Ada Wright
Ada Cecile Granville Wright (c. 1862 - 1939) was an English suffragist, her photo on the front page of the Daily Mirror on 19 November became an iconic image of the suffrage movement.
Biography
Ada Cecile Granville Wright was born in Granville, France, around 1862.[1]
She attended Slade School of Arts and the University College, London, where she followed the physics lectures by Margaret Whelpdale and English lectures by Edward Aveling.[1]
For a short time she taught in Bonn, and then back in England, she wanted to take up social work, but was prevented in doing so by her father. After travelling widely with her family, she was able to follow her previous desire in 1885, when she settled in Sidmouth. She worked in a settlement house with a niece of Elizabeth Barret Browning. She joined the local women's suffrage society.[1]
After leaving Sidmouth, Wright worked at the West London Mission with Hon. Maude Stanley, running a club for working girls in Greek Street, Soho. Later she was a probationer nurse at the London Hospital.[1]
After moving back home in Sidmouth to take care of her aging father, she further moved to Bournemouth and joined the local branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
In March 1907 she was with the Women's Parliament in Caxton Hall and was imprisoned for two weeks. In October 1908 she attempted to rush the House of Common and was imprisoned for a month. In June 1909 she was a deputee to the House of Commons and was arrested for throwing two stones through the window of a government office in Whitehall and imprisoned for one month. Refusing to be threated as a criminal, she went on a six-days hunger strike and released.[1]
On 18 November 1910, the "Black Friday", she took part at the Women's Suffrage demonstration in Parliament Square. She is the woman in the famous picture where a policeman is twisting her arm. The photo was on the front page of the Daily Mirror on 19 November and became an iconic image of the suffrage movement.[1]
In November 1911 she was arrested for breaking a window during the protest against the Conciliation Bill and imprisoned for 14 days. In March 1912, together with Charlotte Marsh, she took part at the window-smashing campaign in the Strand and was sentenced to six-months' imprisonment. In prison she went on an hunger-strike and forcibly fed for 10 days. In 1914 she helped Emmeline Pankhurst to escape Mouse Castle, and she was arrested and imprisoned for 14 days. In May 1914 she went with Pankhurst to the King at Buckingham Palace, she was arrested but the fine was paid without her consent by her sister, fearing for her health.[1]
In 1914, together with Alice Green, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Lady Constance Lytton, Rose Lamartine Yates, she raised the money necessary to pay the fare for Kitty Marion to emigrate to the United States, to avoid the anti-german sentiment raising in the United Kingdom.[1]
Ada Wright was a pallbearer at Pankhurst's funeral.[1]
In 1939 in her will Wright life a picture to her friend, Adeline Bourne (1873-1965), £100 (£7,831 in 2023 sterlins) to Evie Hamill, £150 (£11,747 in 2023 sterlins) to Nina Boyle, £200 (£15,662 in 2023 sterlins) to Flora Drummond to carry on with the welfare of animals campaign, £500 (£39,156 in 2023 sterlins) to Rosamund Massy, £1,600 to Christable Pankhurst (£125,300 in 2023 sterlins).[1]