Mary Pollock Grant
Born	(1876-12-02)2 December 1876 Partick, Glasgow, Scotland
Died	August 1957(1957-08-00) (aged 80) Tunbridge Wells
Occupation(s)	Suffragette, politician, missionary, and policewoman

Mary Pollock Grant (2 December 1876 – August 1957), also known as Marion Pollock,^{[citation needed]} was a Scottish suffragette,^[1]Liberal Party politician, missionary and policewoman.^[2]

Grant was born inPartick,Glasgow, the eldest daughter of Dr Charles Martin Grant, the minister of St Mark's parish church inDundee, and his wife, Eliza (Muirhead) Grant.^[1][2] She was educated at theHigh School of Dundee and inNordausques, France.^[3] She worked as aChurch of Scotland missionary in Scotland^[2] and from 1905 she became an educationalMissionary in India.^[4]

In 1911, after returning to Scotland from India she worked for women's rights in Dundee^[3] as a member of the militantWomen's Social and Political Union. In December 1912 she was imprisoned atPerth Prison for smuggling herself with others into theMusic Hall Aberdeen. They had intended to disrupt aLiberal meeting with the thenChancellor of the Exchequer,David Lloyd George. She was imprisoned at Perth under the name Marion Pollock.^[5]

Throughout 1913 and 1914 she campaigned including speaking against the 'Cat and Mouse Act' andforce-feeding of women to a public meeting at the Wallace Statue, in Aberdeen,^[6] wrote many letters to the press and was regularly removed from public meetings for being disruptive,^[1] again in the Music Hall Aberdeen, she planned to disrupt Irish M.P,T.P. O'Connor, but was not allowed in.^[6] On another occasion, disguised in widow's tweeds and glasses, she managed to get into aLabour meeting held byRamsay MacDonald in the Gilfillan Memorial Hall, but was roughly dragged out by eight burly men – an onlooker describes this as "one of the strongest arguments for women’s suffrage that I have ever seen."^[4]

At the outbreak of war in 1914 she enlisted as a nurse with theVoluntary Aid Detachment at Caird Hospital, Dundee. In 1916 she joinedMargaret Damer Dawson's Women Police Service, working first in a munitions factory^[2] and then serving in London as a Constable, then a Sergeant and, by 1918, had reached the rank of Sub-Inspector. She left the organisation at the end of the war.^[3]

After the war Grant became involved in politics and joined the Liberal party. To go from suffragette to policewoman to Liberal politician was a path also trodden byMary Sophia Allen. By 1922, she was spending much of her time as a public lecturer on politics and social problems.^[3] She was then selected as aDavid Lloyd George supporting Liberal candidate forLeeds South East constituency for thegeneral election. Her opponent was the sitting Labour MPJames O'Grady, who had been returned unopposed in 1918. As there was noUnionist candidate she polled a strong vote but did not win.^{[citation needed]}

After the Lloyd George andH. H. Asquith wings of the Liberals re-united, she stood as Liberal candidate inPontefract, where the Liberal candidate had come third in 1922. Once again it was a three-cornered contest and Grant was unable to avoid a squeeze on the Liberal vote;

She did not contest the1924 General Election. By July 1928 she was selected as Liberal candidate forSalford West,^[8] another Labour/Unionist marginal where the Liberals were not expected to do that well. She again finished third.

In the 1930s she became aChristian Scientist and worked as a healer for 20 years. She undertook civil defence work in London during the Second World War.^[4] In 1953 she was disabled by a stroke. She died in August 1957 inTunbridge Wells.^[2]

• 1957 deaths
• 1876 births
• People educated at the High School of Dundee
• Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
• Scottish suffragettes

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