.jpg) Actresses Franchise League Badge | |
| Formation | 1908 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Gertrude Elliott Adeline Bourne Winifred Mayo Sime Seruya |
| Founded at | London, England |
| Dissolved | 1958 |
| Leader | Madge Kendal |
TheActresses' Franchise League was awomen's suffrage organisation, mainly active in England.
In 1908 the Actresses' Franchise League was founded byGertrude Elliott,Adeline Bourne,Winifred Mayo andSime Seruya at a meeting in theCriterion Restaurant in London.[1][2] While "actresses" are specified in the organisation's name, any woman who was or had been in the theatrical profession was welcome to join.
British actresses who joined includedSybil Thorndike,Italia Conti,Inez Bensusan,Madge Kendal,Gertrude Elliott,Ellen Terry,Lillah McCarthy,Decima Moore,Cicely Hamilton,Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale,Christabel Marshall,Lena Ashwell,Edith Craig,Janette Steer,Ellison Scotland Gibb,Violet Key Jones,Ellen Kate Limouzin andLillie Langtry.
The group had three main objectives:
1. To convince members of the Theatrical profession of the necessity of extending the franchise to women.
2. To work for Votes for Women on the same terms as they are, or may be, granted to men by educational methods.
3. To assist all other leagues whenever possible.
The League itself was strictly neutral in regard to suffrage tactics meaning the organisation did not either publicly endorse or condemn militancy. However, there were some members who were also a part of militant societies such theWomen's Freedom League (WFL) or theWomen’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), and who were arrested and imprisoned for militant actions. By 1913 the AFL membership had reached 900 members, and there was an affiliated men's group as well as over 100 patrons. The AFL adopted pink and green as its colours.[2]
The first meeting of the AFL was held on 26 November 1908. and chaired by the actor–managerJohnston Forbes-Robertson. The first president of the league was DameMadge Kendal.[3]
The AFL had very specific means of accomplishing their goals. These were delineated in its first annual report as:
i) Propaganda Meetings,
ii) Sale of Literature,
iii) Propaganda Plays,
iv) Lectures.
Literature, including plays and sketches by pro-suffrage writers, was sold at all AFL events. The AFL often collaborated with other suffrage groups, particularly theWomen Writers' Suffrage League (WWSL).[2] Writers and dramatists in this group, likeCicely Hamilton, provided many of the plays and skits performed by the AFL. The two groups shared many of the same members. The AFL performed atWSPU’sWomen’s Suffrage Exhibition in 1909 and then atWSPU’s Christmas Fair and Festival in 1911.
The AFL set up offices at 2 Robert Street,Adelphi, nearCharing Cross Station, and had branches across Britain in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Eastbourne.[3] Representative of the AFL were present at all major events in the British suffrage campaign between 1909 and 1928.[3] Between 1909 and 1914, at least 120 suffrage plays were performed across the country.[3]
The AFL was active for over 50 years, well after the partial granting of women's suffrage in 1918 and of equal suffrage in 1928. Early inWorld War !!, the AFL began war work, holding events to support theatrical charities and formed theWomen’s Adjustment Board, to help find employment for women during wartime. Representatives of the AFL and WAB sat on the advisory council of theEqual Pay Campaign Committee in the 1940s and 1950s and other members worked to raise funds for residential homes for both elderly women and men. The last event held by AFL was a ball at theSavoy Hotel in December 1958 to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary.[3]
By 1914 membership of the AFL numbered over 900 and a linked men’s group had been formed. The AFL recruited over 100 patrons from outside the theatre professions, includingChristabel Pankhurst.[3]
The organisation remained in existence until 1958.[4]
Papers of the Actresses' Franchise League are held in theWomen's Library in London atLSE.[5] TheMuseum of London has a large banner of the AFL in its collection.[6] Many of the plays created for the AFL to perform have been reprinted since the 1980s, most recently by DrNaomi Paxton in two anthologies with Methuen Drama in 2013 and 2018[7]
Between 1974 and 1981 the historian,Brian Harrison conducted a series of oral history interviews with surviving suffrage campaigners, their relatives and employees, known asThe Suffrage Interviews, orOral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.[8] 2 interviews withLetitia Fairfield, and 1 withSybil Thorndike mention the Actresses' Franchise League.
From October 2018 to January 2019 there was an exhibition at theNational Theatre in London about the Actresses' Franchise League andWomen Writers' Suffrage League. It was called "Dramatic Progress: Votes for Women and the Edwardian Stage" and curated by Naomi Paxton.[9]
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