Isabel Cowe
{{Short description|Scottish suffragist (1867 - 1931)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}{{Use Scottish English|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| other_names = "Provost of St Abbs"
| birth_date = 1 December 1867
| birth_place = Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
| death_date = 3 January 1931
| occupation = suffragist, campaigner and boarding house owner.
| organization = Women's Freedom League
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
}}
Isabel Cowe (1 December 1867–3 January 1931) was a Scottish suffragist, campaigner for the local Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and boarding house owner. She was nicknamed the "Provost of St Abbs".{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Iain E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZJyzgEACAAJ&q=isabel+cowe |title=Isabel Cowe: Shore Gull and Suffragist |date=May 2021 |publisher=Austin Macauley Publishers Limited |isbn=978-1-5289-8758-5 |language=en}}
Early life
Cowe was born in Coldingham, Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders, in 1867. Her father was a fisherman and her brother Robert died at sea in 1879.{{Cite web |last=McCall |first=Alison |date=23 June 2024 |title=Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland, Isabel Cowe |url=https://womenofscotland.org.uk/women/isabel-cowe |access-date=22 November 2024 |website=The Women of Scotland}} Extended family members working as mariners were also lost at sea as she grew up.{{Cite web |last=Know |first=David |date=2024-06-23 |title=Borders village to honour woman arrested on march for the vote |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm55x80l0nzo |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}
St Abbs
Cowe owned the St Abbs Haven boarding house in Berwickshire from 1914 to 1931 and was a popular figure in the village. She campaigned and fundraised for St Abbs to have its own lifeboat and took part in the rescue of passengers and crew from the ship Glanmire when it floundered in Coldingham Bay. She was awarded a RLNI Gold Brooch for her bravery and campaigning.{{Cite web |date=2018-10-16 |title=Isabel Cowe Exhibition highlighted in Parliament |url=https://www.rachaelhamilton.co.uk/news/isabel-cowe-exhibition-highlighted-parliament |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=Rachael Hamilton MSP |language=en}}
Suffrage activism
Cowe joined the Women's Freedom League (WFL) with her friend Jane Hay. She helped organise the 400-mile Scottish Suffrage March from Edinburgh to Downing Street, London in October 1912, to present a petition for women's enfranchisement.{{Cite news |date=8 March 2019 |title=Top 10 inspirational women from the Border region |url=https://www.itv.com/news/border/2019-03-08/top-10-inspirational-women-from-the-border-region |access-date=22 November 2024 |work=ITV Border}} During the march she would often ride ahead on her bicycle to secure accommodation for the marchers and get signatures for the petition from people living in out of the way farms, hamlets and villages.{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Jane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vvelDgAAQBAJ&dq=isabel+cowe&pg=RA1-PT92 |title=Hearts And Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote |date=2018-01-11 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4735-4086-6 |language=en}} She was one of six marchers who completed the entire journey, wore the suffrage colours of a white scarf and green hat on the march, and was even arrested in Egham, Surrey, for cycling on a pavement.
Later life and death
Cowe refused to pay taxes to her local council on one occasion in protest of its "ineffectiveness" and resisted bailiffs armed with a hatchet and fire extinguisher. She was also a supporter of the Children's League of Pity.
She died in 1931 and a memorial garden was made in her honour at St Abbs, where her ashes were scattered and a marble-columned sundial was erected that was paid for by subscribers from across Britain.
References
{{Reflist}}{{Women's suffrage in Scotland}}
{{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowe, Isabel}}
Category:Scottish women's rights activists
Category:People from Berwickshire