Edith Hacon
{{Short description|Scottish suffragist (1875–1952)}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Edith Hacon
| image = Amaryllis Robichaud (detail) by Charles Conder (sq cropped).png
| caption = "Mrs Amaryllis Robichaud" – detail of an 1896 painting by Charles Conder
| other_names = Ryllis Llewellyn Hacon ; Edith Catherine Robichaud; and earlier in her life Muriel Broadbent
| birth_name = Edith Catherine Mary Dolores Broadbent
| birth_date = 1875
| death_date = 25 August 1952
| organization = National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
| known_for = Suffragist, World War One nursing service volunteer, socialite
| awards = Silver Medaille des Epidemics (France); British War Medal; British Victory Medal
| spouse = William Llewellyn Hacon
}}
Edith Hacon (1875 – 25 August 1952), also known as Rhyllis{{Cite news|last=Carter|first=Charles|title=Mrs E.C. Robichaud|page=5|work=Royaumont News-Letter|access-date=}} Llewellyn Hacon, later Mrs "Amaryllis" Robichaud, was an international socialite, an artists' model and a leading Scottish suffragist. She was vice-president of the Dornoch branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and president of the Women's Liberal Association. During the First World War she volunteered with the Scottish Women's Hospitals in France for three years and was awarded a silver Medaille des Epidemics, the British War Medal and Victory Medal. She would later take a key role in the development of Girl Guiding as an early leader in Dornoch in the 1930s.
Biography and early life
Edith Catherine Mary Dolores Broadbent{{Cite web|year=1952|title=Statutory Register of Deaths|url=https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020904202121/http://scotlandspeople.gov.uk:80/ |archive-date=4 September 2002 |access-date=7 January 2021|website=National Records of Scotland|series=644/5 630}} was born in 1875 to John Broadbent and Margaret Broadbent, née Rayment. Her parents died when she was a young woman. Little is known about Edith's early life and her original birth certificate has not been traced.
Edith became a socialite in London in her 20s when she worked as a model for Selwyn Image, Charles Shannon and other artists and used the alias 'Amaryllis
Edith was also called 'Muriel' in the poems of Arthur Symons. Symons wrote Edith's (partly fantasy) life story in 'The Life of Lucy Newcome', with extracts published in The Savoy. The fictional Lucy Newcome was brought up in an affluent home but following the death of her parents lived with an aunt and uncle. She was assaulted by her elder cousin and was turned out of their house because she was pregnant. The baby later died.{{Cite web |last=McCall |first=Alison |date=November 4, 2013 |title=Before they were Guiders |url=https://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/pictures/document/11898.pdf?r=201155 |access-date=29 July 2023}} It is not clear whether this fictional narrative reflects Edith's experience in her early life. 'Muriel' also appeared in a poem To Muriel: At the Opera (14 November 1892) published in his collection London Nights.{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Arthur Symons, 'Spiritual Adventures'|publisher=The Modern Humanities Research Association|year=2017|isbn=9781781886137|editor-last=Freeman|editor-first=Nicholas|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=57–88}}
Edith married barrister and art collector, and investor in the Vale Press,{{Cite book|last=Watry, Maureen M.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/56087053|title=The Vale Press : Charles Ricketts, a publisher in earnest|date=2004|publisher=Oak Knoll Press|isbn=1-58456-072-X|location=New Castle, Del.|oclc=56087053}} William Llewellyn Hacon and became known as Rhyllis Llewellyn Hacon. At this point in her life she converted to Roman Catholicism.{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Marsali|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/751731903|title=Women's suffrage in Shetland|publisher=Lulu com|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4461-0854-3|location=UK|pages=|oclc=751731903}}
Life in Dornoch before the First World War
File:1910 picture of Oversteps ref Hacon and Davidson.jpg
Due to her husband's interest in golf, the couple built a home in Dornoch, Sutherland called Oversteps{{Cite book|last=Crawford|first=Elizabeth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a2EK9P7-ZMsC&q=Dornoch&pg=PA246|title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928|date=2 September 2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-43402-1|location=|pages=171|language=en}} an Arts and Crafts style house (now a nursing home).{{Cite web|title=Oversteps|url=https://www.crossreach.org.uk/our-locations/oversteps|access-date=15 January 2021|website=CrossReach|language=en}}
It has been suggested that Edith became a 'society hostess' at this point in her life. Artist Charles Conder came to Dornoch and painted Edith's portrait in 1896, '
After her husband's death in 1910, when Edith was only 36 years old, she became involved in charitable work in Shetland in 1912–13 with 'Irish fisher girls' who were supported by the Catholic church in the 'gutting' season. This involved travelling with the fishing fleet and contributing to building a rest home called 'The White Rest'.
Edith also helped fund the Catholic Church in Lerwick, and the brass tabernacle there is inscribed 'In Memory of Llewellyn Hacon'.
