going discussions of the issue. Both were intended for feminists of a Marxist orientation within the movement and consisted of three workshops dealing with different subject areas raised at the Birmingham event. Areas treated were the history and development of the Women's Liberation Movement and its future organisational development. A follow up workshop to deal with the issues raised was held the following November.

Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries (1903-c 1921) was founded in 1903 as women became employed in this sector. At the end of the nineteenth century, there was great opposition to women's employment amongst male employees, in contrast to employers' acceptance of a new workforce who worked for lower wages and was less inclined to industrial agitation. This hostility also affected the male-dominated trades unions of the period, especially those concerned with the Civil Service. This meant that women civil servants of the time continued to occupy separate and lower grades than those of men, and a marriage bar prevented them continuing to work after they became wives. It was not until the turn of the century that female trade union agitation for equal pay and conditions with the male workforce began. The Association of Shorthand Writers was established in 1903 and was subsequently renamed the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries. Unlike the Federation of Women Civil Servants at this stage, which represented only permanent and established female public servants, the Association dealt with staff that had been recruited on a temporary basis. The Association, along with most of the civil service trades unions, were involved in efforts to introduce arbitration and militated for what would become Whitley Councils. After the end of the First World War such action helped bring about a major restructuring of the service. Grades that had been unique to each of the departments were now merged across the entire service to form four basic bands. This resulted in the merger of unions that had previously been structured around specific departments. When women were finally assimilated into the general grading system in 1920 as part of the restructuring, the Association found itself weakened as members left for larger mixed unions that were better represented on the Whitley Councils and this was one of the reason why, in 1921, it joined with several mixed trades unions, as well as the Civil Service Typists Association to form the Civil Service Clerical Association. However, membership later became a problem when the Federation of Women Civil Servants changed its rules to allow temporary workers to join. This was exacerbated in 1930 when many of traditionally temporary contracts were made permanent and abortive moves were made to amalgamate with the National Union of Clerks. Later, in 1932 it went on to merge with the Federation to create the National Association of Women Civil servants. In Mar 1940, the Association finally joined the National Union of Clerks and Administrative Workers under the new title of The Clerical and Administrative Workers Union.

The National Association of Women Civil Servants (1932-1959) was established in 1932, after a major reorganisation of the Civil Service took place. Grades that had been structured around each department were now merged across the entire service to form four basic bands. Additionally, efforts to introduce arbitration and militated for what would become Whitley Councils for the negotiation of pay and conditions had taken place in which most of the civil service trades unions had been involved. However, the report presented by the official Joint Reorganisation Committee maintained that there should be a separate selection process for women that did not involve the traditional male recruitment method of examination and lower wages for women working in the same grades as men. The Federation of Women Civil Servants had opposed this and when the mixed gender unions failed to support their position, the Federation withdrew from the staff side of the Council as well as from the Civil Service Alliance, losing its seat in the Whitley in the process. The group found itself weakened as members left for larger mixed unions that were better represented on the Whitley Councils. Along with the Association of Women Clerks & Secretaries, it found itself in crisis and the resulting situation led to the amalgamation of the two in 1932 the creation of the National Association of Women Civil Servants. The aims of this new organisation were to campaign for financial equality with male civil servants and to gain recognition for women who were not members of the general grade-based organisations. In the 1920s and 1930s they were closely involved with the campaign for equal pay and consequently had close links with the London and National Society for Women's Service. The group was represented on the Joint Committee of Women in the Civil Service at this time. In the early thirties, they were responsible for a number of public rallies and meetings on the issue as well as presenting evidence to the Royal Commission on the Civil Service in 1929-31. In the same decade they published a journal, Opportunity, which continued until 1940. In 1938 they joined with the Association of Ex-Service Civil Servants to form the Federation of Civil Servants. Chaired by Dorothy Evans, they remained active on the issue of equal pay in the Civil Service into the next decade and were represented on the Equal Pay Campaign Committee after the Second World War. The group also presented evidence to the Royal Commission on Equal Pay which was held after the war as well as holding an investigation of recruitment of the over-40s in the 1950s. However, their influence waned as women continued to join mixed gender unions. The process of dissolution was begun in 1958, there was a resolution on 25 Mar 1959 and this ended with the winding up of the group in 1961.

The National Advisory Centre on Careers for Women (1933-1995) was founded in 1933. During the First World War, the London National Society for Women's Suffrage opened a Women's Service Department to find openings for volunteer workers as well as taking the lead in training women for war work. At the end of the war the parent organisation became the London National Society for Women's Service (LNSWS), and the section became the Women's Employment Department, continuing its work until 1922. It concentrated on the problems of women left unemployed by the returning male workers. The Carnegie Trust, which funded its activities for a time, made attempts to integrate it with the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women, but this failed and the department closed due to financial problems. In 1933, this function was largely taken over by a new group called, initially the National Federation of Organisations Concerned with the Employment and Training of Women, soon renamed the Women's Employment Federation. It maintained close connections with the LNSWS, and shared premises with them until 1939 with the LNSWS president Ray Strachey as its first organising secretary. It too was funded by the Carnegie Trust but this time its object was to co-ordinate the work of organisations dealing with women's employment, to prevent overlapping and to assist each in its individual work by offering opportunities for consultation and co-operation between them. The constituent organisations were all concerned with the employment and training of women, such as: the Association of Assistant Mistresses, the Association of Head Mistresses, the Midwives Institute, the National Association of Women Pharmacists, the Council of Women Civil Servants, as well as women's schools and universities. Between them they decided on the election of the executive committee and the policies of the group. The group contained an Advisory Department that collected information on careers and openings that were then available to members and the public, as well as organising advice, publications and speakers. Between 1935 and 1940 it received an average of 3816 enquiries annually and in 1939 was asked to compile a national register of women workers. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the group moved to Bedford College. When its main organiser, Ray Strachey, died in 1940, others took over the work and it was her friend, Irene Hilton, that remained the Federation's organisation secretary from 1948 until 1971, when it became the National Advisory Centre on Careers for Women. This remained its name until 1991 when it became Careers for Women. It ceased operating in 1995.

Anna Davin (b 1940), daughter of Winnie and Dan Davin, grew up in Oxford, where her parents worked for the Oxford University Press. She married Luke Hodgkin in 1958 and had three children. From 1966 to 1969 she was a History student at Warwick University. In 1968 she and other women members of the Socialist Society at Warwick, including American exchange students, started a Women's Liberation Group. Along with non-student members from nearby Coventry the group campaigned on general issues such as equal pay, reproductive rights and better access to university education, and called for a crèche to be established for women working and studying at the university. Anna was closely involved in the History Workshop movement during the 1970s. She was a founding member of the editorial collective of History Workshop Journal, in 1976, and was to continue as an active editor for over thirty years. In 1970 she moved to London and started a History PhD at Birkbeck College. This was initially about the lives of late 19th century working-class women in London, from childhood to old age, but when eventually submitted, in 1992, its focus was on children; the book Growing Up Poor: Home, School and Street in London 1870-1914 followed in 1996. In London she joined the Stratford Women's Liberation Group (and helped produce their issue of Shrew), and also a feminist study group in Pimlico (the 'History Group'), and for a time helped in the Women's Liberation office. She was active in a pioneering community history group ('People's Autobiography of Hackney'); in the Feminist History Group; and also in 'The Public Library', a short-lived attempt to establish a library of political ephemera. Her best-known publication is an article called 'Imperialism and Motherhood', (History Workshop Journal, no 5, 1976). Anna taught women's history for many years: London evening classes in the 1980s; as a visiting lecturer at Binghamton University, New York for six weeks a year between 1979 and 2002; at Middlesex University as a part-timer and research fellow in the 1990s; and twice as maternity cover on the Women's History MA at Royal Holloway, University of London. She subsequently taught summer school students from the University of Michigan and an annual Oral History course at the Institute of Historical Research; and returned to adult education, teaching London history for the Continuing Education department at Birkbeck College.

Alice Helena Alexandra Williams (1863-1957) was born on 12 Mar 1863 at Castel Deudraeth, in Wales. The youngest of 14 children of David Williams MP, she had no formal education. During the first World War, Alice Williams worked for the French Wounded Emergency Fund. With friends, she set up the Signal Bureau in Paris, to give advice to those searching for the injured, the missing and refugees. The French government subsequently awarded her the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Francaise. A keen supporter of the Women's Institute movement, she became the president of the Deudraeth group and gave the ground and raised funds for the building of Britain's first Institute Hall at Penrhyndeudraeth. Williams was elected to the National Federation of Women's Institutes, as their first Honorary Secretary and then to the Executive Committee that superceded it in Oct 1918. When this position was abolished to make way for that of paid General Secretary, Williams once more took the role until she resigned to devote more time to her other position of founding editor of its journal, 'Home and Country' in Oct 1919. She retired as editor in 1920. In addition to her work with the Women's Institute, Alice Williams was also responsible for the setting up of branches of the Lyceum Club in Paris and Berlin. In 1919 she was the founder and the first chair of the Forum Club in London. She also took the chair from 1928 until 1938. Her watercolours were frequently exhibited, and she was a member of the Union des Femme Peintres et Sculpteurs, Paris and of the Union Internationale des Aquarellistes, Paris. Williams was a writer specialising in poetry and verse that commemorated special occasions. She also wrote a number of published plays and pageants such as 'Aunt Mollie's Story' (1913), 'Britannia' (1917), 'Britain Awake: An Empire Pageant Play' (1932) and 'Gossip' (1935). She was made a bard under the name of Alys Meirion in 1917 and received a CBE in 1937. She died on the 15 Aug 1957, aged 94.

Alice [née Weaver] Hemming (1907-1994) was born in London on 18 Sep 1907. The family moved to Canada where Alice received her education. She graduated from the University of British Columbia and began working as a journalist on the Vancouver Province newspaper. Whilst working as a journalist, Alice interviewed Harold Hemming, a banker by profession who was leading a delegation of British headmasters visiting universities in Canada. Alice returned to London in order to work with Harold Hemming, translating books written by the French economist, André Siegfried. Alice and Harold Hemming were married in 1931. Following her involvement in war work in London, Alice returned to Vancouver in 1940 and began working as a journalist again. She was employed to write two regular newspaper columns and presenting a daily radio broadcast, all in support of the British war effort. Alice was also involved in giving lectures and created the information department of the Canadian National Film Board, based in Ottawa. In 1944, Alice returned to London with her two children and dedicated her time and energy to the women's movement. Alice was vice-president of the International Alliance of Women and the Women's Council for many years. She was president of the British Commonwealth League, renamed the Commonwealth Countries League in 1963, for forty years 1953-1972, and was also the Commonwealth Countries League's representative to the Status of Women Committee. Furthermore, Alice was responsible for establishing the Commonwealth Countries League annual fair from her own home in Primrose Hill, which developed into a major international event working to raise funds to provide education for girls in Commonwealth countries. It was for this work that Alice received an OBE in 1975 as well as honours from Canadian universities. Alice Hemming died on the 28 Mar 1994.

Barbara Andrews (née Campbell) (1829-), was the wife of Canon Andrews of St. Peters Cathedral, Adelaide Australia. Barbara emigrated to Australia in the 1840s.

Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland (1901-2000) was born in Edgbaston, West Midlands in 1901 and attended Malvern Girls' College and Abbey House, Netley Abbey, Hampshire. Her father was killed in Flanders in 1918 and the family subsequently moved to London where her mother opened a dress shop in Kensington. Cartland wrote the first of a long series of novels, Jig-Saw, at the age of 20 while she was working as gossip columnist for the Daily Express. It was published 1925 and was followed by a play, 'Blood Money'. In 1927 she married Alexander George McCorquodale but was later divorced from him, going on to marry Hugh McCorquodale, a cousin of her first husband, in 1936. During the Second World War, Cartland became Chief Lady Welfare Officer for Bedfordshire (1941-45). She was later a political speaker for the Conservatives, county councillor for Hertfordshire, chair of the St. John Council, deputy president of St. John Ambulance Brigade, and president of Hertfordshire branch of Royal College of Midwives as well as founding the National Association of Health in the 1960s. Cartland was also involved in campaigns for better conditions and salaries for women in nursing and improvements in the status of the elderly. In 1991 she was made Dame of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) and by 1993 had sold over 600 million copies of her books, making her name synonymous with the romantic novel. She was also famous for her love of pink chiffon clothing and small dogs. She died on 21 May 2000, after a short illness.

Mary Berenson (1864-1945) was born in 1864 to Hannah Whitall (1832-1911) and Robert Pearsall Smith (d. 1899). Both were evangelical preachers in New Jersey and Philadelphia. In 1885, Mary married Francis Benjamin Conn Costelloe, a barrister, in London. They had two daughters, Ray (b. 1887) and Karin (c. 1889). After the death of Benjamin in 1899, Mary moved to Italy to marry the art historian Bernard Berenson in 1900 and Hannah, who had moved to London in 1888, took care of Ray and Karin in London. Later, Ray was to marry Oliver Strachey.

Rachel Strachey (1887-1940) was born in 1887 to Mary Pearsall Smith (later Berenson) and Benjamin Francis Conn Costelloe. Mary Pearsall Smith was the daughter of Hannah Whitall Smith, the American evangelist and religious writer. Rachel's sister was Karin Conn Costelloe (c.1889). After the death of her husband in 1899, Mary moved to Italy to marry Bernard Berenson in 1900 and her mother Hannah, who had moved to London in 1888, took care of Ray and Karin in London. Ray was educated at Kensington High School and then read Mathematics at Newnham College Cambridge (1905-1908). Her cousin, Ellie Rendel (1885-1942), daughter of Elinor Rendel, oldest sister of Oliver Strachey, was a close friend during her school and college days, and particularly when they became involved in the early suffrage activities. In 1909, Ray and Ellie went to Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia where M Carey Thomas, Ray's second cousin, was President. Ellie later worked for the National Union of Women's Suffrage Society (1909-1912) and for the Scottish Women's Hospital Unit in the Balkans (c.1916-1917). In 1911, Ray married Oliver Strachey, a civil servant. This was his second marriage. They had two children Barbara (1912-1999) and Christopher (1916-1975), who later became a computer scientist. Ray was a tireless campaigner for women's rights. She was a close friend of Millicent Fawcett, the leader of the law-abiding suffragists. In 1915, she was a Parliamentary secretary for the London Society for Women's Suffrage. During World War One, she was a Chair for the Women's Service Bureau and fought for women to be allowed to do all types of war work. From 1930-1939, Ray was the first Chair of the Cambridge University Women's Employment Board and also helped to found the Women's Employment Federation in 1935. She was editor of the feminist newspaper The Common Cause. Ray also stood for Parliament as an Independent candidate in 1915, 1922 and 1923, but was unsuccessful. She was the political private secretary to Viscountess Nancy Astor MP (1929-34). Ray had many publications including: The World at Eighteen (1907); Frances Willard. Her Life and Work (1913); The Cause, (1928); Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1931); Careers and Openings for Women (1935). She died on 16 Jul 1940.

Barbara Halpern Strachey (1912-1999) was born in 1912 to Ray and Oliver Strachey. Her brother Christopher (1916-1975) was a computer scientist. Barbara's education began at St Felix School in Southwold, followed by a period in Vienna during 1928-1929. She read Modern History at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1930-1933. Whilst on a voyage to Australia in 1933, she met her first husband, Toby Hullit, a Finnish purser, and married him when they reached Adelaide. They settled in England and, in the following year, their son, Roger Sven Allen, was born. This marriage ended in divorce in 1935 and Barbara then married Wolf Halpern. Unfortunately, he was killed in an airplane crash in 1943. Barbara worked as a radio producer for the BBC for over forty years. She wrote articles and books including: 'Remarkable relations : the story of the Pearsall Smith family' (London : Gollancz, 1980); 'Ray Strachey - a memoir' in W Chapman and JM Manson, eds., Women in the Milieu of Leonard and Virginia Woolf: Peace, Politics and Education (1998). She died in 1999.

Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929) was born in Suffolk in 1847, the daughter of Newson and Louisa Garrett and the sister of Samuel Garrett, Agnes Garrett, Louise Smith and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. The sisters' early interest in the issue of women's suffrage and commitment to the Liberal party were heightened after attending a speech given in London by John Stuart Mill in Jul 1865. Though considered too young to sign the petition in favour of votes for women, which was presented to the House of Commons in 1866, Millicent attended the debate on the issue in May 1867. This occurred a month after she married the professor of political economy and radical Liberal MP for Brighton, Henry Fawcett. Throughout their marriage, the future cabinet minister supported his wife's activities while she acted as his secretary due to his blindness. Their only child, Philippa Fawcett, was born the following year and that same month Millicent Garrett Fawcett published her first article, on the education of women. In Jul 1867, Millicent Garrett Fawcett was asked to join the executive committee of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage and was one of the speakers at its first public meeting two years later. She continued her work with the London National Society until after the death of John Stuart Mill in 1874, when she left the organisation to work with the Central Committee for Women's Suffrage. This was a step which she had avoided taking when the latter was formed in 1871 due to its public identification with the campaign for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts. Fawcett, despite her support for the movement's actions, had initially believed that the suffrage movement might be damaged by identification with such controversial work. However, the two groups later merged in 1877 as the new Central Committee for Women's Suffrage and a new executive committee was formed which included Fawcett herself. Her influence helped guide the group towards support for moderate policies and methods. She did little public speaking during this period but after the death of her husband in 1884 and a subsequent period of depression, she was persuaded to become a touring speaker once more in 1886 and began to devote her time to the work of the women's suffrage movement. In addition to women's suffrage Millicent Garrett Fawcett also became involved in the newly created National Vigilance Association, established in 1885, alongside campaigners such as J Stansfeld MP, Mr WT Stead, Mrs Mitchell, and Josephine Butler. In 1894 Fawcett's interest in public morality led her to vigorously campaign against the candidature of Henry Cust as Conservative MP for North Manchester. Cust, who had been known to have had several affairs, had seduced a young woman. Despite marrying Cust's marriage in 1893, after pressure from Balfour, Fawcett felt Cust was unfit for public office. Fawcett's campaign persisted until Cust's resignation in 1895, with some suffrage supporters concerned by Fawcett's doggedness in what they felt was a divisive campaign. In the late nineteenth century, the women's suffrage movement was closely identified with the Liberal Party through its traditional support for their work and the affiliation of many workers such as Fawcett herself. However, the party was, at this time, split over the issue of Home Rule for Ireland. Fawcett herself left the party to become a Liberal Unionist and helped lead the Women's Liberal Unionist Association. When it was proposed that the Central Committee's constitution should be changed to allow political organisations, and principally the Women's Liberal Federation, to affiliate, Fawcett opposed this and became the Honorary Treasurer when the majority of members left to form the Central National Society for Women's Suffrage. However, in 1893 she became one of the leading members of the Special Appeal Committee that was formed to repair the divisions in the movement. On the 19 Oct 1896 she was asked to preside over the joint meetings of the suffrage societies, which resulted in the geographical division of the country and the formation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. She was appointed as the honorary secretary of the Central and Eastern Society that year and became a member of the parliamentary committee of the NUWSS itself. It was not until the parent group's reorganisation in 1907 that she was elected president of the National Union, a position that she would retain until 1919. By 1901, she was already eminent enough to be one of the first women appointed to sit on a Commission of Inquiry into the concentration camps created for Boer civilians by the British during the Boer War. Despite this, her work for suffrage never slackened and she was one of the leaders of the Mud March held in Feb 1907 as well as of the NUWSS procession from Embankment to the Albert Hall in Jun 1908. She became one of the Fighting Fund Committee in 1912 and managed the aftermath of the introduction of the policy, in particular during the North West Durham by-election in 1914, when other members opposed a step that effectively meant supporting the Labour Party when an anti-suffrage Liberal candidate was standing in a constituency. When the First World War broke out in Aug 1914, Fawcett called for the suspension of the NUWSS' political work and a change in activities to facilitate war work. This stance led to divisions in the organisation. The majority of its officers and ten of the executive committee resigned when she vetoed their attendance of a Women's Peace Congress in the Hague in 1915. However, she retained her position in the group. During the war, she also found time to become involved in the issue of women's social, political and educational status in India, an area in which she had become interested through her husband and retained after the conflict came to an end. She remained at the head of the NUWSS when the women's suffrage clause was added to the Representation of the People Act in 1918 and attended the Women's Peace Conference in Paris before lobbying the governments assembled there for the Peace Conference in 1919. She retired in Mar 1919 when the NUWSS became the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship but remained on its executive committee. She also continued her activities as the vice-president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, to which she had been elected in 1902, for another year. After this she became the Chair of the journal, the 'Women's Leader', and appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 1925. It was in that year that she resigned from both NUSEC and the newspaper's board after opposing the organisation's policy in support of family allowances. She remained active until the end of her life, undertaking a trip to the Far East with her sister Agnes only a short time before her death in 1929.

