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Isabel Abraham Ross
British teacher, suffragist and pacifist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
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Early life
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).
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Education and early activism
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 Wallington 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
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
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
References
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