Katharine Bruce Glasier | |
|---|---|
 Katharine Bruce Glasier c. 1895 | |
| Born | Katharine St John Conway (1867-09-25)25 September 1867 Stoke Newington, England |
| Died | 14 June 1950(1950-06-14) (aged 82) Earby, Lancashire, England |
| Known for | socialist and journalist |
Katharine Glasier (25 September 1867 – 14 June 1950) was an Englishsocialist politician, journalist and novelist. She became a founder member of theIndependent Labour Party in 1893.
Glasier was born inStoke Newington asKatharine St John Conway, the second of seven children.[1] Her elder brother wasRobert Seymour Conway, a classical scholar andcomparative philologist. Their father, Samuel Conway, was aCongregationalist minister based atChipping Ongar,Essex; his wife, Amy (née Curling) came from a well-off family from Stoke Newington.[citation needed]
The family moved to Walthamstow while Katharine was young. She attendedHackney High School for Girls and then studiedclassics atNewnham College, Cambridge with a scholarship, graduating with a second-class degree.[2] Despite the practice atCambridge University in not awarding degrees to women at that time, she appended the usual BA to her name.[3]
Conway became ateacher atRedland High School inBristol, where she was inspired to join theBristol Socialist Society after seeing a demonstration by striking female cotton workers.[3] She quit her job to become a teacher at aboard school in Bristol and moved in withDan Irving, where she also had to care for his wife. At this time she joined theFabian Society.[4] She began lecturing for the organisation, and in 1893 became a founding member of theIndependent Labour Party (ILP). She was one of the 15 members and the only woman elected to the ILP's firstNational Administrative Council in January 1893.[5]
She marriedJohn Bruce Glasier, a Scottish socialist politician, on 21 June 1893, but she continued to undertake lecture tours.[6] They had three children: Jeannie, Malcolm, and John Glendower (known as Glen).
In the early years of the 20th century, Glasier wrote for a number of publications. She published three novels –Husband and Brother (1894),Aimee Furniss, Scholar (1896), andMarget (1902–3) – and a collection of short stories,Tales from the Derbyshire Hills (1907).
She remained prominent in the ILP and in 1916 took over fromFenner Brockway as editor of its newspaper, theLabour Leader. Initially a highly successful editor who increased the circulation, disputes about her support for theBolsheviks led to a decline in sales.[7] However, her husband was terminally ill and died in 1920 and she suffered anervous breakdown in April 1921, resigning the editorship ofThe Leader, which was taken over byH. N. Brailsford.
In the 1920s, Glasier joined theSociety of Friends and theTheosophical Society. She became the ILP's National Organiser, but resigned in 1931 when the ILP left theLabour Party, continuing to work for the Labour Party, after a brief flirtation with theSocialist League.[8] In 1948 she was nominated for theNobel Peace Price by Labour MPGilbert McAllister for her "humanitarian work in England and elsewhere".[9]
Katharine Glasier moved to Glen Cottage inEarby,Lancashire in 1922 and remained there until her death in 1950.[10] Her younger son, Glen, predeceased her in 1928. After her death, Glen Cottage was donated to theYouth Hostels Association for use as a hostel. It has remained as such, although the building is now owned byPendle Borough Council.[11]
Among her achievements were the introduction of pit-head baths in England, the founding of theMargaret McMillan Memorial College in Bradford, and work for theSave the Children Fund.[12]
TheMetropolitan Borough of Islington named after her in 1939 a block of apartments in Hazellville Road, London.[13]
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| Preceded by | Editor of theLabour Leader 1916–1921 | Succeeded by |
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