Charlotte Despard

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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suffrage struggle and to Irish and other left-wing politics of her several generations, her diaries and letters remain unpublished.
Black-and-white photo of Charlotte Despard speaking at an anti-fascist rally in at Trafalgar Square in London, c 1930s. She is kneeling forward with her left arm and her waist and her right arm hooked forward in a fist.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
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...
Family and Intimate relationships Mrs Alexander
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...
Friends, Associates Mary Gawthorpe
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...
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
Friends, Associates Naomi Jacob
NJ met Charlotte Despard during the days of the suffrage struggle, and later as an actress on tour visited her at Roebuck House in Clonskeagh, not long after Ireland became independent. The cabman driving...
Friends, Associates Constance Lytton
Mary Neal , a leader in the folk-dance revival and joint founder with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence of the Esperance Club for working girls, invited CL to holiday with herself and some of the girls in autumn...
Occupation Inez Bensusan
Organisers chose to present two feminist plays by men, Woman on Her Own by Eugène Brieux , translated by Charlotte Shaw (Bernard Shaw 's wife), and A Gauntlet by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson .
Hirshfield, Claire. “The Woman’s Theatre in England: 1913-1918”. Theatre History Studies, Vol.
15
, pp. 123-37.
125-6
All...
politics Isabella Ormston Ford
Several members of the Women's International League were committed suffragists, including Helena Swanwick , Maude Royden , Margaret Ashton , Kate Courtney , and Charlotte Despard . Others were IOF 's old friends from the...
politics Sylvia Pankhurst
After appearing with Labour leaders at the Albert Hall, SP was told by her sister Christabel to give up her socialist activity or be forced out of her association with the WSPU . She...
politics Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
While the WSPU 's recruitment increased during 1907, its governing members began to disagree over its direction: one party wanted the Union to be run democratically with a constitution, while the other, headed by Emmeline
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
politics Maude Royden
Through her anti-war activities, MR became involved with the Women's International League (WIL) , a pacifist organisation founded by British women who had attended the Women's International Congress in Amsterdam in 1915. Back in England...
politics Christopher St John
She was arrested in 1909 for setting a pillar box on fire. She worked for the Women's Social and Political Union , the Writers' Franchise League (which she helped found), the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society
politics Eva Gore-Booth
The congress was organized by a pacifist group that had split from the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS ) over the issue of supporting the British war effort. Margaret Llewelyn Davies ,...
politics Sarah Grand
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...

Timeline

31 May 1898: George Bedborough, secretary of the Legitimation...

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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...

National or international item

23 October 1906

During a demonstration at the opening of Parliament , eleven Women's Social and Political Union supporters were for the first time arrested and imprisoned: for two months in Holloway .

27 June 1907: The Women's Franchise began weekly publication...

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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...

National or international item

October 1907

Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence , wanting to maintain control over the Women's Social and Political Union agenda, removed by fiat dissident members of the executive and cancelled the forthcoming annual conference.

November 1907: Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington Greig...

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November 1907

Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington Greig left the Women's Social and Political Union to form the Women's Freedom League .

16 September 1909: The Women's Freedom League Temporary Newsheet...

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16 September 1909

The Women's Freedom League Temporary Newsheet began weekly publication in London.

28 October 1909: Charlotte Despard edited the first issue...

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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...

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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...

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February 1912

Helen Houston produced the first issue of Business Girl, a monthly publication from the Institution of Women Shorthand Typists in London.

25 May 1912: The Irish Citizen, a suffrage newspaper jointly...

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25 May 1912

The Irish Citizen, a suffrage newspaper jointly edited by Francis Sheehy Skeffington and James Cousins , began weekly publication in London.

15-21 June 1913: The Congress of the International Women's...

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15-21 June 1913

The Congress of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance was held at Budapest in Hungary.

Christmas 1914: German and Allied forces at the front lines...

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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...

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July 1920

The Irish Citizen ended publication after a British soldier wrecked the press.

6 July 1928: Four days after the Representation of the...

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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...

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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.