Isabel Abraham Ross

Ross was born Isabel Abraham in Garston, Liverpool in 1885.{{Cite web |last=Donnelly |first=Jo |title=Isabel Abraham |url=https://map.mappingwomenssuffrage.org.uk/items/show/328 |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick}} She was from a Quaker family.{{Cite journal |last=Tol |first=Deanne van |date=2015 |title=The Women of Kenya Speak: Imperial Activism and Settler Society, c.1930 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/abs/women-of-kenya-speak-imperial-activism-and-settler-society-c1930/AB64280B293C3E18B538DB19CC8A4916 |journal=Journal of British Studies |language=en |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=433–456 |doi=10.1017/jbr.2015.5 |issn=0021-9371|url-access=subscription }} Her father was Thomas Fell Abraham, a pharmaceutical chemist who was directly descended from the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, Margaret Fell.{{Cite book |last=Painter |first=Levinus King |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XW0_AAAAIAAJ&q=Isabel+Ross+kenya |title=The Hill of Vision: The Story of the Quaker Movement in East Africa, 1902–1965 |date=1966 |publisher=East Africa Yearly Meeting of Friends |pages=17 |language=en}} Later in life, Ross wrote a biography of her ancestor, titled Margaret Fell: Mother of Quakerism.{{Cite book |last=Shiman |first=Lillian Lewis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COqwCwAAQBAJ&dq=Isabel+Ross+suffrage&pg=PA252 |title=Women And Leadership In Nineteenth-Century England |date=1992-10-13 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-22188-2 |pages=252 |language=en}} Her mother was her father's first wife, Margaret Sarah Abraham ({{Nee|Brown}}).

Ross studied history at the University of Manchester, where she founded the university women's suffrage society. She was also a member of the Women's Social Political Union (WSPU). After graduating from university in 1908, Ross worked as a history teacher at Wallington High School for Girls.Davidson, Paul. [http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb161-mss.afr.s.2305 Papers of William McGregor and Isabel Ross, [1890–1964]]. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Retrieved 8 March 2025. She lived whilst teaching with Nellie Ross who would become her sister-in-law.

In 1915, she married William McGregor Ross (1876–1940), a civil engineer, and they moved to Nairobi in British East Africa. They had two sons who were born in Africa.

In Kenya, Ross continued to pursue her interest in women's suffrage. She became the founder and first president of the East Africa Women's League (EAWL) in 1917.{{Cite web |last=Nicholls |first=Christine |title=East Africa Women's League Push for Women's Right to Vote |url=https://oldafricamagazine.com/east-africa-womens-league-push-for-womens-right-to-vote/ |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Old Africa Magazine |language=en-US}} As president, she organised public campaign meetings and coordinated a petition asking for votes to be granted to European women, which was submitted on 24 February 1919.{{Cite book |last=Kithinji |first=Michael Mwenda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ECoREQAAQBAJ&dq=Isabel+Ross+kenya&pg=PA88 |title=Historical Dictionary of Kenya |date=2024-06-18 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-5746-6 |pages=88 |language=en}} White settler women were granted the right to vote in 1919.{{Cite book |last=Sheldon |first=Kathleen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwqQCwAAQBAJ&dq=Isabel+Ross+kenya&pg=PA87 |title=Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa |date=2016-03-04 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-6293-5 |pages=87 |language=en}} The EAWL then changed their mission, to "study and take action on, where necessary, all matters affecting the welfare and happiness of women and children of all races in East Africa." Ross spoke to the Women's Group of the Ethical Movement on the subject of "the Colour Bar in London."{{Cite web |title=Women's Group of the Ethical Movement |url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/womens-group-of-the-ethical-movement/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=Humanist Heritage |language=en}} She was also a member of the Education Board of Kenya and played an influential part in Nairobi social life.{{Cite web |title=McGREGOR ROSS, Isabel, Mrs |url=https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/_site/custom/database/default.asp?a=viewIndividual&pid=2&person=1436 |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=Europeans In East Africa |language=en}}

Ross and her family returned to England in 1922. In 1933, Isabel was appointed vice-chair of the British branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). In 1941, then president of the EAWL, Lady Baden-Powell, invited Ross to become an honorary member of the organisation. Ross visited Kenya again in 1949 and spoke at an EAWL conference.

She died in 1964 in Poole, Dorset.{{Cite news |date=1964-10-29 |title=Ross |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian-ross-the-guardian-london/26263770/ |access-date=2025-03-07 |work=The Guardian |pages=2}}{{Cite news |date=1964 |title=Obituary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RKsqAAAAMAAJ&q=Isabel+Ross+kenya |access-date=8 March 2025 |work=East Africa and Rhodesia |pages=225 |volume=41}}

{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Isabel Abraham}}

Category:1885 births

Category:1964 deaths

Category:People from Garston

Category:British Quakers

Category:British pacifists

Category:British suffragists

Category:British diaspora in Africa

Category:Women's Social and Political Union