Isabel Abraham Ross
Isabel Abraham Ross | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 August 1885 Garston, Liverpool, England |
| Died | 29 October 1964 (aged 79) Poole, Dorset, England |
| Occupation(s) | teacher, suffragist and pacifist |
| Employer | Wallington High School for Girls |
| Organization(s) | Women's Social and Political Union, East Africa Women’s League, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom |
| Children | 2 |
Isabel Abraham Ross (née Abraham, 22 August 1885 – 29 October 1964) was a British teacher, suffragist, pacifist and biographer. She campaigned in England and Kenya.
Early life
[edit]Ross was born Isabel Abraham in Garston, Liverpool in 1885.[1] She was from a Quaker family.[2] Her father was Thomas Fell Abraham, a pharmaceutical chemist who was directly descended from the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, Margaret Fell.[1][3] Later in life, Ross wrote a biography of her ancestor, titled Margaret Fell: Mother of Quakerism.[1][4] Her mother was her father's first wife, Margaret Sarah Abraham (née Brown).
Education and early activism
[edit]Ross studied history at the University of Manchester, where she founded the university women's suffrage society.[2] She was also a member of the Women's Social Political Union (WSPU). After graduating from university in 1908,[2] Ross worked as a history teacher at Wellington High School for Girls.[5] She lived whilst teaching with Nellie Ross[5] who would become her sister-in-law.
Marriage and life in British East Africa
[edit]In 1915, she married William McGregor Ross (1876–1940), a civil engineer, and they moved to Nairobi in British East Africa.[1] They had two sons who were born in Africa.[5]
In Kenya, Ross continued to pursue her interest in women's suffrage. She became the founder and first president of the East Africa Women's League (EAWL) in 1917.[6] As president, she organised public campaign meetings and coordinated a petition asking for votes to be granted to European women, which was submitted on 24 February 1919.[7] White settler women were granted the right to vote in 1919.[8] The EAWL then changed their mission, to "study and take action on, where necessary, all matters affecting the welfare and happiness of women and children of all races in East Africa."[2] Ross spoke to the Women's Group of the Ethical Movement on the subject of "the Colour Bar in London."[9] She was also a member of the Education Board of Kenya and played an influential part in Nairobi social life.[10]
Return to England
[edit]Ross and her family returned to England in 1922. In 1933, Isabel was appointed vice-chair of the British branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).[1] In 1941, then president of the EAWL, Lady Baden-Powell, invited Ross to become an honorary member of the organisation.[2] Ross visited Kenya again in 1949 and spoke at an EAWL conference.[2]
Death
[edit]She died in 1964 in Poole, Dorset.[11][12]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Donnelly, Jo. "Isabel Abraham". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f Tol, Deanne van (2015). "The Women of Kenya Speak: Imperial Activism and Settler Society, c.1930". Journal of British Studies. 54 (2): 433–456. doi:10.1017/jbr.2015.5. ISSN 0021-9371.
- ^ Painter, Levinus King (1966). The Hill of Vision: The Story of the Quaker Movement in East Africa, 1902–1965. East Africa Yearly Meeting of Friends. p. 17.
- ^ Shiman, Lillian Lewis (13 October 1992). Women And Leadership In Nineteenth-Century England. Springer. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-349-22188-2.
- ^ a b c Davidson, Paul. Papers of William McGregor and Isabel Ross, [1890–1964]. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
- ^ Nicholls, Christine. "East Africa Women's League Push for Women's Right to Vote". Old Africa Magazine. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
- ^ Kithinji, Michael Mwenda (18 June 2024). Historical Dictionary of Kenya. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-5381-5746-6.
- ^ Sheldon, Kathleen (4 March 2016). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-4422-6293-5.
- ^ "Women's Group of the Ethical Movement". Humanist Heritage. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
- ^ "McGREGOR ROSS, Isabel, Mrs". Europeans In East Africa. Retrieved 8 March 2025.
- ^ "Ross". The Guardian. 29 October 1964. p. 2. Retrieved 7 March 2025.
- ^ "Obituary". East Africa and Rhodesia. Vol. 41. 1964. p. 225. Retrieved 8 March 2025.