The United Suffragists (original) (raw)
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On 6th February 1914 a group of supporters of women's suffrage, who were disillusioned by the lack of success of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and disapproved of the arson campaign of the Women Social & Political Union, decided to form the United Suffragists movement. (1)
The United Suffragettes Executive Committee that included: Bertha Brewster, Evelyn Sharp, Henry Nevinson, John Scurr, Barbara Ayrton Gould and Gerald Gould. (2) Other members included Henry Harben, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, Mary Neal, Margaret Nevinson, George Lansbury, Charlotte Despard, Catherine Marshall, Robert Smillie, Sylvia Pankhurst, Hertha Ayrton, Israel Zangwill, Edith Zangwill, Lena Ashwell, Louisa Garrett Anderson, Eveline Haverfield, Maud Arncliffe Sennett, Helen Crawfurd, Patricia Woodlock, Julia Scurr and Laurence Housman. (3)
Primary Sources
(1) Angela V. John, Evelyn Sharp: Rebel Women (2009)
Henry Nevinson, Evelyn Sharp, the Goulds and another pro-suffrage couple, Joseph and Margaret Clayton, believed that further prevarication was pointless and that a new mixed-sex society was the way forward. During December Evelyn and Henry joined in frequent discussions about the new society. On 9th January 1914, with Henry in the chair, the United Suffragists discussed a manifesto. Barbara Ayrton Gould became its first secretary and the committee, which included Evelyn, had equal numbers of men and women.