Charlotte Despard

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Charlotte Despard (George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress )

Charlotte Despard (born French; * 15. June 1844 in Ripple Vale , Kent ; † 10. November 1939 in Whitehead, County Antrim ) was a British writer, suffragette and women's rights activist , later one of the first Sinn Féin -activists.

Life

Charlotte was born the daughter of Navy Officer William French and his wife Margaret Eccles. In 1854 her father died and her mother was treated for mental illness. Together with her younger brother John , Charlotte came to London in 1863 to live with relatives. In 1870 she married the businessman Maximilian Carden Despard.

Charlotte Despard published several novels and poems, including Chaste as Ice, Pure as Snow (1874) and A Voice from the Dim Millions . Later she mainly wrote pamphlets on the position of women in society and on improving the situation of the poor.

After the death of her husband in 1890, Charlotte Despard was heavily involved in social causes. She founded a hospital and a soup kitchen for the unemployed in South London and devoted herself more and more to political work.

Initially a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), in 1906, despite previous rejection, she switched to a more radical splinter group of the NUWSS, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). a. was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters in 1903. Like many other women who had demonstrated in and in front of the House of Commons , she was at times imprisoned in Holloway Prison . Despard later separated from the Pankhursts because they were unwilling to limit their actions to "constitutional militancy," as they called it. The overwhelming majority of the public opinion was waiting to be hostile to the struggle of women for political rights. No major daily newspaper or political party supported their cause. Parts of the women's movement had become radicalized, which further intensified this tendency and led to division.

In 1907 she founded together with u. a. Teresa Billington-Greig , Edith How-Martyn , Margaret Nevinson and Dora Marsden of the Women's Freedom League (WFL). Unlike the WSPU, the WFL was committed to the non-violent enforcement of women's rights, for example with the help of civil disobedience and the like. a. organized by the Women's Tax Resistance League . Three members of the WFL were run as candidates in the 1918 state election.

After the First World War , she lived in Dublin , where her brother was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1918 to 1921 . She was friends with Constance Markiewicz and Maud Gonne .

Despard died on November 10, 1939 in Whitehead , County Antrim , 25 km northeast of Belfast and was buried in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery .

estate

Charlotte Despard's estate is in the Women's Library at the London School of Economics and Political Science .

literature

  • Chrisholm, Cecil: Sir John French. An Authentic Biography. Echo Lib, 2007 ISBN 978-1406845570
  • Phillips, Melanie: The Ascent of Woman - A History of the Suffragette Movement and the ideas behind it. Abacus, London 2004, ISBN 978-0349116600
  • Mayhall, Laura E. Nym: The Militant Suffrage Movement: Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860-1930. Oxford University Press, 2003 ISBN 978-0195159936
  • Braun, Nikolaus: Terrorism and the struggle for freedom. Violence, Propaganda and Political Strategies in the Irish Civil War 1922-23. Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56696-2
  • Mulvihill, Margaret: Charlotte Despard: A Biography. Thorsons, 1994 ISBN 978-0863582134
  • Linklater, Andio: An Unhusbanded Life: Charlotte Despard, Suffragette, Socialist and Sinn Feiner. Hutchinson, 1980, ISBN 978-0091383107

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chris Holm, Cecil: Sir John French. An Authentic Biography. Kindle Book, 2006, p. 7
  2. ↑ EE Reynolds, NH Brasher: Britain in the Twentieth Century 1900–1964 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1966, pp. 37, 47 .
  3. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth: The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928. P. 167
  4. ^ Mayhall, Laura E. Nym: The Militant Suffrage Movement: Citizenship and Resistance in Britain, 1860-1930 . 2003, p. 106 .
  5. ↑ estate
personal data
SURNAME Despard, Charlotte
ALTERNATIVE NAMES French, Charlotte (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British feminist and pacifist
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Kent
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1939
Place of death Belfast