Maude Royden | |
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 Royden in 1928 | |
| Born | Agnes Maude Royden (1876-11-23)23 November 1876 Liverpool, England |
| Died | 30 July 1956(1956-07-30) (aged 79) London, England |
| Other names | Maude Royden-Shaw |
| Alma mater | Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford |
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Agnes Maude RoydenCH (23 November 1876 – 30 July 1956), later known asMaude Royden-Shaw, was an Englishpreacher,suffragist and campaigner for theordination of women.
Royden was born inMossley Hill,Liverpool, the youngest daughter of shipownerSir Thomas Bland Royden, 1st Baronet. She grew up in the family home ofFrankby Hall,Wirral with her parents and seven siblings.[1][2] She was educated atCheltenham Ladies' College andLady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she gained a degree in History.[3] While at Oxford she started a lifelong friendship with fellow suffragistKathleen Courtney who had the samealma mater.[4]
After university, Royden worked for three years at theVictoria Women's Settlement in Liverpool[3] and then in the country parish ofSouth Luffenham, Rutland, as parish assistant to the Rector, George William Hudson Shaw.
She lectured on English literature for theuniversity extension movement and in 1909 was elected to the executive committee of theNational Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. From 1912 to 1914 she editedThe Common Cause, the organ of the NUWSS.[3] She was also active in theChurch League for Women's Suffrage. In 1913 she was invited, with the backing ofLavinia Talbot to talk to the all-male Church Congress aboutWhite Slavery.[5]
Royden broke with the NUWSS over its support for the war effort and was among the 101 signatories of theOpen Christmas Letter in 1914. She became the secretary of theFellowship of Reconciliation with otherChristian pacifists. Although unable to travel to thewomen's peace congress in the Hague in 1915, where theWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom was established, she became the vice-president of the league.[4]
Royden became well known as a speaker on social and religious subjects. In a 16 July 1917 speech atQueen's Hall, London, she used the oft-quoted phrase 'theConservative Party at prayer' of theChurch of England; "The Church should go forward along the path of progress and be no longer satisfied only to represent the Conservative Party at prayer."[6] In 1917 she became assistant preacher at the CongregationalistCity Temple, London, the first woman to occupy this office.[3]
After the First World War, Royden's interest shifted to the role of women in the Church. While attending theEighth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance at Geneva in 1920, she preached in French and English atSt Pierre Cathedral on 6 June.[7] Royden made several worldwide preaching tours from the 1920s to the 1940s. In 1929 she began the official campaign for theordination of women when she founded theSociety for the Ministry of Women. Royden "eminent in the religious life of the nation" was appointed to theOrder of the Companions of Honour in the1930 New Year Honours.[8] Her older brotherThomas had been made a Member in 1919 (for his work relating to shipping in the First World War)[9][10] and they are the only siblings to be Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour.
In 1931Glasgow University conferred the honorary degree ofDoctor of Divinity on Royden, the first woman to become a Doctor of Divinity in Britain. In 1935 she was awarded an honorary degree ofDoctor of Laws by the University of Liverpool.[11] She received an honorary degree fromMills College, California in 1937.
She joined thePeace Pledge Union but later renounced pacifism, believing Nazism to be a greater evil than war.
On 2 October 1944, she married the recently widowed priest Hudson Shaw, whom she had loved for more than forty years; he was then aged 85 and died on 30 November. She wrote in her 1947 autobiographyA Threefold Cord of their love for each other from first meeting in 1901.
At the end of the Second World War, it was discovered that Royden, along with her brotherSir Thomas Royden, were listed in 'The Black Book' orSonderfahndungsliste G.B., a list of Britons who were to be arrested in the event of a Nazi invasion of Britain.[12][13]
On 30 July 1956 she died at her home inHampstead, London.
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Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on theplinth of thestatue of Millicent Fawcett inParliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.[14][15][16]
Ablue plaque was unveiled at her childhood home of Frankby Hall, Wirral in June 2019 by Conservation Areas Wirral.[1]
Papers of Agnes Maude Royden are held inThe Women's Library at theLondon School of Economics and Political Science, ref7AMR.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Royden, Agnes Maude".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 32 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 298.{{cite news}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)
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