Charlotte Despard (1844-1939) was born in 1844, the daughter of Captain William French and Margaret Eccles. In the 1850s her father died and her mother became mentally ill, resulting in the child being sent to London to live with relatives. Her early experiences in London led her to become politically radical at a young age but she was not active until after her marriage in 1870 to Maximilian Despard a wealthy Anglo-Irish businessman (one of the founders of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank), who was, like her, a rich radical Liberal. Charlotte supported Home Rule for Ireland from 1880. In 1874 Despard published her first novel, Chaste as Ice, Pure as Snow which would be followed by several more in rapid succession. Her husband died in 1890, and she emerged from the resultant depression through involvement in social work at the Nine Elms Mission in Battersea where she would eventually move the following year. From 1894-1903 she acted as a poor law guardian in Vauxhall, taking on more responsibility as a school manager in 1899. In this period her political views became more marked, supporting the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and eventually being nominated as one of their representatives at the second International in 1896. This association continued until 1906 when she became a member of the Independent Labour Party. For a short time she was involved in the Union of Practical Suffragists and then the Adult Suffrage Society that called for votes for women of all levels of society. However, these affiliations were later to go into abeyance when she became a leader of the militant suffragette movement alongside the Pankhursts. Her initial reaction to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was hostile due to their willingness to accept a socially limited franchise and in 1906 she spoke out against them at the first meeting of the Women's Labour League. It was the former Labour Party organiser Teresa Billington-Greig who finally convinced her to become a member and in the summer of 1906. After the resignation of Sylvia Pankhurst and the arrival of Emmeline and Christabel in London, Despard became the Joint Secretary of the WSPU with Edith How-Martyn, while also becoming active on a practical level. In Feb 1907 she was arrested during the demonstration from the 'Women's Parliament' held in Caxton Hall to the Houses of Parliament and was sentenced to three weeks in prison. However, in the Spring of 1907, rifts began to grow between Despard and the Pankhursts when it became clear that WSPU election policy meant that the group were effectively supporting Conservative candidates as a means of opposing Liberal candidates. Despard, How-Martyn, and Anne Cobden Sanderson jointly sent a message to the Independent Labour Party conference to state that they would not take part in any by-election where a Labour Party candidate was standing. This was immediately publicly repudiated by Emmeline Pankhurst.

In Sep 1907, the WSPU's annual meeting was cancelled by the Pankhursts and the group's constitution changed without consultation of members. However, Despard and Billington-Greig together organised another conference for the intended day and effectively began the Women's Freedom Party that still took a militant approach but concentrated on non-violent illegal methods. The following year, she spent five months touring the country in a caravan. 1909 began with her being arrested for leading a delegation to speak to the Prime Minister, but was discharged after five days for ill health. The following month she was officially elected president of the Women's Freedom League. In 1911 she was one of those who organised resistance to the census which took place that year as well as becoming the editor of 'the Vote'. The sheer range of her activities caused some colleagues to question her focus as leader of the WFL and dissent began to grow, resulting in the resignation of Billington-Greig and attempts to oust her from the leadership of the organisation after the failure of the Conciliation Bill in 1912. In the event, it was the majority of the executive board that resigned and Despard remained in place and attended the Budapest Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance the following year in this capacity. When war was declared in 1914 the Women's Freedom League rejected the pro-war stance of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the WSPU which both suspended their suffrage campaigns.

Instead, in 1915, Despard joined the Women's International League, the National Council for Civil Liberties, the Women's Peace Crusade and the No Conscription Fellowship and in 1917 she resigned as President of WFL to concentrate on working for the Women's Peace Crusade. Also in 1917 she attended the convention of the British Socialists in Leeds in 1917 at which the Revolution in Russia was welcomed and where she was elected to the provisional committee of the Workers' Socialist Federation. After the Qualification of Women Act was introduced in 1918, Despard stood as the ultimately unsuccessful Labour candidate in Battersea in the post-war election, having resigned as the leader of the WFL.

Despard had been interested in Irish politics from a campaigning visit to Dublin in 1909. She was strongly in favour of Home Rule, but after the death of the hunger-striker Terence Macswiney she committed most of her time and money to the cause of communism in Ireland. She moved to Ireland in 1920 and thereafter only visited London briefly each summer. She lived and worked with Maude Gonne in Dublin to create a reception centre for displaced people as well as campaigning against the British policy of internment. Despard formed the Women Prisoners' Defence League, which was later banned. Despard also paid for the establishment of a factory intended to give employment to Republicans who were economically discriminated against. In 1921 she moved to Roebuck House a mansion outside Dublin that would frequently be raided by the police looking for IRA members who found a safe house there. However, she later resigned from Sinn Fein as a response to the factionalism of its members. She visited the Soviet Union in 1930, and took the decision to move from Dublin to Northern Ireland in the wake of an attack on the Irish Workers' College, which she had financed for some time. In moving to Belfast she handed Roebuck House to Maude Gonne. In the mid-thirties, her finances were becoming strained and she was declared bankrupt in 1937. Nonetheless, she continued to fight Fascism until her death as a result of a fall at her home in Nov 1939.

