Adelaide Knight
{{Short description|British suffragette (1871–1950)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Adelaide Knight
| image = Photo of Adelaide Knight and Donald Adolphus Brown.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Adelaide Knight and Donald Adolphus Brown
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1871}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1950|1871}}
| death_place =
| alma_mater =
| other_names =
| occupation = Suffragette and political activist
| years_active =
| organization = Women's Social and Political Union, Adult Suffrage Society, Communist Party of Great Britain, Workers' Educational Association
| notable_works =
| spouse = Donald Adolphus Brown
| children = 6, including Winifred Langton
}}
Adelaide Knight, also known as Eliza Adelaide Knight, (1871–1950), was a British suffragette and communist. She was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
Biography
Born in Tower Hamlets, East End of London, in 1871, Eliza Adelaide ("Addy") Knight was a frail child, born with deformed thumbs, who had two accidents in childhood which led to her enduring poor health.{{cite book |last1=Langton |first1=Winifred |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VjtTMwEACAAJ&q=Adelaide+Knight |title=Courage: an account of the lives of Eliza Adelaide Knight and Donald Adolphus Brown |date=2007 |publisher=Geoff Gamble |isbn=9787774565065 |pages=119, 122-23, 152, 161}}{{Cite book |last=Meeres |first=Frank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJqIAwAAQBAJ&dq=Adelaide+Knight&pg=PP29 |title=Suffragettes: How Britain's Women Fought & Died for the Right to Vote |date=2013-05-15 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-2057-2 |language=en}} Due to her childhood injuries, she used a stick or crutches.{{cite book |author=Atkinson |first=Diane |author-link=Diane Atkinson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Ng3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT578 |title=Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes |date=8 February 2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4088-4406-9 |page=578}}
Activism
In 1905 Knight joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and worked as secretary for the organisation's first East London branch in Canning Town, established by Annie Kenney and Minnie Baldock. In 1906 suffragettes Knight, Annie Kenney, and Mrs. Jane Sbarborough{{Cite web|url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/suffragettes-holloway-prison|title=The Suffragettes and Holloway prison|website=Museum of London|language=en|access-date=2019-11-07}} were arrested along with Teresa Billington-Greig when they tried to obtain an audience with H. H. Asquith, a prominent member of the Liberal Party.{{cite book |author=Rosemary Taylor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlwTDQAAQBAJ&pg=PP32 |title=East London Suffragettes |date=4 August 2014 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-0-7509-6216-2 |pages=32}}{{Cite web |title=Herbert Asquith |url=http://www.history.com/topics/british-history/hh-asquith-1st-earl-of-oxford-and-asquith |access-date=2018-03-01 |website=HISTORY.com}} Offered either six weeks in prison or giving up campaigning for one year, despite her poor health Knight chose prison, as did the other women.{{cite web |title=Adelaide Knight, leader of the first east London suffragettes |url=https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/blog/adelaide-knight-leader-of-the-first-east-london-suffragettes |accessdate=13 May 2019 |website=East End Women's Museum}} Kenney, in her autobiography, described Knight as "extraordinarily clever."{{cite book |last1=Kenney |first1=Annie |title=Memories of a Militant |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201549 |date=1924 |publisher=Edward Arnold |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201549/page/n109 90] }}
She joined the Central Committee of the WSPU, but resigned from the organisation in 1907 due to its lack of democracy, her view that WSPU leadership failed to keep their promises to working women{{Cite book |last=Holmes |first=Rachel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzftDwAAQBAJ&dq=Adelaide+Knight&pg=PT290 |title=Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel |date=2020-09-17 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4088-8043-2 |language=en}} and having witnessed a false claim made by Christabel Pankhurst in order to promote enfranchisement for propertied women only. Following this, Knight and her husband joined the Adult Suffrage Society and she became the branch secretary for Canning Town.
Later life
Knight served as a Poor Law Guardian for West Ham. She developed a friendship with Dora Montefiore with whom she travelled to France in 1908 to address meetings there. In March 1909, Knight resigned as branch secretary of the Adult Suffrage Society due to illness through pregnancy and received letters of thanks. She moved from Plaistow to Abbey Wood later that year with her family.
In 1920 she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) as a founding member with Dora Montefiore {{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2EK9P7-ZMsC&dq=Adelaide+Knight&pg=PA95 |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement- A Reference Guide, 1866-1928 |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415239264 |page=326}} but declined an invitation to join a delegation to the Soviet Union due to poor health. In Abbey Wood she joined the Women's Cooperative Guild and, together with her husband, the Independent Labour Party and the Workers Educational Association.
Family
Knight married Donald Adolphus Brown (1874-1949), the son of a Guyanese naval officer and an English mother, in 1894.{{Cite web |title=Adelaide Knight |url=https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/resource/3239/adelaide-knight |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=Women's Suffrage Resources}} Donald took his wife's surname and became known as Donald Knight.{{Cite news |date=2018-02-11 |title=The black and Asian women who fought for a vote |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-42837451 |access-date=2025-03-18 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} The couple had four children between 1895 and 1901, three of whom died in a smallpox outbreak in 1902.{{Cite news |date=2003-04-01 |title=Winifred Langton |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/apr/01/guardianobituaries.obituaries#:~:text=The%20veteran%20Communist%20party%20member,she%20had%20helped%20to%20equip |access-date=2025-03-18 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Adelaide gave birth to another son in 1904 and a daughter in 1909. Her husband worked as a foreman at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, where he received a medal for bravery for tackling a fire there.Gerzina, Gretchen (2003) [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Black_Victorians_Black_Victoriana/GtyjameJAdUC?hl=en Black Victorians]. London: Rutgers University Press. p. 119. {{ISBN|9780813532158}}
Knight died in 1950; her husband had died a year earlier. Their daughter, Winifred Langton, wrote a memoir of her parents edited by Addy's granddaughter, Fay Jacobsen, entitled Courage.Stevenson, Graham. [https://www.grahamstevenson.me.uk/index.php/biographies/j-l/l/337-winifred-langton-accessed=21/12/2018 Winifred Langton]. {{dead link|date=August 2019}} Retrieved 1 December 2018. She wrote that her father "vigorously supported his wife in every possible direction" and reflected that she learned to fight from her mother and to care from her father.{{Cite book |last=Lennon |first=Rachael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idaaEAAAQBAJ&dq=winifred+langton&pg=PA183 |title=Wedded Wife: A Social History of Marriage |date=2023-03-23 |publisher=Aurum |isbn=978-0-7112-6713-8 |pages=183–184 |language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Suffrage}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Adelaide}}
Category:British activists with disabilities
Category:English people with disabilities
Category:People from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Category:Women's Social and Political Union