The Actresses' Franchise League was a

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

organisation, mainly active in England.

Founding

In 1908 the Actresses' Franchise League was founded by Gertrude Elliott,

Adeline Bourne Adeline Bourne (January 1873 - 8 February 1965) was an Anglo-Indian actress, suffragette and charity worker.'Miss Adeline Bourne: Actress and suffragette', ''The Times'', 10 February 1965 Life Adeline Bourne was born in India on 8 January 1873. S ...

Winifred Mayo Winifred Mayo born Winifred Monck Mason (8 November 1869 – 18 February 1967) was a British actor, director, translator and suffragette. She was a co-founder of the Actresses' Franchise League and the secretary of the Six Point Group which calle ...

and

Sime Seruya Sime is a surname which traces back to the Clan Fraser, and the name ''Shimidh'', Gaelic for Simon. It may refer to one of these: * Dave Sime (1936-2016), an American athlete * Ruth Lewin Sime (1939- ), American author * Sidney Sime (1867-1941), a ...

at a meeting in the

Criterion Restaurant The Criterion Restaurant is an opulent restaurant complex facing Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London. It was built by architect Thomas Verity in '' Neo-Byzantine'' style for the partnership Spiers and Pond, which opened it in 1873. Apar ...

in London. While "actresses" are specified in the organisation's name, any woman who was or had been in the theatrical profession was welcome to join. British actresses who joined included Sybil Thorndike, Italia Conti,

Inez Bensusan Inez Bensusan (1871–1967) was an Australian born Jewish actress, playwright and suffragette in the UK. She was a leader of the Actresses' Franchise League and the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. Life Bensusan was born in Sydney, Australia ...

Madge Kendal Dame Madge Kendal, (born Margaret Shafto Robertson; 15 March 1848 – 14 September 1935) was an English actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for her roles in Shakespeare and English comedies. Together with her husband, W. ...

, Gertrude Elliott,

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...

Lillah McCarthy Lillah Emma McCarthy, Lady Keeble CBE (22 September 1875 – 15 April 1960) was an English actress and theatrical manager. Biography Lila Emma McCarty was born in Cheltenham on 22 September 1875, the seventh of eight children of Jonadab McCar ...

, Decima Moore, Cicely Hamilton,

Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale (1883 – 5 September 1967) was an English actress, lecturer, writer, and suffragist. Early life Beatrice Forbes-Robertson was born in England, the daughter of Gertrude Knight and Ian Forbes-Robertson, and the gran ...

, Christabel Marshall,

Lena Ashwell Lena Margaret Ashwell, Lady Simson ( Pocock; 28 September 1872 – 13 March 1957) was a British actress and theatre manager and producer, known as the first to organise large-scale entertainment for troops at the front, which she did during Wo ...

, Edith Craig, Janette Steer,

Ellison Scotland Gibb Ellison Scotland Gibb (6 March 1879 – 1970) was a Scottish suffragette and chess player. She was an active member of the Women's Social and Political Union. In 1910, she was appointed as the honorary secretary of the Actresses' Franchise Leagu ...

and

Lillie Langtry Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe (née Le Breton, formerly Langtry; 13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929), known as Lillie (or Lily) Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer. Born on the isla ...

. The group had three main objectives: 1. To convince members of the Theatrical profession of the necessity of extending the franchise to women. 2. To work for Votes for Women on the same terms as they are, or may be, granted to men by educational methods. 3. To assist all other leagues whenever possible. The League itself was strictly neutral in regard to suffrage tactics meaning the organisation did not either publicly endorse or condemn militancy. However, there were some members who were also a part of militant societies such the

Women's Freedom League The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigned for women's suffrage and sexual equality. It was an offshoot of the militant suffragettes after the Pankhursts decide to rule without democratic support fro ...

and Women’s Social and Political Union, and who were arrested and imprisoned for militant actions. By 1913 the AFL membership had reached 900 members, and there was an affiliated men's group as well as over 100 patrons. The AFL adopted pink and green as its colours. The first meeting of the AFL was held on 26 November 1908. and chaired by the actor–manager

Johnston Forbes-Robertson Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (16 January 1853 – 6 November 1937''Sir Johnston Forbes Robertson, Beauty And Grace in Acting'', Obituaries, '' The Times'', 8 November 1937.) was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of actress Gert ...

. The first president of the league was Dame Madge Kendal.

Activities

The AFL had very specific means of accomplishing their goals. These were delineated in its first annual report as: i) Propaganda Meetings, ii) Sale of Literature, iii) Propaganda Plays, iv) Lectures. Literature, including plays and sketches by pro-suffrage writers, was sold at all AFL events. The AFL often collaborated with other suffrage groups, particularly the Women Writers' Suffrage League. Writers and dramatists in this group, like Cicely Hamilton, provided many of the plays and skits performed by the AFL. The two groups shared many of the same members. The AFL performed at

WSPU The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership an ...

’s Women’s Suffrage Exhibition in 1909 and then at

’s Christmas Fair and Festival in 1911. The AFL set up offices at 2 Robert Street, Adelphi, near

Charing Cross Station Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a central London railway terminus between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover via Ashfo ...

, and had branches across Britain in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Eastbourne. Representative of the AFL were present at all major events in the British suffrage campaign between 1909 and 1928. Between 1909 and 1914, at least 120 suffrage plays were performed across the country. The AFL was active for over 50 years, well after the partial granting of women's suffrage in 1918 and of equal suffrage in 1928. Early in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the AFL began war work, holding events to support theatrical charities and formed the Women’s Adjustment Board, to help find employment for women during wartime. Representatives of the AFL and WAB sat on the advisory council of the Equal Pay Campaign Committee in the 1940s and 1950s and other members worked to raise funds for residential homes for both elderly women and men. The last event held by AFL was a ball at the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August ...

in December 1958 to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary.

Membership and support

By 1914 membership of the AFL numbered over 900 and a linked men’s group had been formed. The AFL recruited over 100 patrons from outside the theatre professions, including

Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exil ...

Notable Members

* Edy Craig * Cicely Hamilton *

Kitty Marion Kitty Marion 12 March 1871 – 9 October 1944) was born Katherina Maria Schäfer in Germany. She emigrated to London in 1886 when she was fifteen, and she grew to minor prominence when she sang in music halls throughout the United Kingdom during ...

Elizabeth Robins Elizabeth Robins (August 6, 1862 – May 8, 1952) was an actress, playwright, novelist, and suffragette. She also wrote as C. E. Raimond. Early life Elizabeth Robins, the first child of Charles Robins and Hannah Crow, was born in Louisville, ...

Athene Seyler Athene Seyler, CBE (31 May 188912 September 1990) was an English actress. Early life She was born in Hackney, London; her German-born grandparents moved to the United Kingdom, where her grandfather Philip Seyler was a merchant in London. Ath ...

* Sybil Thorndike

Legacy

The organisation remained in existence until at least 1934. Papers of the Actresses' Franchise League are held in the

Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

in London at

LSE LSE may refer to: Computing * LSE (programming language), a computer programming language * LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology * Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used ...

. The

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

has a large banner of the AFL in its collection. Many of the plays created for the AFL to perform have been reprinted since the 1980s, most recently by Dr Naomi Paxton in two anthologies with Methuen Drama in 2013 and 2018 From October 2018 to January 2019 there was an exhibition at the National Theatre in London about the Actresses' Franchise League and Women Writers' Suffrage League. It was called "Dramatic Progress: Votes for Women and the Edwardian Stage".

Founding

Activities

Membership and support

Notable Members

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading