Millicent Browne
{{Short description|British suffragist, pacifist and teacher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Millicent Browne
| image = Suffragette Millicent Browne 1909 by Linley Blathwayt.jpg
| caption = by Linley Blathwayt in 1909
| birth_date = 25 December 1881
| birth_place = Fulham, London, England
| death_date = 8 February 1975 (aged 93)
| death_place = Sutton Coldfield, England
| death_cause =
| other_names = Millicent Price
| known_for =
| education =
| employer =
| occupation = Suffragist, teacher
| boards =
| spouse = Reginald Charles Price
| children =
| parents =
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| nationality = British
}}
Millicent Louisa Browne (25 December 1881 – 8 February 1975), later Millicent Price, was a British teacher, suffragist and pacifist.{{Cite web |last=Boyce |first=Lucienne |date=2021-08-30 |title=Writing the Life of Millicent Price, Suffrage Campaigner |url=https://womenshistorynetwork.org/writing-the-life-of-millicent-price-suffrage-campaigner-by-lucienne-boyce/ |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=Women's History Network |language=en-GB}} She was nicknamed "Militant Browne" by Frederick Pethwick-Lawrence.{{Cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Lyndsey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zWdHEAAAQBAJ&dq=Millicent+Browne&pg=PA142 |title=Sisters and Sisterhood: The Kenney Family, Class, and Suffrage, 1890-1965 |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-284880-2 |pages=142–143 |language=en}}
Early life
Browne was born in London, where her father Walter Browne was an actor and baritone singer.{{Cite web |title=Price; Millicent Braine [née Browne] (fl.1881-1918); suffragette and Quaker |url=https://archives.lse.ac.uk/names/1490c4b7-8870-35fb-8bc1-0d5938257eec |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=LSE Archives Catalogue |language=en-gb}} Her parents’ marriage ended around 1884 and her mother Ellen Phyllis Browne took her and her two sisters to live in York.{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb192-mpp|title=Autobiography and papers of Millicent Price - Archives Hub|access-date=2018-04-04}} Her mother was a descendant of William Wilberforce.{{Cite web |title=Millicent Browne |url=https://suffragettestories.omeka.net/bio-millicent-browne |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=Suffragette Stories}}
Browne was educated at Castlegate College, York, then was a pupil-teacher at the Priory Street School. She trained as a teacher at Swansea Training College until 1902, before teaching at Beeston School in Leeds and Scarcroft School in York.{{Cite web |title=Price; Millicent (1881-1975); Mrs |url=https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/index.php/price-millicent-1881-1975-mrs |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=Explore York Archive Catalogue}}
Suffragist activism
Browne was a campaigner for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and in 1907 was posted to the branch in Bristol, where she became a close friend of Annie Kenney. She travelled around Britain giving talks in support of Women's suffrage,{{Cite web|url=http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/features/features/13875262.What_did_the_suffragettes_do_in_York__Quite_a_lot_actually___/|title=What did the suffragettes do in York? Quite a lot actually...|website=York Press|date=18 October 2015 |language=en|access-date=2018-04-04}} including in Derbyshire, Wiltshire, and Rhyl and Llandudno in Wales.{{Cite book |last=Cowman |first=Krista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6cbvP3XF0yMC&dq=Millicent+Browne&pg=PA55 |title=Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organisers of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), 1904-18 |date=2007-07-15 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-7002-0 |pages=55–56 |language=en}}
Whilst campaigning in Bristol, Browne met her future husband Reginald Charles Price. Price was a Bristol University
file:Millicent Browne planting tree with Mary Phillips, Vera Wentworth, Elsie Howey and Annie.jpg with Mary Phillips, Vera Wentworth, Elsie Howey and Annie Kenney ]]
Browne was invited to Emily Blathwayt's home at Eagle House, Batheaston where the leading suffragettes recouped. Significant visitors were asked to plant a tree to record their achievements on behalf of the cause e.g. a prison sentence.{{Cite news|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/Wblathwayt.htm|title=Mary Blathwayt|last=Simkin|first=John|date=September 1997|work=Spartacus Educational|access-date=2018-04-04|language=en}} On 4 July 1909 Browne planted not a tree but a holly bush. Linley Blathwayt took her picture and recorded the planting. Most of the trees were destroyed in the 1960s, but Browne's plaque is one of the few to have survived.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bathintime.co.uk/image/249411/blathwayt-col-linley-ilex-aquifolium-argentea-marginata-holly-1909|title=Ilex Aquifolium Argentea Marginata Holly 1909, Blathwayt, Col Linley|website=Bath in Time, Images of Bath online|language=en|access-date=2018-04-04}}
Browne was a pacifist and Quaker, as well as a supporter of the campaign for women's enfranchisement, and left the WSPU in 1911 when their tactics became more militant and violent.
Later life
During World War I, Browne worked for the Friends War Victims Relief Committee to support Belgian war refugees. As her husband was a pacifist and Quaker like his wife, he was a conscientious objector. The couple later supported peace organisations.
Browne wrote her autobiography in 1935 and copies are held in the archives in York and at the Women's Library in London.
References
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{{Eagle House}}
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Category:Eagle House suffragettes
Category:Women's Social and Political Union