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| Eleanor Florence Rathbone (12 May 1872 – 2 January 1946) |
Eleanor Florence
Rathbone was born on 12 May 1872 she was the daughter of the social reformer
William Rathbone VI and his second wife, Emily Lyle. Her family encouraged her
to concentrate on social issues. Eleanor went to Kensington High School,
London, and later studied in Somerville College Oxford. However, she was not allowed to graduate as graduation was not allowed for women at Oxford until after October 1920. She began working alongside her
father to investigate social and industrial conditions in Liverpool until
William Rathbone died in 1902. She was without
doubt one of Liverpool's foremost
pioneering daughters, campaigning to improve the lives of other women she
was a self confessed "whole-hearted
feminist", is one of six women to appear on a commemorative set of stamps. She represented
Granby ward for 25 years, from 1909 to 1934 and her family home, Greenbank
House, is now marked with a blue plaque bearing her name.
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| Eleanor Rathbone (centre) at the Womens Suffrage Shop in Liverpool, 1910 |
At the beginning
of World War I, when many suffragettes called time on their campaigns, Eleanor
continued, and set up the Town Hall Soldiers' and Sailors' Families
Organisation, helping the women and children left behind. In 1919, she became
the leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, she firmly
believed "The interests of women should be directly addressed by someone
of their own sex". She became an independent MP in 1929, a job she kept
until the year before her death in 1946. She was always dedicated to relieving
the country's poverty-stricken people, from 1918 onwards she campaigned for the
introduction of a family allowance to be paid to the woman of the household.
The Family Allowance Act became law in 1945, the year before her death.
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| Suffragettes on Lime Street at St Georges Hall 1908 |
In 1919, when
Millicent Fawcett retired, EleanorRathbone took over the presidency of the
National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (the renamed National Union
of Women's Suffrage Societies), and as such was responsible for the creation of
the Liverpool Personal Service Society. Eleanor was the
first woman to be elected to Liverpool City Council, the Eleanor Rathbone
Charitable Trust was settled by Trust Deed (charity no. 233241) on February 4th
1947 by the late Dr. BL Rathbone with money left by his aunt Eleanor.
Eleanor wrote a number
of books and supported socialist and feminist causes around the world.
Artwork commemorating Eleanor Rathbone, one of Liverpool’s
greatest political figures, has been unveiled
The work by renowned artist Lulu Quinn is a significant contribution to the national “Remembering Eleanor
Rathbone” campaign marking the 70th anniversary of her death.
It was officially unveiled on Friday 9 December at 12 noon
in a ceremony attended by Lulu Quinn, Councillor Ann O’Byrne, the Deputy Mayor
of Liverpool, Louise Ellman MP, Lesley
Urbach, from the national Remembering Eleanor Rathbone campaign, Lynn Collins,
the Secretary of North West TUC, local councillors and community
representatives.
Eleanor Florence
Rathbone (12 May 1872 – 2 January 1946)
