Dora Thewlis

Dora Thewlis (1890–1976) was a British suffragette.[2]

Dora Thewlis
Thewlis was arrested on 20 March 1907. This photograph appeared in the Daily Mirror the following day.[1]
Born1890
Honley
Died1976
Australia
OccupationBritish suffragette
OrganizationWomen's Social and Political Union
Known forworking for women's rights
Criminal charge(s)Arrested in 1907 for planning to break into the Houses of Parliament
Spouse(s)Jack Dow (1918)
ChildrenMable born 1920 and Jack 1923
Parent(s)James and Eliza Thewlis

Early life

Dora was born in Honley, near Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1890. She was one of seven children born to James and Eliza Thewlis. At the time James was working locally as a weaver. Dora worked in a Yorkshire mill as a teen.[2]

As a suffragette

Thewlis was sixteen when she joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907. She was arrested the same year, having been part of a planned break in into the Houses of Parliament. She was patronised by the judge at her court appearance and labelled the 'Baby Suffragette' and the 'little mill hand' by the press. She appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror (picture to the right) after the event, with the caption "Suffragettes storm the House."[2]

The judge suggested her parents might take her in hand and sort her out. Their reply was she was her own person and they fully supported her.

The family were socialists and her mother Eliza was quoted in the Huddersfield Weekly Examiner saying that she had brought Dora up to read newspapers since the age of 7 and to debate politics. The family had also supported Mrs Pankhurst at the local by-election.

Dora's sentence was two weeks in prison, but served one. On her departure escorted by a wardress, she met Edith How-Martyn.[3]

Thewlis emigrated to Australia before the start of the First World War, therefore never seeing the passage of women's suffrage in England, and in 1918 married Jack Dow. She died in 1976.[1]

References
  1. McCaffrey, Julie (10 June 2006). "The Baby Suffragette". Daily Mirror.
  2. Herbert, Ian (8 May 2006). "Dora Thewlis: The Lost Suffragette". The Independent. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  3. Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. p. 67. ISBN 9781408844045. OCLC 1016848621.

See also
  • Liddington, Jill: Rebel Girls: their fight for the vote (Virago Press, 2006)
  • My true story: Give Us The Vote! by Sue Reid
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