Amy Eliza Hurlston (1865–1949) was a British journalist, editor, social campaigner and trade unionist.

Family

Hurlston was born in

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, in 1865, and was the daughter Alfred Hurlston, a

Spon End Spon End is a suburb of Coventry, England. It is situated west of Coventry city centre. The Butts Park Arena and a Premier Inn hotel are situated on the main road through Spon End. The Butts Park Arena, which was opened in 2004, is the home of C ...

watchmaker, and his wife Emma Elizabeth Hurlston ( Deacon). She was engaged to a man named Theodore Edmond and sued him for breach of contact when he ended the engagement a month before the wedding was due to take place in 1897. She married surgeon William Wright Wilson in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, South Yorkshire, in 1909.

Career

Hurlston worked as a journalist. She published in the monthly bicycling journal ''The Wheel World'', from November 1884 to June 1885, contributed to the journal ''Womanhood'', wrote to the ''Coventry Times and Warwickshire Journal'' and later became "Lady editor" of the '' Sheffield Weekly Telegraph''. She also published a work of fiction, ''Played Out and Lost'', in 1885. She was a member of the Women’s Trade Union League, and was a Coventry

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

Guardian. She persuaded the Poor Law Union board to employ a night nurse for the infirmary in 1901. In 1895, she gave evidence to the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor, explaining how women were disadvantaged in old age after speaking to working class women across the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

. Hurlston raised issues women experienced in saving for their future pension provision, including: low wages, marriage, intermittent employment (for example needing to stop working due to the home duties of raising children or caring for other family members and seasonal fluctuations), and life expectancy. She shared how servants in the Midlands were paid about two or three

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

a week, which was not enough to allow them to join a friendly society, let alone save for the future. Hurlston was also an early member of the Women’s Emancipation Union, an organisation founded by her friend

Elizabeth Clarke Wolstenholme-Elmy Elizabeth Clarke Wolstenholme-Elmy (''née'' Wolstenholme; 1833 – 12 March 1918) was a British teacher, campaigner and organiser, significant in the history of women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. She wrote essays and some poetry, using t ...

, and presented a paper to the annual conference held on 16 March 1893 titled ''The Factory Work of Women in the Midlands''. She was appointed secretary of the Coventry branch in 1905.

Death

Hurlston stepped back from campaigning after her marriage and died in

Ledbury Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills. It has a significant number of Tudor style timber-framed structures, in particular along Church Lane a ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

, in 1949.

References

1865 births Writers from Coventry Activists from Coventry British trade unionists 19th-century British women journalists 20th-century British women journalists 1949 deaths {{Authority control