Barbara Steel

Barbara Joanna Paterson was born in 1857 in St John's Town of Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland to Jane S. and Rev. Alexander A. Paterson.{{sfn|Rodger|2004}}{{sfn|Dod's Peerage|1915|p=520}}{{sfn|UK Census|1861}} Her father was a United Presbyterian minister and her oldest brother James Alexander later became a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis at New College, Edinburgh.{{sfn|UK Census|1861}}{{sfn|Sladen et al.|1914|p=1625}} She was raised and attended school in Dalry until the 1880s,{{sfn|UK Census|1871}} when she moved with her brother, James, to Newington, Edinburgh,{{sfn|UK Census|1881}} where she continued her education.{{sfn|Woman's Who's Who of South Africa|1935}} On 4 August 1883, Paterson married James Steel, a builder and property developer in Edinburgh. They made their home at 32 Colinton Road, Edinburgh, from the time of their marriage until James' death on 4 September 1904.{{sfn|Rodger|2004}}

James was elected to local politics beginning in 1872, serving as the Liberal Councillor for the George Square Ward. From 1888 he served as Bailie and became Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1900, serving until his retirement in 1903. From May 1903, when her husband was raised to the baronetcy of Murieston, Mid-Calder, Steel became known as Lady Steel.{{sfn|Rodger|2004}} James was a property developer and built hundreds of buildings throughout the city. Steel was involved, like many women of her class, in social improvement projects. She encouraged James to build sanitary flats with indoor plumbing and potable water for the poor and working classes. Many of these apartments, located throughout the city in neighborhoods like Comely Bank, Dalry, Gorgie, Haymarket, Murieston Park, and Tollcross, had fixed rents.{{sfn|Elcock|2018}}

After her husband's death, Lady Steel became more involved in women's issues.{{sfn|Elcock|2018}} Between 1904 and 1906, she served on the executive committee of the Scottish Women's Liberal Federation (SWLF), a women's branch of the Scottish Liberal Party. She also served on the Local Government and Women's Franchise committees of the SWLF{{sfn|Leneman|1995|p=271}} and was a member of the Edinburgh National Society of Woman Suffrage.{{sfn|The Times|1907|p=8}} Lady Steel made international headlines from England to Australia and the United States in March 1907, when she refused to pay taxes without being allowed to vote.{{sfn|Elcock|2018}}{{sfn|The Kalgoorlie Miner|1907|p=5}}{{sfn|The Montana News|1907|p=3}} Her furniture was seized and sold to pay her tax bill.{{sfn|The Kalgoorlie Miner|1907|p=5}} The same month, she led a protest at the Mercat Cross to demand women's suffrage.{{sfn|The Times|1907|p=8}} Later that same year, in October, she ran in the first town council meeting in which women were allowed to contest.{{sfn|Breitenbach|2018}}{{sfn|The Guardian|1907|p=12}} On the eve of the election, a poem "The Suffragette's Nut Cracked" showing the conflict over votes for women and Steel's candidacy was published in the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch.{{sfn|Shaw|2015|p=93-94}} Though she did not win a seat in the November election, because of her militant stance on taxation,{{sfn|Breitenbach|2018}}{{sfn|The Mathews Journal|1908|p=4}} she is remembered as "the first woman to stand for election to Edinburgh Town Council".{{sfn|Elcock|2018}}

In 1908{{sfn|The Sun|1908|p=22}} and again in 1909, Lady Steel continued her stance of refusing to pay taxes.{{sfn|Kay et al.|2009|p=43}}{{Better source needed|date=March 2019}} By 1908, she was a member and one of the speakers for the Women's Social and Political Union's Edinburgh branch{{sfn|Holton|1980|p=163}}{{Better source needed|date=March 2019}} and participated in a discussion held at Bridge of Allan with Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy, Chrystal Macmillan and Jessie Methven about women's suffrage and higher education for women.{{sfn|Elcock|2018}}{{sfn|Kay et al.|2009|p=43}} In June 1908, she attended the Fourth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held in Amsterdam, as one of the alternate delegates.{{sfn|Murray|Stark|2017|p=570}} On 9 October 1909, she participated in the Great Procession and Women's Demonstration held in Edinburgh in support of women's enfranchisement.{{sfn|Kay et al.|2009|p=43}}

In March 1911, Lady Steel married Lt. Col. James Hyslop, D.S.O., and moved with him to his home in Pietermaritzburg, in the newly formed Union of South Africa.{{sfn|Plug|2014}}{{sfn|The Scotsman|1911|p=8}} Hyslop was a fellow Scotsman from Kirkcudbrightshire, who had moved to the Colony of Natal in 1881 and worked there as a pioneer in mental health and as a military physician. At the onset of World War I, he became the director of medical services in the South African Medical Corps.{{sfn|Plug|2014}} She served as the founder and chair of the Women's Patriotic League of Natal Province during the war.{{sfn|Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage|1931|p=725}}{{sfn|The Scotsman|1914|p=5}} The organization served to support South African troops and provide necessary services for their families, such as medical supplies and clothing, to prevent over-taxing British organizations providing service in Europe.{{sfn|The Scotsman|1914|p=5}} In 1918, she was honored as an Officer in the Order of the British Empire for her service.{{sfn|The London Gazette|1918|p=11774}}

In 1916, she became the second president of the Women's Enfranchisement Association of the Union (WEAU), replacing Mary Emma Macintosh, who had recently died.{{sfn|Oldfield|2003|p=23}} The WEAU initially was formed on the advice on Carrie Chapman Catt in 1911 as an alternative to the Women's Enfranchisement League (WEL). The WEL had been divided by factionalism over the subject of race and Catt believed that the issue of race would delay granting women's suffrage. On her advice, the WEAU decided to ignore the issue of universal suffrage for all races, actively working only for the vote of white women.{{sfn|Haysom|1993|pp=31–32}} Lady Steel held the post of president from 1916 to 1930, when white women in South Africa finally secured enfranchisement.{{sfn|Woman's Who's Who of South Africa|1935}}{{sfn|Walker|1990|p=327}}

She died on 22 December 1943 at Pietermaritzburg and was buried at Stellawood Cemetery, in Durban, South Africa.{{sfn|Death Certificate|1943}} In 2009, her role in the Scottish suffrage movement was celebrated along with other activists in the reenactment "Gude Cause" of the 1909 demonstration of Edinburgh.{{sfn|Kay et al.|2009|p=43}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite web |last1=Breitenbach |first1=Esther |title=The Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage: getting women elected to School Boards and Parish Council |url=https://womenssuffragescotland.wordpress.com/2018/11/15/the-edinburgh-national-society-for-womens-suffrage-getting-women-elected-to-school-boards-and-parish-council/ |website=womenssuffragescotland |publisher=Women's History Scotland |access-date=8 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108190411/https://womenssuffragescotland.wordpress.com/2018/11/15/the-edinburgh-national-society-for-womens-suffrage-getting-women-elected-to-school-boards-and-parish-council/ |archive-date=8 January 2019 |location=Glasgow, Scotland |date=15 November 2018}}
• {{cite magazine |last1=Elcock |first1=Michael |title=Scotland's Forgotten Women |url=http://www.scottishreview.net/MichaelElcock412a.html |magazine=Scottish Review |publisher=Institute of Contemporary Scotland |access-date=8 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108170444/http://www.scottishreview.net/MichaelElcock412a.html |archive-date=8 January 2019 |location=Prestwick, Scotland |date=20 February 2018}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Haysom |first1=Lou |title=Olive Schreiner and the Women's Vote |journal=Searchlight South Africa |date=October 1993 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=30–33 |url=http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/sloct93.5.pdf |access-date=9 January 2019 |publisher=Clio Publications |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109054525/http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/sloct93.5.pdf |archive-date=9 January 2019 |location=London, England |issn=0954-3384}}
• {{cite thesis |last=Holton |first=Sandra |title=Feminism and Democracy : The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, with Particular Reference to the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies 1897–1918 |type=PhD |date=1980 |publisher=University of Stirling |location=Stirling, Scotland|hdl=1893/2624 }}
• {{cite book |ref={{harvid|Kay et al.|2009}} |editor1-last=Kay |editor1-first=Helen |editor2-last=Davies |editor2-first=Kath |editor3-last=Moore |editor3-first=Lindy |editor4-last=Pipes |editor4-first=Rose |editor5-last=Reynolds |editor5-first=Siân |editor6-last=Watson |editor6-first=Norman |title=A Gude Cause Maks a Strong Arm |date=2009 |publisher=The City of Edinburgh Council |location=Edinburgh, Scotland |page=43 |chapter-url=https://docplayer.net/58342607-Introduction-red-purple-members-or-supporters-of-the-women-s-social-and-political-union-wspu.html |access-date=8 January 2019 |chapter=Steel, Barbara Joanna 1857-fl.1918}}
• {{cite book |last1=Leneman |first1=Leah |title=A Guid Cause: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Scotland |date=1995 |publisher=Mercat Press |location=Edinburgh, Scotland |isbn=978-1-873644-48-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Va-IAAAAMAAJ}}
• {{cite book|last1=Murray |first1=Janet Horowitz |last2=Stark |first2=Myra |title=The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions: 1907-1908 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3vDiDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT570 |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxon, England |isbn=978-1-315-39504-3}}
• {{cite book |last=Oldfield |first=Sybil |title=International Woman Suffrage: Ius Suffragii 1913-1920 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZo7icfIhysC&pg=PA23 |volume=III: October 1916 – September 1918 |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |location=London, England |isbn=978-0-415-25739-8}}
• {{cite web |last1=Plug |first1=C. |title=Hyslop, Dr James (psychiatry, advancement of science) |url=http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=1370 |website=s2a3.org.za |publisher=Biographical Database of Southern African Science |access-date=8 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108222056/http://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=1370 |archive-date=8 January 2019 |location=Valhalla, South Africa |date=25 December 2014}}
• {{cite ODNB | last1=Rodger |first1=Richard |title=Steel, Sir James, baronet (1829–1904) |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/50211 |date=23 September 2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
• {{cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=Michael |editor1-last=Blair |editor1-first=Kirstie |editor2-last=Carruthers |editor2-first=Gerard |editor3-last=Farley |editor3-first=Erin |editor4-last=Macdonald |editor4-first=Catriona M. M. |editor5-last=Rieley |editor5-first=Honor |editor6-last=Shaw |editor6-first=Michael |title=The People's Voice Anthology: Scottish political poetry, song and the franchise, 1832–1918 |date=2015 |publisher=University of Glasgow |location=Glasgow, Scotland |pages=93–94 |chapter-url=https://thepeoplesvoice.glasgow.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Anthology.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108200422/https://thepeoplesvoice.glasgow.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Anthology.pdf |archive-date=8 January 2019 |chapter=40. The Suffragette's Nut Cracked}}
• {{cite book |ref={{harvid|Sladen et al.|1914}} |last1=Sladen |first1=Douglas Brooke Wheelton |last2=Lawson |first2=William John |last3=Oakes |first3=Charles Henry |last4=Addison |first4=Henry Robert |title=Who's Who |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GA42AQAAMAAJ |volume=66 |year=1914 |publisher=A. & C. Black |location=London, England}}
