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Norah Elam, also known as Norah Dacre Fox (née Norah Doherty, 5 March 1878 – 2 March 1961), was an Irish-born militant
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 ...
, anti-vivisectionist,
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
and
fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
in the United Kingdom.


Early life

Norah Doherty was born on 5 March 1878 at 13 Waltham Terrace in
Blackrock, Dublin Blackrock () is an affluent suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, northwest of Dún Laoghaire. It is named after the local geological rock formation to be found in the area of Blackrock Park. In the late 18th century, the Blackrock Ro ...
to John Doherty, a partner in a paper mill, and Charlotte Isabel Clarke. She moved to England with her family and by 1891 was living in London. Norah married Charles Richard Dacre Fox in 1909.


Political activity

Norah Dacre Fox was a prominent member of the
Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...
and, by 1913, served as general secretary. Dacre Fox was an effective propagandist, delivering rousing speeches at the WSPU weekly meetings and writing many of
Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed Suffragette bombing and arson ca ...
's speeches. In May 1914 Flora Drummond and Norah Dacre Fox besieged the homes of
Edward Carson Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson, Privy Council (United Kingdom), PC, Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire), King's Counsel, KC (9 February 1854 – 22 October 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Irish unionist politician ...
and Lord Lansdowne, both prominent Ulster Unionist politicians who had been inciting militancy in Ulster against the
Home Rule Bill The Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for Devolution, self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to ...
then going through Parliament. Drummond and Dacre Fox had both been issued with summonses to appear before magistrates for 'making inciting speeches' and encouraging women to militancy. Their response to journalists who interviewed them was that they thought they should take refuge with Carson and Lansdowne who had also been making speeches and encouraging militancy in Ireland, but who appeared to be safe from interference from the authorities for doing so. Both women appeared before a magistrate, were sentenced to imprisonment and taken to Holloway Prison where they immediately commenced hunger and thirst strikes and endured
force-feeding Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a human or animal against their will. The term ''gavage'' (, , ) refers to supplying a substance by means of a small plastic feeding tube passed through the nose (nasogastric tube, nasogastric) or mouth (o ...
. From May to July 1914 she was imprisoned three times in Holloway for "acts of terrorism"; she received a WSPU Hunger Strike Medal with three bars. In the
1918 United Kingdom general election The 1918 United Kingdom general election was called immediately after the Armistice with Germany which ended the First World War, and was held on Saturday, 14 December 1918. The governing coalition, under Prime Minister David Lloyd George, sen ...
she stood as an independent candidate in Richmond (Surrey); she received 20% of the votes but was not elected. The same year she campaigned for the internment of
enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any alien native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secur ...
s in collaboration with the British Empire Union and the National Party. Norah Elam stated in ''The Times'' that she was never a member of the Women's Freedom League (contrary to some reports). Elam was a member of the London and Provincial Anti-Vivisection Society (LPAVS). During 1916 and 1917, Elam obtained work as supervisor of a typewriting pool at the Medical Research Council (MRC), gaining information she was to use in articles published under the auspices of the LPAVS during 1934 and 1935. In March 1921, Elam advertised in ''The Times'' and chaired a public meeting of LPAVS at the Aeolian Hall in London to discuss 'The Dog's Bill' (a bill to prohibit the
vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for Animal test ...
of dogs) that was being debated in Parliament at that time. In 1932, the MRC had produced a paper called "Vitamins, A Survey of Present Knowledge". Elam's 1934 response was entitled "The Vitamin Survey, A Reply" and was a critical appraisal of that survey and its results. This was followed in 1935 by "The Medical Research Council, What it is and how it works" based on the same arguments about MRC research practices and remits as the first paper, but distilled and argued more cogently on a broader front. Elam's argument was that 'powerful vested interests' had managed to 'entrench' themselves behind 'State-aided research', and had managed to make themselves unaccountable. These papers were widely distributed and copies could be found in libraries throughout the UK. By the 1930s, she had separated from her husband, and was living with Edward Descou Dudley Vallance Elam whose surname she generally adopted. They lived in Sussex where they were active in the local Conservative Party. However they defected to
Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980), was a British aristocrat and politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when he, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, turned to fascism. ...
's
British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, f ...
(BUF) soon after its creation in 1932 and she became prominent in the women's section. During this time, she encountered Wilfred Risdon, Director of Propaganda 1933–4, who was later a colleague in the LPAVS. She was a frequent contributor to the fascist press and in November 1936 was put forward as the BUF's
prospective parliamentary candidate In British politics, a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) is a candidate selected by political parties to contest under individual Westminster constituencies in advance of a general election. The term originally came into use because of ...
for the
Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
constituency, but no general election was held during the Second World War. Mosley used her suffragette past to counter the criticism that
National Socialism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequ ...
was anti-feminist saying that her prospective candidacy "killed for all time the suggestion that National Socialism proposed putting British women back in the home". In May 1940 Norah and Dudley Elam were detained under
Defence Regulation 18B Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was one of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during and before the Second World War. The complete name for the rule was Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regula ...
and she was interned in Holloway Prison with several other female fascists including Diana Mosley. After her release, Norah and Dudley Elam escorted Unity Mitford to see Diana and Oswald Mosley in Holloway on 18 March 1943.


Family

Elam had one son, Evelyn (born 1922). Her granddaughter, Angela McPherson, described in a 2010
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
documentary, ''Mother Was a Blackshirt'', that she had no idea until 2002 of the role Elam played in the fascist movement. McPherson knew that Elam had been a suffragette who claimed to have been close to the Pankhursts; a decision to search online for information about Norah Elam started to throw up information she had not been aware of. McPherson felt that she had subconsciously blocked out disturbing memories of the stories her grandmother told her as a child, which were to affect her family. She described Elam as a "dreadful racist" who emotionally damaged her son, turning him into a "bullying misogynist" imitation of Norah's own father. A biography, ''Mosley's Old Suffragette'', written by Susan McPherson and Angela McPherson, was published in 2011.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elam, Norah 1878 births 1961 deaths British women's rights activists English anti-vivisectionists English feminists English British Union of Fascist politicians English members of the Right Club British Fascist propagandists English women in politics British animal rights activists Hunger Strike Medal recipients People detained under Defence Regulation 18B Politicians from Dublin (city) People from Blackrock, Dublin Women fascists