Ada Wright
Ada Cecile Granville Wright (c. 1862 - 1939) was an English suffragist, her photo on the front page of the Daily Mirror on 19 November became an iconic image of the suffrage movement.
Biography
Ada Cecile Granville Wright was born in Granville, France, around 1862.[1]
She attended the Slade School of Fine Art and University College, London, where she followed the physics lectures by Margaret Whelpdale (half-sister of Octavia Hill) and English lectures by Edward Aveling.[1]
For a short time she taught in Bonn, and then back in England, she wanted to take up social work, but was prevented in doing so by her father. After travelling widely with her family, she was able to follow her previous desire in 1885, when she settled in Sidmouth. She worked in a settlement house with a niece of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She joined the local women's suffrage society.[1]
After leaving Sidmouth, Wright worked at the West London Mission with Hon. Maude Stanley, running a club for working girls in Greek Street, Soho. Later she was a probationer nurse at the London Hospital.[1]
After moving back home in Sidmouth to take care of her aging father, she further moved to Bournemouth and joined the local branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
In March 1907 she was with the Women's Parliament in Caxton Hall and was imprisoned for two weeks. In October 1908 she attempted to rush the House of Commons and was imprisoned for a month. In June 1909 she was a deputee to the House of Commons and was arrested for throwing two stones through the window of a government office in Whitehall and imprisoned for one month. Refusing to be treated as a criminal, she went on a six-days hunger strike and released.[1]
On 18 November 1910, the "Black Friday", she took part at the Women's Suffrage demonstration in Parliament Square. She is the woman in the famous picture which was on the front page of the Daily Mirror on 19 November and became an iconic image of the suffrage movement.[1]
In November 1911 she was arrested for breaking a window during the protest against the Conciliation Bill and imprisoned for 14 days. In March 1912, together with Charlotte Marsh, she took part at the window-smashing campaign in the Strand and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. In prison she went on hunger-strike and forcibly fed for 10 days. In 1914 she helped Emmeline Pankhurst to escape Mouse Castle, and she was arrested and imprisoned for 14 days. In May 1914 she went with Pankhurst to the King at Buckingham Palace, she was arrested but the fine was paid without her consent by her sister, fearing for her health.[1]
In 1914, together with Alice Green, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Lady Constance Lytton, Rose Lamartine Yates, she raised the money necessary to pay the fare for Kitty Marion to emigrate to the United States, to avoid the anti-German sentiment raising in the United Kingdom.[1]
Ada Wright was a pallbearer at Pankhurst's funeral.[1]
In 1939 in her will Wright left a picture to her friend, the actress Adeline Bourne (1873-1965), £100 (£5,690 in 2016 sterling) to Evie Hamill (sister of Cicely Hamilton), £150 (£8,535 in 2016 sterling) to Nina Boyle, £200 (£11,380 in 2016 sterling) to Flora Drummond to carry on with the welfare of animals campaign, £500 (£28,449 in 2016 sterling) to Rosamund Massy, £1,600 to Christabel Pankhurst (£91,037 in 2016 sterling).[1]