Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Charlotte Despard
-
Standard Name: Despard, Charlotte
Birth Name: Margaret Charlotte French
Married Name: Margaret Charlotte Despard
Indexed Name: C. Despard
Indexed Name: Mrs M. C. Despard
Nickname: Madame Desperate
CD
, who wrote and published during almost sixty years of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, began with romantic novels, then allowed her already existent interest in political issues to percolate into her fiction. From the time of the suffrage struggle she became an editor, a prolific journalist, and a pamphleteer. Some of her poetry reached print when she was in her nineties. Despite her great importance to the suffrage struggle and to Irish and other left-wing politics of her several generations, her diaries and letters remain unpublished.
Her father, Robert French
, was a solicitor from a Roscommon family. He was fond of hunting and sports in general.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Black, Helen C. Notable Women Authors of the Day. D. Bryce.
59
The French family which produced writer and suffragist Charlotte Despard
was said to...
Hirshfield, Claire. “The Woman’s Theatre in England: 1913-1918”. Theatre History Studies, Vol.
15
, pp. 123-37.
125-6
All...
politics
Mona Caird
MC
stepped into the public eye in the 1880s as a radical member of the women's movement, a supporter of all kinds of linked causes. An article in the Review of Reviews in 1893 equated...
politics
Constance, Countess Markievicz
It was among her own boys' group that CCM
first began to go by the title of Madame rather than Countess. Anne Haverty
explains: In eschewing the Mrs of English usage, certain women showed...
During her time with the WSPU, MG
worked with Christabel Pankhurst
(who was twenty-four when Gawthorpe first met her, before she had yet met Isabella Ford
), whom, like Ethel Snowden
, she knew from...
Family and Intimate relationships
Katharine Bruce Glasier
KBG
's husband, John Bruce Glasier
, fell ill in 1915 with cancer of the bowel. The combined physical and psychological demands of travelling, writing, and speaking for the cause finally took their toll under...
politics
Maud Gonne
In the long, agonising, and ultimately successful struggle for independence MG
was again strenuously active in Ireland. She supported political prisoners and those condemned to execution, and worked with Charlotte Despard
for the Irish White Cross
Residence
Maud Gonne
From the early 1920s MG
lived at Roebuck House in Clonskeagh (south Dublin), which at first she owned jointly with Charlotte Despard
. She lived there with Despard until the latter moved to Belfast...
Friends, Associates
Maud Gonne
In her later years MG
confirmed her friendships with a number of politically-involved women such as Charlotte Despard
(with whom she shared a house for more than a decade), Constance Markiewicz
, and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
In an interview in 1896, SG
made clear her belief in the need for female suffrage: We shall do no good until we get the Franchise, for however well-intentioned men may be, they cannot understand...
politics
Cicely Hamilton
CH
was an active member of several suffrage organizations, always aligning herself with the non-militant suffragists. She first belonged to the Women's Social and Political Union
, but in 1907 she left to join the...
Textual Features
Cicely Hamilton
The pageant required more than fifty actresses, only three of whom had speaking parts, to portray famous women from history (not all of them remembered today). In the initial, Scala production, the only speaking role...
Timeline
31 May 1898: George Bedborough, secretary of the Legitimation...
Building item
31 May 1898
George Bedborough
, secretary of the Legitimation League
which sought to change the law to improve the position of illegitimate children, was arrested, largely in an attempt to damage the League through him.
23 October 1906: During a demonstration at the opening of...
27 June 1907: The Women's Franchise began weekly publication...
Building item
27 June 1907
The Women's Franchise began weekly publication in London; it featured contributions from major societies within the suffrage movement and from individuals.
October 1907: Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline...
16 September 1909: The Women's Freedom League Temporary Newsheet...
Building item
16 September 1909
The Women's Freedom League Temporary Newsheet began weekly publication in London.
28 October 1909: Charlotte Despard edited the first issue...
Building item
28 October 1909
Charlotte Despard
edited the first issue of The Vote: Organ of the Women's Freedom League, a weekly magazine from London covering a range of feminist issues, including suffrage.
27 July 1911: The Women's Franchise, which featured contributions...
Building item
27 July 1911
The Women's Franchise, which featured contributions from major societies within the suffrage movement and from individuals, ceased publication in London.
February 1912: Helen Houston produced the first issue of...
Christmas 1914: German and Allied forces at the front lines...
National or international item
Christmas 1914
German and Allied forces at the front lines began an informal cease-fire, which lasted up to five days, in honour of the season.
July 1920: The Irish Citizen ended publication after...
Building item
July 1920
The Irish Citizen ended publication after a British soldier wrecked the press.
6 July 1928: Four days after the Representation of the...
Building item
6 July 1928
Four days after the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act received the royal assent, a celebratory breakfast was held at the Hotel Cecil in London.
10 November 1933: The Vote, a weekly magazine covering a range...
Building item
10 November 1933
The Vote, a weekly magazine covering a range of feminist issues including suffrage, ended publication.
Texts
Despard, Charlotte. A Modern Iago. Remington, 1879.
Despard, Charlotte. A Voice from the Dim-Millions. Griffith and Farran, 1884.
Despard, Charlotte. Chaste as Ice, Pure as Snow. Samuel Tinsley, 1874.
Despard, Charlotte. Jonas Sylvester. Swan, Sonnenschein, Lowry, 1886.
Despard, Charlotte, and Mabel Collins. Outlawed. Henry J. Drame, 1908.
Despard, Charlotte. Songs of the Red Dawn. Odhla Printing, 1932.
Despard, Charlotte. The Rajah’s Heir. Smith, Elder, 1890.
Despard, Charlotte, and Christopher St John. Woman in the New Era. The Suffrage Shop, 1910.
Despard, Charlotte. Woman’s Franchise and Industry. Women’s Freedom League, 1913.