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suffrage struggle and to Irish and other left-wing politics of her several generations, her diaries and letters remain unpublished.

Connections

Connections Sort descending Author name Excerpt
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, 1990.
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, 1893.
59
The French family which produced writer and suffragist Charlotte Despard was said to...
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...
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...
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
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
, June 1995, pp. 123-37.
125-6
All...
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...
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...
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 Naomi Jacob
NJ began her political life as a Tory who thought Socialism deeply shocking, like all or most of the older generation of her very mixed family. She went out canvassing at elections, urging people to...
politics Edith Craig
EC and Christopher St John worked with Charlotte Despard 's new Women's Freedom League .
Cockin, Katharine. Edith Craig (1869-1947): Dramatic Lives. Cassell, 1998.
83
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 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...
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

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.
Forward, Stephanie. “A Study in Yellow: Mona Caird’s ’The Yellow Drawing-Room’”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
7
, No. 2, 2000, pp. 295-07.
298

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 .
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
30
Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Routledge, 1996.
127
Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Routledge, 1996.
126-7

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
24

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...

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

National or international item

November 1907

Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington Greig left the Women's Social and Political Union to form the Women's Freedom League .
Holton, Sandra Stanley. “Women and the Vote”. Women’s History: Britain, 1850-1945, edited by June Purvis and June Purvis, University College London, 1995, pp. 277-05.
291
Garner, Les. Stepping Stones to Women’s Liberty: Feminist Ideas in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1900-1918. Heinemann Educational, 1984.
29

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
28

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
29

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
24

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
32
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
60

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
33
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
46

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

National or international item

15-21 June 1913

The Congress of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance was held at Budapest in Hungary.
Hannam, June et al. International Encyclopedia of Women’s Suffrage. ABC-CLIO, 2000.
“Papers of Charlotte Despard”. AIM25: London Metropolitan University: Women’s Library.

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.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.

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.
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
129
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
33

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.
“July 6, 1928, Celebrating full women’s suffrage”. Guardian Weekly, 6 July 2007, p. 20.
20

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.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
29

Texts

Despard, Charlotte. A Modern Iago. Remington, 1879, 2 vols.
Despard, Charlotte. A Voice from the Dim-Millions. Griffith and Farran, 1884.
Despard, Charlotte. Chaste as Ice, Pure as Snow. Samuel Tinsley, 1874, 3 vols.
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, 3 vols.
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.