Elsie Bowerman | |
|---|---|
 Elsie Bowerman (c. 1910) | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 December 1889 |
| Died | 18 October 1973 (aged 83) Hailsham,East Sussex, England, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Women's Social and Political Union |
Elsie Edith Bowerman (18 December 1889 – 18 October 1973) was a British lawyer,suffragette, political activist, andRMSTitanic survivor.
Elsie Edith Bowerman was born inTunbridge Wells, Kent, the only daughter of William Bowerman and his wife Edith Martha Barber.[1] Her father, William, was a prosperous businessman and died when Elsie was five years old. She attendedWycombe Abbey as a boarder from the age of 11 in 1901, becoming the youngest student there.[2] She later wrote the biography ofFrances Dove, her headmistress during her time at Wycombe. After spending some time in Paris, Elsie continued her education atGirton College, Cambridge, where she studied for the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos and received a class II in her final examinations in 1911.
Whilst at Girton she became a committedsuffragette, taking part in informal activism such as giving outVotes for Women to others and organising suffrage events for her peers. She once hadEmmeline Pankhurst stay for a night when she gave a talk in nearby Cambridge. Despite being an active member of theWSPU, there is no record of Elsie taking part in militancy at this time.
Elsie campaigned on behalf of the WSPU at thegeneral election in 1910. She addressed an open-air meeting to an audience of 1000 inHastings, alongsideEvelyn Wharry andVictor Duval.[3]
Shortly after the 1910 general election, the suffragettes agreed to a truce from militancy in order to giveThe Conciliation Bill, a cross-party initiative to grant a limited form of women suffrage, the best chance of succeeding. This truce lasted till November 1910, when the Government announced it would allocate no more time to the Bill. In response, suffragettes marched on Parliamentary Square and clashed with police in an event known asBlack Friday. Elsie's mother, Edith, who was also a member of the WSPU, took part in this event. She later told author Antonia Raeburn that ‘a nearby policeman [gave] her a blow on the head. ‘He caught me by the hair and flinging me aside said: ‘Die then!’ I found afterwards that so much force had been used that my hairpins were bent double in my hair and my sealskin coat was torn to ribbons.’[4]
In 1914, Elsie was appointed theEastbourne district organiser for the WSPU.
On 10 April 1912 Elsie Bowerman and her mother Edith boardedRMSTitanic at Southampton as first class passengers[1] in cabin 33 on deck E, for a trip to America and Canada to see her father's relations in North America. Both women had been active in suffrage activism right up until their departure; the Saturday before sailing Elsie attended an open-air meeting in Hastings in support of the cause.[5] Although initially reported as missing, both women were rescued inlifeboat 6, alongsideMolly Brown andFrederick Fleet, the ship lookout who had originally spotted the iceberg. The suffragette periodical,Votes for Women, celebrated their survival, stating that they were ‘very enthusiastic workers in the cause.’[6] After theTitanic disaster, they reached America and carried on with their plans to visitBritish Columbia,Klondyke andAlaska.
DuringWorld War I Bowerman was still closely associated with the Pankhursts, helping to organise the Women's War Procession in July 1916. She was then asked byEvelina Haverfield to join theScottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service.[citation needed] Elsie worked as an orderly inSerbia during 1916 and 1917, and on her way back to England witnessed the beginnings of theRussian Revolution inPetrograd in March 1917.
After the partial enfranchisement of women in theRepresentation of the People Act 1918 and theParliament (Qualification of Women Act) 1918,Christabel Pankhurst decided to stand as a parliamentary candidate in the1918 general election. Pankhurst stood as a candidate of theWomen's Party, a short-lived successor to the WSPU, inSmethwick. The Women's Party was formed by Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst and its policies contained a mix of feminism and nationalistic propaganda. Elsie, who would have turned 30 four days after the general election and was therefore, under the age requirements of the Representation of the People Act 1918, ineligible to vote, acted as Christabel'selection agent.
Alongside fellow former suffragetteFlora Drummond, Elsie co-foundedThe Women's Guild of Empire in later 1919 or early 1920. By 1925, the group claimed 20,000 members.[7] This organisation was anti-fascist, anti-communist and pro-Conservative.[8] The Guild opposed trade unions, arguing that strikes and lock-outs contributed to post-war unemployment.The Scotsman called the Guild '‘one of the most active organisations for countering Communist or Bolshevist propaganda in Scotland today.’[9]
In April 1926, the Guild organised a large procession to protest the industrial unrest that was shortly to lead to theGeneral Strike in London under the slogan 'Women Unite to Save the Nation.'[10] Elsie wrote to the editor ofThe Spectator publicising the event; stating that ‘20,000 women’ were expected to attend, and emphasising that those attending ‘are the wives of working men who have had personal experience of strikes, and know what hardships they mean.’[11]
TheSex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 allowed women to become barristers and solicitors for the first time. Elsie was amongst the early cohorts of women barristers. She joinedMiddle Temple and wascalled to the bar in 1924, practising till 1938.[2] She was the first woman barrister to appear at theOld Bailey, in a case in which she was part of a prosecuting team againstHarry Pollitt, a prominent communist, for libel.[2] She also practiced on theSouth Eastern Circuit, one of the regional routes that barristers travelled on in England and Wales. Elsie wrote a legal book titledThe Law of Child Protection.
In 1947 she went to the United States to help set up theUnited Nations Commission on the Status of Women.On her return she lived near her mother atSt Leonards-on-Sea, and then moved to acountry house near Hailsham where she died after a stroke.
The archives of Elsie Bowerman are held atThe Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref7ELB