Catherine Thackray was born in May 1922, the daughter of Margery Sharp and one of eight children. The family moved to France before returning to Cambridge where Catherine attended the Perse School. As the Second World War broke out, she began work at the Fulham Day Nursery where she worked or a short time until she moved to working at Barclays' Bank and then on to Southwark Day Nursery. However, she went on to enlist in the ATS as a Specialist Wireless Operator and was posted to Harrogate, Shenly, Lancashire, Derby and then Aldermaston. She left the service in 1943 and then went on to study at the London University Collage, obtaining a diploma in Social Sciences. In 1944 she joined the Battersea Labour party, going on to join the Central London branch of the Fabian Society three years later. In 1949 she married Lawrence Thackery and completed her training as a psychiatric social worker at the Tavistock Clinic. In 1949 the couple moved to Surrey. Catherine Thackery began work at the Woking Child Guidance Clinic the next year before they moved once again, this time to Huddersfield in 1951. There she became a volunteer at the local Citizens' Advice Bureau and the local secretary of CND. In 1953 she was elected the councillor for the Milnsbridge ward. When her first child was born in 1956 she continued her work for another fourteen months before resigning her position. After this she was a house worker for 12 years before returning to teaching when the youngest of her children went to school. She taught at the local technical college before working at the new secondary modern. Her research into the lives of seventy married women was published in 'Education' in 1968. She remained active in the anti-nuclear movement until the end of her life and in 1984 she was arrested during a protest outside of Greenham Common. She died in 1997.

Dorothy Foster Place (1886-1976) [née Abraham] was born in 1886 at Lancaster Avenue in Liverpool. She spent her early childhood in New Brighton, the Wirral. She was initially educated at home by governesses, until 1898 when she went to Wallasey High School, followed by Skipton Girls' High School in 1900. In 1904 she enrolled at the University of Liverpool where she studied Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics - moving on to King's College in London after her father's decision that she should take the examinations of the Institute of Chemistry there. During this period she shared her mother's interest in the women's suffrage movement and both women joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Dorothy was arrested and sent to Holloway Prison after taking part in a window smashing incident at Harrods, but was freed at her trial on grounds of insufficient evidence. After failing her Chemistry examination she went to Studley Agricultural College. During the First World War she worked on various farms until her father bought her her own farm in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. Here she met and married Tom Place with whom she had four children: Ullin, Dorothy, David and Milner. She took great pleasure in extensive holidays in Europe and North Africa. Dorothy Foster Place died in 1976.

Dorothy Evans (1889-1944) was born in Stockport in 1889 and was educated at the North London Collegiate School. She went on to train as a Gymnastics Mistress at Dartford College before going on to study at Chelsea Training College. It was there, in 1907, that she became a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). After her training was complete, she became the group's organiser for the Birmingham and Midland Counties area in 1909, but was arrested that same year for attempting to confront a cabinet minister and stone throwing. After paying a fine, she was released but was re-arrested for failing to pay a dog tax as part in protest at women's taxation without the benefit of political representation. This time, in 1910, she was imprisoned for her actions. During the following four years she was arrested nine times for various offences, went on hunger-strike and was force fed a number of times. When the Pankhursts and other leaders of the WSPU were threatened with arrests and fled to France, Evans was left in charge of the London offices and then became a liaison officer between Paris and London. She was subsequently posted to Bristol and then to Northern Ireland where she was arrested in possession of explosives. She remained on remand in various prisons in the country until 1914 when she was released under the general amnesty offered to members of the WSPU at the outbreak of war. During the Great War she was appointed a gymnastics teacher at Shrewsbury College. However, she continued as a speaker for pacifism throughout the period. In 1915, she was one of those refused a pass to attend the Women's Peace Conference in the Hague but was permitted to travel to the United States after the war to take part in a peace campaign there. On her return, she became a Women's International League organiser and later occupied the same position in the Women's Freedom League. It was in the wake of the First World War that her only daughter was born to her and her partner Albert Emil Davies. The pair chose not to marry due to the legal disability brought on women by marriage at the time and she remained a supporter of the rights of unmarried mothers throughout her life. It was also in the inter-war period that her work with civil service unions began, beginning with her appointment as a representative of the National Association of Women Civil Servants on the Consultative Committee of Women's Organisations in 1921. It was through the National Association that much of her campaigning for financial equality with male civil servants was done and through it she became a member of the drafting committee of the Consultative Committee the following year. In the 1920s and 1930s, Evans and the NAWCS (known as the Federation of Civil Servants from 1938) were closely involved with the campaign for equal pay and consequently had close links with the London and National Society for Women's Service. She also carried out work concerned with the status of women, becoming a leading member of the Six Point Group from its creation in 1921 and establishing the sub-committee on housewives issues which would become the Married Women's Association. She additionally collated a memorandum on the position of women in Britain and the Dominions which was incorporated into the World Report on the Status of Women by the League of Nations and lobbied that organisation to ratify an Equal Rights Treaty through the 1920s and 1930s. On the outbreak of the Second World War she continued to work for pacifism and for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom of which she had been Secretary since 1923. However, her main concerns at this time was campaigning on issues such as female volunteers in the Civil Defence Services receiving two-thirds the man's pay and compensation rate provided for by the Personal Injuries (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1939. She was involved in the Equal Compensation Campaign from 1941 to 1943 and became a member of the Equal Pay Campaign Committee in 1944, to ensure equal pay in the Civil Service. She was also active in the Women for Westminster group at this time and the drafted the Equal Citizenship (Blanket) Bill of 1944. Her death, when it came, was sudden. In Aug 1944 she travelled to Glasgow to speak at a meeting. The following day she was taken ill and was operated on immediately but died two days later at the age of 55.

Ethel DM Robson (c.1895-1954) was born around 1895. She trained in domestic Science prior to the First World War and subsequently became a teacher at Harrogate Girl's High School. She retired in 1953 when she moved to Winchester. She died in 1954.

