Clara Neal
{{Infobox person
| birth_date = 1870
| birth_place = Devon, England
| death_date = 1936
| occupation = teacher, school headmistress and suffragette
| employer = Terrace Road School,
| organization = National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT), Women's Freedom League (WFL)
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}{{Use British English|date=March 2025}}
Clara Edith Neal (c. 1870 – 31 December 1936) was an English teacher, school headmistress and suffragette leader in Wales.
Life
Neal was born in Devon in 1870.{{Cite web |date=4 January 2019 |title=Blue plaque for Clara Neal |url=https://www.womensarchivewales.org/en/news?id=102#:~:text=During%20WAW%E2%80%99s%20International%20Conference%20in |access-date=6 October 2024 |website=Women's Archive Wales}} Her parents were James Neal and Mahala Elizabeth Neal ({{Nee}} Vercoe).
Neal trained as a teacher and worked in Swansea, Wales. She was employed as the head of Terrace Road School in Mount Pleasant from 1901 to 1921, then worked as head of Glanmor Girls School in Swansea from 1922.{{Cite journal |last=Gorno |first=Joelle |date=2023-12-22 |title=Welsh Women Teachers and the Women's Movement in South Wales (1870-1928) |url=https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/11244 |journal=Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique. French Journal of British Studies |language=en |volume=XXVIII |issue=3 |doi=10.4000/rfcb.11244 |issn=0248-9015|doi-access=free }} She was a member of the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) and in 1929 she was elected as the teacher representative to the Board of Governors of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire (UCSWM).{{Cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Beth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TNOaEAAAQBAJ&dq=clara+neal+emily+phipps&pg=PA194 |title=Graduate Women and Work in Wales, 1880–1939: Nationhood, Networks and Community |date=2022-11-07 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-031-07941-2 |pages=194 |language=en}}
A committed suffragette, Neal, together with fellow west country woman and lifelong friend Emily Phipps, joined the Women's Freedom League (WFL) in 1908,{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Ryland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mh9mDwAAQBAJ&dq=clara+neal+suffragette&pg=RA5-PA1919 |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement in Wales, 1866-1928 |date=2018-05-15 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-329-7 |pages=1919–1920 |language=en}} following an anti-suffrage meeting in Swansea attended by the Welsh Liberal Party politician David Lloyd George.{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Tina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i04IEAAAQBAJ&q=clara+neal+&pg=PA1923 |title=A History of Women's Lives in Eastbourne |date=2019-09-30 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1-5267-1621-7 |pages=1923 |language=en}} Neal was thrown out of the meeting for asking questions about votes for women.{{Cite web |date=9 November 2021 |title=Clara Neal blue plaque |url=https://www.swansea.gov.uk/claranealblueplaque?lang=en |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=Swansea Council |language=en}} With Phipps she cofounded a local Swansea branch in 1909, which had strong ties with the National Federation of Women Teachers.{{Cite book |last=Oram |first=Alison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zojoAAAAIAAJ |title=Women Teachers and Feminist Politics, 1900-39 |date=1996 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-2759-8 |language=en}} She also participated in the suffragette 1911 census boycott by hiding in a cave on the Gower peninsula overnight.
When women were allowed to vote for the first time in elections in 1918, Neal closed her school for the afternoon so that the school staff could all vote.{{Cite web |last=Macgregor |first=Lee |date=18 December 2018 |title=Plaque pays tribute to campaigner |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/south-wales-evening-post/20181218/281865824571680#:~:text=Born%20in%20Devon%20in%201870,%20Clara%20Neal%20lived |access-date=2024-10-06 |website=South Wales Evening Post |via=PressReader}} She wrote in the school log book: "School closed in the afternoon to give the women teachers the opportunity to visit the Registration Court to claim their votes."Terrace Road Logbook, Box 15 - DWAW30, Ursula Masson Collection, Glamorgan Archives
After retiring from teaching, Neal moved to London and shared a house with her lifelong friend Emily Phipps and another former teacher Adelaide Jones.{{Cite ODNB |last=Kean |first=Hilda |date=3 January 2008 |orig-date=23 September 2004 |title=Phipps, Emily Frost (1865–1943), feminist and headmistress |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-51782 |access-date=2024-11-16 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/51782}} She died in 1936.
Legacy
A blue plaque was erected in 2018 in her honour in Swansea, located at Terrace Road School where she was headteacher for two decades.
References
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Category:English women trade unionists
Category:Heads of schools in Wales