Julia Scurr

Julia Scurr (née Sullivan; 17 February 1871 – 10 April 1927) was a British politician and suffragette.

Born in Limehouse in the East End of London, she married John Scurr in 1900.[1] She became a prominent activist for working women in the East End, and was the main organiser of a large demonstration against unemployment in 1905, following which she met the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour. In 1907, she was elected to the Poplar Board of Guardians, representing the Labour Party.[2]

An associate of Sylvia Pankhurst, Scurr joined her East London Federation of Suffragettes. She was one of the delegation of six women from the East End who met with H. H. Asquith on 20 June 1914 following Pankhurst's hunger strike.[3] Also in February 1914 she was a founder member of the United Suffragists. This became her primary area of activism and she was elected as one of its vice-presidents. She opposed British involvement in the First World War, but served on a food control committee during the conflict. In 1919, she was elected to Poplar Borough Council, playing a leading role in the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921, and she served as Mayor of Poplar in 1923/4.[2]

Scurr was elected to London County Council, representing Mile End, in 1925, but resigned early the following year. She died in April 1927.[2]

Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.[4][5][6]

References

  1. ↑ "Julia Scurr: Socialist, suffragette, and Poplar Rates Rebel". East End Women's Museum. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 "Poplar councillors", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  3. ↑ Bullock, Ian (1992). Sylvia Pankhurst: From Artist to Anti-Fascist. Springer. ISBN 9781349121830. Retrieved 12 February 2018. :78
  4. ↑ "Historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett unveiled in Parliament Square". Gov.uk. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  5. ↑ Topping, Alexandra (24 April 2018). "First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  6. ↑ "Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth". iNews. Retrieved 2018-04-25.

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