Emily Faithfull (1835-1895) was the youngest child of Reverend Ferdinand Faithfull, rector of Headley in Surrey, and his wife, Elizabeth Mary, on 27 May 1835. She was educated both at home in Headley, Surrey and at a boarding school in Kensington, from the age of 13 before being presented at court in 1857, aged 21. She was a member of the Langham Place Group. Emily had a keen interest in women's employment that later led her to write and give lectures on the subject. In 1859 she was a co-founder of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, together with Jessie Boucherett, Barbara Bodichon and Bessie Rayner Parkes. Emily also served as secretary to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science's Committee in Nov 1859. Bessie Rayner Parkes was also a member of this committee and it was she who introduced Emily to the printing press. Emily founded her own printing house, The Victoria Press, in Mar 1860. It was a printing office for women typesetters, housed in Great Coram Street, later in Farringdon Street and then Praed Street, London. Emily being appointed Printer and Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty in 1862 acknowledged its success. From 1863 to 1880 she published and edited the Victoria Magazine that became a voice for those championing women's employment. In 1864, due to her close friendship with his wife, Helen Jane, she was involved in the public scandal of the divorce case of Admiral (Sir) Henry Codrington that affected her public reputation. Emily became one of the first women to join the Women's Trade Union League, founded in 1875 by Emma Paterson. She also served as Treasurer to a girls' club in Lamb's Conduit Street in Bloomsbury and on moving to Manchester, ran the local branch of the Colonial Emigration Society. In 1872 Emily made her first visit to the United States where her talks were well received, she re-visited in 1882 and 1883-4 and produced a book entitled Three Visits to America (Edinburgh, 1884) which compared the movements for women's work in England and America. She also published two novels. In 1874 Emily was involved in establishing the Women's Printing Society and a few years later, in founding 1877, the 'West London Express', which unfortunately only lasted eighteen months. Emily was on also the staff of the 'London Pictorial'. Ownership of 'The Victoria Press' was transferred to the Queen Printing and Publishing Company in Apr 1881. In the same year Emily helped found the International Musical, Dramatic and Literary Association, which was concerned with securing better protection through copyright. Emily was fortunate to receive £100 from the royal bounty in 1886 and from 1889 received an annual civil-list pension of £50. After suffering for many years with asthma and bronchitis, Emily died 31 May 1895 in Manchester aged sixty.

Edith Maud Hull (1880-1947) (née Henderson) was an author who wrote using the pseudonym EM Hull. She was also known as Edith Maud Winstanley. She was born in London to James Henderson, a Liverpool shipowner, and Katie Thorne, of New Brunswick, Canada. In her youth she travelled in Algeria, which may have provided the inspiration for her later novels. She married Percy Winstanley Hull (b 1869), a gentleman pig farmer of Derbyshire, in the early 1900s. They lived at The Knowle, the Hull family estate in Hazelwood, Derbyshire, and had one daughter, Cecil Winstanley Hull. EM Hull began to write romantic fiction during the First World War while her husband was serving in the military. Her first and most famous novel, The Sheik (1919), was a bestseller, and was made into a phenomenally successful film starring Rudolph Valentino. It was considered exotic and shocking at the time, contributing to the fashion for the 'desert romance' genre of fiction and turning EM Hull into a bestselling novelist. She went on to write seven more books, including Sons of the Sheik (1925), which was also made into a film with Valentino. EM Hull died at home in Hazelwood, Derbyshire on 14 Feb 1947.

Emily Wilding Davison was born in Blackheath in 1872. She attended Kensington High School and then Holloway College. However, two years into her course her father died and she was forced to leave to become a governess. She was subsequently able to pay for a course a St Hugh's College at Oxford. She sat her final examinations in 1893 when she took a first-class degree. She was subsequently employed by the Church of England School for Girls in Edgbaston from 1895-6 before moving to Seabury School in West Worthing. She then move again to Berkshire where she again became a governess until 1906, the year in which she joined the Women's Social and Political Union.

She was employed by the Women's Social and Political Union as chief steward at the Hyde Park procession in June 1908 and was one of the nine arrested in March 1909 when a deputation marching from the Caxton Hall to the Houses of Parliament was prevented from seeing the Prime Minister. She was arrested a second time in July when after interrupting a meeting in Limehouse addressed by David Lloyd George. This time the sentence was doubled to two months and Davison went on hunger strike. She was released after five days, beginning the long series of arrests, imprisonments and releases after force-feeding that would make up much of the rest of her life. In September she was arrested with Dora Marsden for throwing balls labelled 'bomb' through the window of a meeting in Manchester, received a two month sentence and was released after two and a half days having gone on hunger strike. Unable to find work, she became a paid organiser of the WSPU from April 1910. She managed to enter and hide in the House of Commons three times between 1910 and 1911, and was the first to embark on a campaign of setting fire to pillar-boxes. During her imprisonment in Holloway in 1912, she threw herself over landing railings on two separate occasions, incurring injuries which would continue to afflict her. On the 4th June 1913, she tried to seize the bridle of Anmer, the King's horse running at the Derby. She received head injuries and never recovered consciousness, dying on the 8th June. Her funeral was preceded by a large funeral cortege that became one of the iconic events of the campaign for Women's Suffrage. The service took place at St George's Church, then the coffin was taken by train to the family grave in Morpeth in Northumberland. After her death, she became an almost mythic figure in popular culture and her memory was perpetuated both within the movement and beyond.

