Minnie Lansbury ( Glassman; 1889 – 1 January 1922) was an English

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 the first female

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

on the first Labour-led council in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. She died after contracting pneumonia while imprisoned for refusing to levy full rates in Poplar.

Family

Lansbury was born about 1889, off

Brick Lane Brick Lane () is a street in the East End of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in Bethnal Green in the north, crosses the Bethnal Green Road before reaching the busiest, mo ...

Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...

, London. She was the daughter of Isaac Glassman, a Polish-born

coal merchant A coal merchant is the term used in the UK and other countries for a trader who sells coal and often delivers it to households. Coal merchants were once a major class of local business, but have declined in importance in many parts of the developed ...

, and his wife Annie Glassman. Her parents were Jewish immigrants. In 1914, she married Edgar Lansbury. He was the son of

George Lansbury George Lansbury (22 February 1859 – 7 May 1940) was a British politician and social reformer who led the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party from 1932 to 1935. Apart from a brief period of ministerial office during the Labour government of 1 ...

, mayor of Poplar and later leader of the Labour Party, and Elizabeth Lansbury (née Brine). After Lansbury's death, Edgar remarried to actress Moyna Macgill and became the father of actor Angela Lansbury, Bruce Lansbury and Edgar Lansbury Jr.

Career

Lansbury became a teacher, and joined the East London Federation of Suffragettes in 1915. She made arrangements with the film distribution company

Pathé News Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as "British Pathé". I ...

to film

suffrage 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 v ...

meetings. Lansbury was persuaded by

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 ...

to give up her teaching post to become the chair of the War Pensions Committee, fighting for the rights of

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

s and wounded soldiers from

World War I 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 was the first woman to be elected

on Poplar’s first Labour council in 1919, after a change in the law allowed some women to receive Parliamentary

and stand as candidates. In 1921, Lansbury was one of five women on Poplar Council who, along with their male colleagues including her husband and father-in-law, were jailed for six weeks for refusing to levy full rates in the poverty-stricken area. She said of the arrests that "if we said the word, the people of Poplar would prevent our arrest by no less than a machine-gun corps." Due to her imprisonment in Holloway Prison, Lansbury developed

bronchitis Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...

and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

and died on 1 January 1922, aged 32. Lansbury was buried in the Jewish cemetery in

East Ham East Ham is a district of the London Borough of Newham, England, 8 miles (12.8 km) east of Charing Cross. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Essex, East Ham is identified in the London Plan as a ...

, with "thousands" of women assembling near her home to walk with the funeral procession.

Legacy

There is a Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock on Electric House in

Bow Road Bow Road is a thoroughfare in Bow, London, England. The road forms part of the A11 road (England), A11, running from Aldgate to Norwich in Norfolk. To the west the road becomes Mile End Road, and to the east is Bow Interchange on the A12 road ...

, Tower Hamlets that was erected in the 1930s. The Memorial Clock was restored in 2008 and re-fitted on Electric House. The clock was restored through a public appeal organised by the Jewish East End Celebration Society and the Heritage of London Trust. From the appeal the Heritage of London Trust raised over £13,000, which was given to Tower Hamlets Council to complete the restoration. Angela Lansbury was among those who made a donation towards the restoration of the clock. The restored clock, now painted green and gold, was officially unveiled in the presence of relatives of Minnie Lansbury and local people on Thursday, 16 October 2008. Lansbury's name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.

References

Bibliography

* "Timely reminder of a suffragette", '' Jewish Chronicle'', 13 April 2007, p.6 * "Lansbury's Tribute to suffragette 'heroine'", '' East London Advertiser'', 16 October 2008, p.4

External links

Workers Liberty article on Poplar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lansbury, Minnie 1889 births 1922 deaths Members of Poplar Metropolitan Borough Council Labour Party (UK) councillors English suffragists Jewish suffragists Jewish English politicians Women councillors in England Members of the Workers' Socialist Federation Lansbury family English people of Polish descent English people of Polish-Jewish descent