Alice Abadam

Alice Abadam
Born (1856-01-02)2 January 1856
London, England
Died 1940 (aged 84)
Abergwili, Carmarthen

Alice Abadam (2 January 1856 – 1940) was a Welsh suffragette and public speaker.

Early life

Abadam was born in London in 1856 to Edward Ab Adam and his wife Louisa (née Taylor). Her father was the eldest son of Edward Hamlin Adams, a Jamaican-born banker and merchant who made his money overseas before settling in Britain.[1] In 1825 Edward Hamlin Adams bought Middleton Hall in Carmarthenshire following the death of its owner, Sir William Paxton. The Hall was passed down to his son Edward, who added the old Welsh patronym, Ab, to the family name.

Abadam, by her own account, had a happy childhood and was educated by a governess at Middleton Hall. She was the youngest of seven children, and saw little of her mother who suffered ill-health brought about by post-natal depression. By 1861 her mother was living away from the family in Brighton, and in 1871 was living back at her paternal home in Dorset. Despite living apart, her parents remained married until the death of Edward in 1875.[2]

Her father held anti-clerical views, but Abadam converted to Catholicism in 1880. A musical upbringing led her to becoming the organist and choir master at St Mary's Church on Union Street, in the centre of Carmarthen.

Work as a suffragette

In 1905 Abadam subscribed to the Central Society for Women's Suffrage.[3] She became a well known speaker on many social issues and addressed a variety of suffrage societies.[3]

Footnotes

References
  1. ↑ Austin, Louise (13 July 2016). "Family history on Adams memorial". botanicgarden.wales. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Llanrthney". South Wales Daily News. 4 December 1875. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 Crawford 2003, p. 1.
Primary sources

  • Cook, Kay; Evans, Neil (1991). "'The Petty Antics of the Bell-Ringing Boisterous Band'? The Women's Suffrage Movement in Wales, 1890–1918". In John, Angela V. Our Mothers' Land, Chapters in Welsh Women's History 1830–1939. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1129-6.
  • Crawford, Elizabeth (2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928. Routledge. ISBN 9781135434021.
  • John, Angela V. (1991). "Beyond Paternalism: The Ironmaster's Wife in the Industrial Community". In John, Angela V. Our Mothers' Land, Chapters in Welsh Women's History 1830–1939. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1129-6.
  • Wallace, Ryland (2009). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Wales, 1866–1928. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-708-32173-7.
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