Suffragist leadership
In 1912, Edith was a member and president of the Women's Liberal Association at Dornoch,{{Cite news|date=6 June 1912|title=Special Campaign in Sutherland|page=140|work=The Common Cause|access-date=}} and they hosted a tour of leaders from the Scottish women's organisations, encouraging local support for the women's suffrage cause.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} Prime Minister H. H. Asquith resided at Oversteps on his golfing holiday in Dornoch in 1912{{Cite news |date=12 September 1912 |title=Premier Receives Freedom of Dornoch |work=Scotsman}} and probably 1913,{{Cite book |last=MacLeod |first=John |title=A History of Royal Dornoch Golf Club |year=2000}} when suffragettes disturbed him while playing both years.
In 1914, Hacon became vice-president of the Dornoch National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) branch and she was able to report that half of the electors had signed their petition in support of women's suffrage, whilst campaigning at the Northern Burghs by-election that year.{{Cite news|date=12 June 1914|title=The Scottish Federation – DORNOCH|page=216|work=The Common Cause|access-date=}} Her friend Margaret Davidson, a teacher, was the first secretary of the branch and she lived at Oversteps with Edith before the First World War.
The NUWSS membership had grown to 60 members under her leadership and had regular visiting speakers from the national groups.
Role in war nursing service (Scottish Women's Hospitals)
At the start of the First World War, Hacon volunteered with Margaret Davidson for a role in Dr. Elsie Inglis's WW1 Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont.{{Cite web|title=SWH Names G – M – Scarlet Finders|url=http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/139.html|access-date=16 January 2021|website=scarletfinders.co.uk}} She began as an orderly but 'Mrs. Hacon' became the housekeeper and called herself 'Head of Char'. Hacon supervised the kitchen, and seamstress work, making and repairing uniforms{{Cite news|date=21 May 1915|title=page 92|work=The Common Cause|access-date=}} and organised hockey matches and tea to keep up morale, and made a rag doll for one of the wounded soldiers.{{Cite book|last=Crofton, Eileen.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/864747404|title=Angels of Mercy : a Women's Hospital on the Western Front : 1914–1918|date=2013|publisher=Birlinn Limited|isbn=978-0-85790-616-8|location=Edinburgh|oclc=864747404}} Hacon served for three years, and was awarded a Silver Medal "Medaille des Epidemics"{{Cite news|date=9 March 1917|title=NUWSS Scottish Women's Hospitals|page=637|work=The Common Cause|access-date=}} by the French Government,{{Cite web|last=texte|first=Croix verte Auteur du|date=1 July 1917|title=L'Ambulance / Croix verte|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k65443743/texteBrut|access-date=15 January 2021|website=gallica.bnf.fr}} and both the British War Medal and Victory Medal.{{Cite web|date=1914–1920|title=Medal Card of Hacon, Edith C.|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D6081994|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121225315/https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D6081994 |archive-date=21 January 2021 |access-date=16 January 2021|website=The National Archives, Kew}}
As a Roman Catholic, Hacon was not included in the Dornoch Cathedral World War One Roll of Honour plaque{{Cite web|title=War memorial in Dornoch Cathedral {{!}} Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland|url=http://womenofscotland.org.uk/memorials/war-memorial-dornoch-cathedral|access-date=16 January 2021|website=womenofscotland.org.uk}} as was her friend Margaret Davidson.
Life after the First World War
File:1931- Dornoch Guides.jpgIn 1918, Hacon married a Canadian forester Private William Robichaud in the Canadian Forestry Corps France; he later became a timber merchant. Her friend Margaret Davidson was a witness at their wedding. Edith and William couple later adopted two children.
Hacon and Davidson took part in the 1928 tercentary Dornoch Pageant marking the granting of the Royal charter to the Burgh of Dornoch by Charles I in 1628.{{Cite web |title=Programme for Dornoch pageant 1928 – Historylinks Archive |url=http://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/picture/number166/ |access-date=16 January 2021 |website=historylinksarchive.org.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Dornoch Historical Pageant: Tercentenary Celebrations {{!}} Historical Pageants |url=https://historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1049/ |access-date=2023-07-29 |website=historicalpageants.ac.uk}}
They also both became Girl Guide leaders in 1931 and were integral to the development of the movement in Dornoch and Sutherland.
Hacon died on 28 August 1952 in Glasgow but is buried next to William Llewellyn Hacon in Dornoch.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://historylinksdornoch.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/before-they-were-guiders/?fbclid=IwAR1ZE8Yv89BPrjyY0SMBIZCkU-IMvaN50ZhuLsZMMxBWkeoAB6AzvscqYww Dornoch history blog] – in the picture of Guide leaders, Hacon is sixth from the left
- [https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D6081994 British World War One Medals]
= Images =
- [https://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/picture/number9998 Kitchen orderlies at Royaumont] (shows conditions Hacon worked in)
{{Scottish Women's Hospitals World War One}}
{{Women's suffrage in Scotland}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hacon, Edith}}
Category:Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service volunteers
Category:Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting