Anne Constance Smedley (20 June 1876 – 9 March 1941) was a British artist, playwright, author and founder of the International Association of Lyceum Clubs.

Life

Smedley was born in Handsworth near Birmingham in 1876. Her well-off and educated parents allowed their daughter to become a student at the

Birmingham School of Art The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design a ...

. Smedley lived with disabilities that are thought to have come from childhood polio. Despite some artistic success her interest turned to writing plays."A World Fellowship": The Founding of the International Lyceum Club for Women Artists and Writers
Grace Brockington, Academia.edu, Retrieved 21 June 2016 In 1909 she married the artist

Maxwell Armfield Maxwell Ashby Armfield (5 October 1881 – 23 January 1972) was an English artist, illustrator and writer. Life Born to a Quaker family in Ringwood, Hampshire, Ringwood, Hampshire, Armfield was educated at Sidcot School and at Leighton Park Sch ...

. She was the first cousin of his friend and fellow artist

William Smedley-Aston William Smedley-Aston (1868–1941) was with his wife Irene a Victorian Pre-Raphaelite Arts & Crafts photographer and member of the Birmingham Group of artists and the Linked Ring Brotherhood. He was also known as W. S. Aston or W. Smedley. ...

. Like many with connections to the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

in Birmingham they settled in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

. In the 1911 census, they both appear as resident in Minchinhampton (Gloucestershire). The couple became close collaborators: working together to combine design, illustration, text and theatre. Smedley encouraged her husband to become a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

and

Christian Scientist Activists, politicians, and military figures Activists *Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone (1882-1985) – Native American singer and activist * Bonnie Carroll – President and founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) *Henry ...

. She also had a strong influence on her godchild Joan Ellen Rayner who had come from Australia to study social work in England. After she met Smedley she decided to study acting instead - which became her (and Rayner's sister's) life's work. Smedley had founded the Greenleaf Theatre which was a new approach to acting. In 1925 the Rayner sisters came from Australia to learn and work in the theatre. Smedley was a prolific author and she was embarrassed by being a female member of her writers' club. She approached the club with the support of Christina Gowans Whyte, Elsa Hahn, Violet Alcock, and an American, Jessie Trimble. She proposed changes to the club but her ideas were refused. She realised that women needed a respectable club that offered good hospitality. Aspiring career women needed a place where they could entertain without having to invite people to their homes. She formed a committee and despite writing to 60 writers they found only two extra supporters. Smedley's father offered to fund a clubhouse if she could find a 1,000 members. Jessie Trimble proposed that the new club be called the Lyceum Club and the new committee arranged for Smedley to meet Lady Frances Balfour. By now the committee had decided to extend their net for new members from writers to professional women and even the daughters or wives of prominent men. Balfour agreed to lead the new club and served as chair for 15 years.History
Lyceum Club, Retrieved 21 June 2016 She placed an advert in the "English Women's Yearbook". Smedley became the founder of the International Association of Lyceum Clubs. The clubhouse was at 128

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

where there was an art gallery and here the club offered not only a

Gentleman's Club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with th ...

for women but also advice for members' careers and an introduction to other clubs that grew around the world. From 1915 the couple spent seven years in the United States. The grave of Constance Smedley

Plaque on the grave of Constance Smedley

Smedley died in

West Wycombe West Wycombe is a small village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, famed for its manor houses and its hills. It is west of High Wycombe. The historic village is largely a National Trust property and receives a large annual influx ...

, and was buried in the churchyard of

St Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence (; 31 December 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman emperor Valerian ordered in 258. ...

.Constance Smedley
OxfordDNB, Retrieved 21 June 2016

Legacy

There is a painting of her by her husband which was made in 1906. In 2010 Stroud Theatre players performed a play based on the life of Smedley titled "The Amazing and Preposterous Constance Smedley" in Cheltenham.
Stroud Theatre Company, Retrieved 21 June 2016

Works

* Constance Smedley (1899) Mrs Jordan (one-act play) *

References

External links

*
Anne Constance Smedley Armfield (1875 -1941)
mdash;Service of Commemoration mass, 20 May 2017 at St Lawrence's Church,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smedley, Constance 1876 births 1941 deaths People from Handsworth, West Midlands British dramatists and playwrights British women writers Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art Burials in Buckinghamshire