• {{cite book |last=Walker |first=Cherryl |title=Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 |chapter-url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/womens-suffrage-movement-politics-gender-race-and-class-cherryl-walker |date=1990 |publisher=David Philip Publishers |location=Claremont, South Africa |isbn=978-0-86486-090-3 |chapter=The women's suffrage movement: The politics of gender race and class |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327041314/https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/womens-suffrage-movement-politics-gender-race-and-class-cherryl-walker |archive-date=27 March 2018 |pages=313–345}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|UK Census|1861}}|author=|title=1861 England, Wales & Scotland Census |date=7 April 1861 |publisher=The National Archives UK |location=Kew, Surry, England |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC/1881/0027543195 |url-access=subscription |via=Findmypast |id=microfilm #103841 |postscript=. U P Manse, Back Street, Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland: Paterson, Rev. Alexander A. (1813, Aberdeenshire); Jane (1831, England); John Willm (1854, Dalry); Sarah (1855, Dalry); Barbara J. (1857, Dalry); (Mary Janes (1859, Dalry), 2 visitors, 1 servant.}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|UK Census|1871}}|author=|title=1871 England, Wales & Scotland Census |date=2 April 1871 |publisher=The National Archives UK |location=Kew, Surry, England |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC/1871/0024228606 |url-access=subscription |via=Findmypast |id=microfilm #104006 |postscript=. U P Manse, Back Street, Dalry, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland: Paterson, Rev. Alexander A. (1813, Aberdeenshire); Jane (1831, England); ; Barbara J. (1857, Dalry); Henry A. B. (1862, Dalry), 1 servant.}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|UK Census|1881}}|author=|title=1881 England, Wales & Scotland Census |date=2 April 1871 |publisher=The National Archives UK |location=Kew, Surry, England |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC/1871/0024228606 |url-access=subscription |via=Findmypast |id=microfilm #224012 |postscript=. 15 Church Hill, Newington, Midlothian, Scotland: Paterson, James Alexander (1852, Dalry, Prof in UP College); Barbara J (1857, Dalry, sister); John Melvin (1864, England, cousin); Alexander Sheman Black (1872, Dalry, brother), 1 servant.}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Death Certificate|1943}}|author=|title=Death Certificate (Union of South Africa): Barbara Joanna Steel (Paterson) |date=22 December 1943 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=Master of the Supreme Court, Pietermaritzburg estate files |location=Pietermaritzburg (Natal), South Africa |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS7R-N4X9-7?i=1564&cc=2573604 |id=certificate #A50401}}
• {{cite book |ref={{harvid|Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage|1931}} |title=Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage: in which is included full information respecting the Collateral Branches of Baronets, Knights, and Companions of various Orders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTcaAQAAMAAJ |date=1931 |publisher=Dean & Son, Limited |location=London, England |oclc=30529689}}
• {{cite book |ref={{harvid|Dod's Peerage|1915}} |author= |title=Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, Etc. of Great Britain and Ireland for 1915 |date=1915 |publisher=Simkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent Co. Ltd |location=London, England |edition=75th |url=https://archive.org/details/dodspeeragebaron1915lond/page/520}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Guardian|1907}} |author= |title=Edinburgh |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26994635/edinburgh_the_guardian_london/ |access-date=8 January 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=30 October 1907 |location=London, England |page=12 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Montana News|1907}} |author= |title=No Taxation Without Representation |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26598207/montana_news/ |access-date=8 January 2019 |newspaper=The Montana News |date=25 April 1907 |location=Helena, Montana |page=3 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Scotsman|1914}} |author= |title=South African Women's Help: Lady Steel's Patriotic Proposal |url=https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/searchbna/viewrecord/bl/0000540/19141021/253/0005?confirmed=1 |access-date=8 January 2019 |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=21 October 1914 |location=Edinburgh, Scotland |page=8 |url-access=subscription |via = Genes Reunited}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Scotsman|1911}} |author= |title=The Court: A marriage has been arranged |url=https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/searchbna/viewrecord/bl/0000540/19110114/501/0008?confirmed=1 |access-date=8 January 2019 |newspaper=The Scotsman |date=14 January 1911 |location=Edinburgh, Scotland |page=5 |url-access=subscription |via = Genes Reunited}}
• {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Woman's Who's Who of South Africa|1935}} |author= |title=Steel, Barbara Joanna |url=http://www.ancestors.co.za/database/womansa1935-view.php?q=603 |website=ww.ancestors.co.za |publisher=Woman's Who's Who of South Africa |access-date=7 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107223633/http://www.ancestors.co.za/database/womansa1935-view.php?q=603 |archive-date=7 January 2019 |location=Cape Town, South Africa |date=1935}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The London Gazette|1918}} |author= |title=Union of South Africa: To be Officers of the said Most Excellent Order |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/30935/supplement/11774/data.pdf |access-date=8 January 2019 |issue=30935 |newspaper=The London Gazette |date=4 October 1918 |location=London, England |page=11774}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Sun|1908}} |author= |title=(untitled) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26598245/the_sun/ |access-date=8 January 2019 |newspaper=The Sun |date=29 November 1908 |location=New York, New York |page=22 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Times|1907}} |author= |title=Woman Suffrage |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26547461/the_times/ |access-date=8 January 2019 |newspaper=The Times |date=25 March 1907 |location=London, England |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Mathews Journal|1908}} |author= |title=Women as Councillors |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26997640/the_mathews_journal/ |access-date=8 January 2019 |agency=The London Telegraph |newspaper=The Mathews Journal |date=9 January 1908 |location=Mathews, Virginia |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Kalgoorlie Miner|1907}} |author= |title=Women's Suffrage: Passive Resister Furniture Sold |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/90392994 |access-date=8 January 2019 |issue=3588 |volume=10 |newspaper=The Kalgoorlie Miner |date=27 March 1907 |location=Kalgoorlie, West Australia |page=5}}

{{refend}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Women's suffrage in Scotland}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Barbara}}

Category:1857 births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:Nobility from Dumfries and Galloway

Category:19th-century Scottish women politicians

Category:Scottish suffragettes

Category:South African women's rights activists

Category:20th-century Scottish women

Category:People from Kirkcudbright

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Wives of baronets

Category:Scottish noblewomen

Category:19th-century Scottish nobility

Category:Scottish emigrants to South Africa

Category:South African suffragists

Category:Women's suffrage in South Africa