Frances Balfour

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Painting by Edward Burne-Jones , Frances Balfour around 1880

Lady Frances Balfour (nee Campbell ) (born February 22, 1858 in London - died on February 25, 1931 in London) was one of the most senior members of the British aristocracy , who held a leading role in the women's suffrage movement . She was president of the "Central Society for Women's Suffrage" from 1896, which joined the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), on whose executive committee she sat from 1897 to 1919. As a women's suffrage activist and women's rights activist , she was an opponent of the militant activities of the Women's Social and Political Union , the suffragettes .

Life

She was the tenth child of the British liberal politician and Scottish nobleman George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the eldest daughter of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland and was born at Argyll Lodge in Kensington (London) , London. Lady Frances Campbell was handicapped from childhood with a hip problem, had constant pain from early childhood and could only walk with a limp. Her parents were deeply religious and ran some campaigns for social reform. She is reported to have helped in these endeavors as a child, for example knitting clothes that were sent to the children of the former slaves after slavery had been forbidden by law within the British Empire since 1833 .

In 1879 she married Eustace Balfour, a Scottish architect who had his office in London. Eustace's uncle, Lord Salisbury , served three terms as British Prime Minister. Eustace's older brother, Arthur Balfour , was also a Conservative British Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905. Contrary to the conservative policies of her in-laws, Frances, along with her parents, supported the liberal statesman William Gladstone and his government when she was a young woman. Lady Frances Balfour and her husband often disagreed on political matters, had few interests in common, but, despite the man's drunkenness, stayed together until his death in 1911.

Women's suffrage

Millicent Fawcett and Lady Frances Balfour at the Women's Coronation Procession

Membership in the "Women's Liberal Unionist Association" enabled her to meet feminists like Marie Corbett and Eva Maclaren. In 1887 Balfour joined with Corbett and Maclaren the recently founded "Liberal Women's Suffrage Society". In her diary, Frances Balfour wrote the following:

"I don't remember any date, in which I was not a passive believer in the rights of women to be recognized as full citizens in this country. No one ever spoke to me on the subject except as shocking or ridiculous, more often as an idea that was wicked, immodest and unwomanly. "

(German: I don't remember a time when I was not a silent advocate of women's rights, the right of women to be recognized as a full citizen of the country. Nobody ever spoke to me about this problem, except to make it shocking or ridiculous more often than not, this idea has been viewed as godless, unseemly, and unfeminine. )

She was the only member of the aristocracy and the only Scottish woman to play a leading role in the British women's suffrage campaign. She began working for women's suffrage in 1889 when she became the main contact person for constitutional women suffrage activists in parliament. In 1897 she became a member of the executive committee of the newly established National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), of which Millicent Fawcett was president . She served on this committee from the beginning to the point in time when in 1919 some women were allowed to exercise the right to vote. She was also the President of the London Society of Women's Suffrage, the largest sub-organization in the United Kingdom, between 1896 and 1919. In addition, she served as president of the Lyceum Club, which made offers to working women, from 1896 to 1910. When her work for women's suffrage was almost over, Frances joined the National Council of Women in 1917 and served as president of 1922 to 1923. Lady Frances published six books, including her autobiography Ne Obliscaris .

Lyceum Club

The writer Constance Smedley had decided to start a new type of women's club. Jessie Trimble, who was also with the founders, suggested the name Lyceum Club . The new committee made it possible for Smedley to visit Lady Frances Balfour. The committee had decided to extend its reach for new members from women writers and artists to working academics and even to the daughters or wives of prominent men. Balfour agreed to lead the new club and served as chairman for 17 years.

Death and burial

She died in London on February 25, 1931 of pneumonia and heart failure. She was buried in Whittingehame , the Balfours family home in East Lothian , Scotland.

Recognition after death

Her name and picture (and those of 58 other supporters of women's suffrage) are on the base of the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square , London, which was unveiled in late 2018.

Publications

  • Dr Elsie Inglis (1920)
  • The Life of George, Fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1923)
  • Lady Victoria Campbell: a memoir (1911)
  • A Memoir of Lord Balfour of Burleigh, KT. (1924)
  • Life and Letters if the Reverend James MacGregor (1912)
  • In Memoriam the Lady Frances Balfour, 1881–1931 (newspaper clippings compiled by the Committee of the Travelers' Aid Society (1931))

literature

  • Caine, Barbara. Victorian Feminists . Oxford University Press, (1992).
  • Crawford, Elizabeth. The Women's Suffrage Movement: a reference guide, 1866-1928 Routledge Eds. (1999). So UCL Press Europe. Available in hardcover and softcover ISBN 1-84142-031-X , ISBN 978-1-84142-031-8 . 786 pages.
  • Purvis, June and Sandra Stanley Holton, eds. Votes for women . London: Routledge, (2000). ISBN 0-415-21459-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HUFFMAN, JOAN B .: LADY FRANCES. . TROUBADOR PUBLISHING, 2017, ISBN 1788035054 , OCLC 971535238 .
  2. ^ Short biography of Frances Balfour in Spartacus Educational.Retrieved April 12, 2019
  3. ^ William Knox: The Lives of Scottish Women: Women and Scottish Society 1800-1980 . Edinburgh University Press, 6 March 2006, ISBN 978-0-7486-2655-7 , pp. 98-114.
  4. ^ Short biography of Frances Balfour in Spartacus Educational.Retrieved April 12, 2019
  5. ^ Short biography of Frances Balfour in Spartacus Educational.Retrieved April 12, 2019
  6. ↑ History of the Lyceum Club. Accessed April 12, 2019
  7. ↑ Historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett unveiled in Parliament Square . Gov.uk. April 24, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  8. ↑ Alexandra Topping: First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled . In: The Guardian , April 24, 2018. 
  9. ↑ Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth . iNews. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Balfour, Frances
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Balfour, Lady Frances (full name); Campbell, Frances (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British suffragette and suffrage activist
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1931
Place of death London