Sylvia Haymon (1917-1995) was born Sylvia Rosen in Norwich on 17 Oct 1917, the daughter of a Jewish master tailor. She was educated at the London School of Economics but did not complete the course, instead marrying Mark Haymon in 1933. During the Second World War she worked in the United States, where she was employed by a New York toyshop as a buyer. She returned with the first of her two daughters to Britain in 1947 where she became a broadcaster, working with Woman's Hour in the early 1950s. She also became a freelance writer for The Lady, The Times and Punch until the late 1960s, writing articles on subjects including the militant suffrage movement at the start of the century. It was at the end of this decade that she began writing children's books, Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1969, and King Monmouth the following year. Subsequently she began to publish crime novels under the name of S T Haymon, the first being Death and The Pregnant Virgin in 1980, followed by Ritual Murde' in 1982, for which she won the Silver Dagger Award. She published seven of these in all, in addition to two volumes of autobiography: Opposite the Cross Keys (1988) and The Quivering Tree (1990). She died, three years after her husband, in Oct 1995.

Harriet McIlquham (1837-1910) was born in London in 1837. When young, she attended social and political lectures in Gloucestershire. By 1877, she had become a member of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage as well as the Bristol and West of England Society for Women's Suffrage. In Feb 1881 she and Maria Colbey were the organisers of the Birmingham Grand Demonstration as well as being one of the speakers at the Bradford demonstration held in Nov 1881. That same year, she was elected as a Poor Law Guardian for Boddington in the Tewkesbury Union. An appeal was lodged to annul her election on the grounds that she was a married woman but it was found that she held her qualifying property independently of her husband and therefore remained in place. However, her attempt to be elected as a county councillor in 1889 failed. By 1889, Harriet McIlquham was a member of the Central National Society and a friend of Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy. It was the latter who proposed her as president of the Women's Franchise League in Jul 1889, but two years later the pair transferred to the Women's Emancipation Union where Harriet McIlquham became a member of the council. In 1892 her first pamphlet 'The Enfranchisement of Women: An Ancient Right' was published and was widely read. Her writing continued in 1898 when the Westminster Review published a series of articles by her on Mary Astell, Lady Montague Wortley an eighteenth century journalist known as 'Sophia' and other enlightenment advocates of women's rights. Harriet McIlquham was also an active public speaker and in Feb 1893 gave a speech on women as poor law guardians; this was soon followed by an address to the Women's Emancipation Union conference held in Bedford the following year. Her audience and readers were drawn from across the spectrum of the suffrage movement. She was a member of the Cheltenham branch of the moderate National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies but also lobbied MPs in the House of Commons alongside members of the more militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Feb 1905. Later, in 1908 and 1909 Harriet donated sums to both the WSPU and the Women's Freedom League respectively. Just before her own death, she helped organise a 'Grateful Fund' to which those who wished to show their appreciation of Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy's suffrage work could contribute. She died in 1910 after a short illness.

Lady Jane Maria Strachey (1840-1928) was born on a ship off the Cape of Good Hope in 1840. Her father was the Anglo-Indian administrator Sir John Grant of Rothiemurchus in Speyside, who would later be Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Her mother was Henrietta Chichele Plowden. In 1859 she married Richard Strachey, her father's secretary and the person who introduced her to the writings of John Stuart Mill. The couple had 13 children with ten surviving into adulthood: Lytton, Richard, Ralph, Oliver, Giles Lytton, Elinor, Dorothea, Philippa, Joan Pernel and Marjorie. The couple were in Edinburgh in 1866-7 and it was there that Lady Strachey helped gather signatures for a petition to parliament requesting the vote for women. She herself published her first article on suffrage in 'The Attempt' printed by the Edinburgh Ladies' Debating Society, which helped to raise interest in the issue in Scotland. By 1868 she was a member of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage before returning to India to be with her husband who had been posted there once more to serve in the administration. The couple went back to London in 1879, where she once again became involved in the movement for women's suffrage. From 1880 she supported the New Hospital for Women of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and continued to financially support Girton College. When the Women's Local Government Society was formed in 1886 in order to promote the claims of women to both elect and be elected to local office, Lady Strachey was one of the organisers and in 1909 she became the Chair of the London branch, liaising between the organisation, candidates and women's suffrage groups. The culmination of this work occurred when a WLGS-sponsored bill was included in the King's speech of 1907 that allowed the election of women to borough and county positions. The same year, she was elected to the executive committee of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and, with her daughters, helped organise what became known as the 'Mud March' from Hyde Park to the Exeter Hall to demand the vote. At the same time as undertaking significant organising duties, she was a keen writer of pamphlets and songs for the group, which were later published as 'Women's Suffrage Songs'. In 1909 she became a member of the editorial board of the Englishwoman's Journal and was elected president of the South Paddington Committee of the London Society for Women's Suffrage. However, in the following years, particularly after the death of her husband in 1909, her activities decreased. None the less, she actively supported the work of her daughter Philippa in the London Society for Women's Suffrage and that of her daughter-in-law Rachel, or Ray, Strachey. In 1920 the Society of Women Journalists still felt able to offer her the position of vice president, but she declined the offer. She died in 1928.

Kathleen Burton (fl 1939-1945) appears to have worked for the British Red Cross Society during the Second World War.