Flora (de Gaudrion) Merrifield (1859–1943, Brighton) was a leading British

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

who campaigned for the

women's right to vote 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 ...

Family

Flora was the granddaughter of artist and author

Mary Philadelphia Merrifield Mary Philadelphia Merrifield (née Watkins; 15 April 1804 – 4 January 1889) was a British writer on art and fashion. She later became an algologist (an expert on seaweed). Life She was born Mary Philadelphia Watkins in Brompton, London in 18 ...

and the daughter of barrister,

Frederick Merrifield Frederick Merrifield (1831 – 28 May 1924, Brighton) was an English barrister, entomologist and campaigner for women's suffrage. Merrifield was a London attorney and clerk to the County Council of East Sussex. An expert on Lepidoptera, he was ...

and his wife Maria Merrifield (née de Gaudrion). As child, Flora lived with her parents and elder sister at 48 Park Crescent in Brighton. Flora's sister later became a classical scholar Margaret de Gaudrion Verrall (née Merrifield), while her uncle was the mathematician, Charles Watkins Merrifield. As a young woman, Flora was present at the opening of the Brighton School of Art, of which her father was Chair, and presented

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (Louisa Caroline Alberta; 18 March 1848 – 3 December 1939) was the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert. In her public life, she was a s ...

with a programme drawn up the students.

Suffrage campaigning

Flora's parents were active members of the Brighton committee of the

National Society for Women's Suffrage The National Society for Women's Suffrage Manchester Branch The National Society for Women's Suffrage was the first national group in the United Kingdom to campaign for women's right to vote. Officially formed on 6 November 1867, by Lydia Becker ...

, along with

Henry Fawcett Henry Fawcett (26 August 1833 – 6 November 1884) was a British academic, politician, statesman and economist. Background and education Henry Fawcett was born in Salisbury where his father was a gentleman farmer. He was educated at the A ...

and

Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English political activist and writer. She campaigned for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, women's suffrage by Law reform, legal change and in 1897–1919 led Brita ...

.Elizabeth Crawford, ''The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain & Ireland: A Regional Survey'', (Oxford & New York: Routledge, 2006), pp.205-206. . In 1906, the Brighton and Hove Women's Franchise Society was re-founded as a local committee of the London Society, with Flora as secretary and Marian Verrall as treasurer. A committee was formed in February 1908 from the remaining members of the committee started two years previously by Miss Watson, an organiser from London. Marian Verrall of West Hoathly would later become the President of the Cuckfield and Central Sussex Women's Suffrage Society and was the sister of Flora's brother-in-law, the classics scholar

Arthur Woollgar Verrall Arthur Woollgar Verrall (5 February 1851 – 18 June 1912) was an English writer and scholar. He was associated with Trinity College, Cambridge, and the first occupant of the King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, King Edward VII Chair ...

. The Brighton society grew rapidly and had five hundred members by 1910. Merrifield LSE original

Flora campaigned to establish a similar society in neighbouring

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

, visiting the town several times from 1908 onwards, and chairing the meeting that led to the creation of the Lewes Women's Suffrage Society in 1910. She also led suffrage campaigners on the

Great Pilgrimage The Great Pilgrimage of 1913 was a march in Britain by suffragists campaigning nonviolently for women's suffrage, organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Women marched to London from all around England and Wales ...

as they walked through Sussex to London in July 1913. Flora was secretary for the Brighton branch of the League of Nations and, after her mother's death, lived with her elderly father at 14 Clifton Terrace, Brighton.Helen McCarthy, ''The British People and the League of Nations: Democracy, Citizenship and Internationalism, c.1918-1948,'' (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 2011), p.163. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrifield, Flora 1859 births 1943 deaths English suffragists

Flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

Activists from Brighton