Dora Thewlis
{{Short description|British suffragette}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Dora Thewlis
| honorific_suffix =
| image = 1907 arrest of Dora Thewlis.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Thewlis was arrested on 20 March 1907. This photograph appeared in the Daily Mirror the following day.
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|05|15|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Meltham Mills, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1976|1890}}
| death_place = Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia
| education =
| alma_mater =
| occupation = British suffragette
| years_active =
| era =
| employer =
| organization = Women's Social and Political Union
| agent =
| known_for = working for women's rights
| notable_works =
| style =
| criminal_charge = Arrested in 1907 for planning to break into the Houses of Parliament
| criminal_penalty =
| criminal_status =
| spouse = {{marriage|Jack Dow|1918}}
| partner =
| children = 2
| parents = James and Eliza Thewlis
}}
Dora Thewlis (15 May 1890 – 1976) was a British suffragette whose arrest picture made the front page of the Daily Mirror{{cite web |last1=Herbert |first1=Ian |title=Dora Thewlis: The Lost Suffragette |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dora-thewlis-the-lost-suffragette-6101564.html |website=The Independent |accessdate=30 May 2019 |language=en |date=8 May 2006}} and other press.{{Cite news|date=25 March 1907|title=Girl Suffragists|work=The Daily Chronicle|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/photograph-of-the-arrest-of-dora-thewlis |via=Maud Arncliffe Sennett's scrapbook, volume 1, p.50}}{{Cite news|date=22 March 1907|title=Infant Agitators|work=The Times|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/maud-arncliffe-sennetts-scrapbook-volume-1}}
Early life
Dora was born on 15 May 1890,{{Cite web|title=Dora Thewlis (1890-1976) - Huddersfield Exposed: Exploring the History of the Huddersfield Area|url=https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/Dora_Thewlis_(1890-1976)|access-date=2021-12-23|website=huddersfield.exposed|language=en-GB}} at Shady Row in Meltham Mills,At the time of her birth, Shady Row was within the boundary of the Township of Honley. Following a ruling in 1896 by the Boundary Commission, the Township of Meltham boundary was redrawn to include the whole of Meltham Mills. near Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. She was one of seven children born to James and Eliza (née Taylor) Thewlis, who was from Woodbridge, Suffolk. At the time James was working locally as a weaver. Dora worked in a Yorkshire mill as a teen.
As a suffragette
Thewlis was sixteen when she joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907. She was arrested the same year, having been part of a planned break in into the Houses of Parliament, when seventy-five women were arrested. She was patronised by the judge at her court appearance, and implied she had been going to London for immoral purposes.{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Harold L.|date=February 2007|title=Rebel girls: their fight for the vote – Jill Liddington|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00381_8.x|journal=The Economic History Review|volume=60|issue=1|pages=199–201|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00381_8.x|s2cid=153633826 |issn=0013-0117|url-access=subscription}} She was labelled the 'Baby Suffragette
The judge suggested her parents might take her in hand and sort her out. Their reply was she was her own person and they fully supported her. The family were socialists and her mother Eliza was quoted in the Huddersfield Weekly Examiner as saying that she had brought Dora up to read newspapers since the age of 7 and to debate politics. The family had also supported Mrs Pankhurst at the local by-election. Dora's sentence was two weeks in prison, but she served one. On her departure escorted by a wardress, she met with Edith How-Martyn.{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|last=Atkinson|first=Diane|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=67|oclc=1016848621}}
Thewlis emigrated to Australia before the start of the First World War, therefore never seeing the passage of women's suffrage in England, and in 1918 she married Jack Dow, who predeceased her in 1956. They had two children, she died in 1976 in Ascot Vale, Victoria.{{cite news|last=McCaffrey|first=Julie|title=The Baby Suffragette|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/the-baby-suffragette-628607|newspaper=Daily Mirror|date=10 June 2006}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last1=Liddington |first1=Jill |title=Rebel Girls |date=4 May 2006 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-1-84408-168-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2aRpQgAACAAJ}}
- {{Cite book|last=Reid|first=Sue|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/713788415|title=Give us the vote!|date=2011|publisher=Scholastic|isbn=978-1-4071-1781-2|location=London|oclc=713788415}}
- [https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/Category:Articles_about_Dora_Thewlis_(1890-1976) Press coverage] at Huddersfield Exposed
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Category:English emigrants to Australia
Category:Women's Social and Political Union