Emma Boyce (1867–1929) was a Hackney

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

and

anti-war An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...

activist. Emma had been involved from 1907 in the Social Democratic Foundation (SDF) as a speaker and activist in the women's circles. She was appointed as organiser of the Women’s Education Committee but resigned in 1910, although she continued her activism in the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of political faction, factional struggle, in 1916 the party's ...

. At the age of almost 50, she became a tireless organiser for the East London Federation of Suffragettes, working closely with

Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (; 5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was an English Feminism, feminist and Socialism, socialist activist and writer. Following encounters with women-led labour activism in the United States, she worked to organise worki ...

. At the outset of

World War 1 World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, she traveled the country in her ELFS role, concentrating on Glasgow and Newcastle, but also speaking several times a week all over the country. She spoke for the

suffrage movement Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

but also against the war's

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

, advocating for freedom of choice for the working classes. After the war, Emma was elected as a Hackney Labour Councillor from 1918 until 1923. From then until her death, she served as a life governor of the London Maternity Hospital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyce, Emma 1867 births 1929 deaths English suffragettes Councillors in the London Borough of Hackney Labour Party (UK) councillors Social Democratic Federation members English socialist feminists Women councillors in England