Aeta Adelaide Lamb (1886–June 1928) was one of the longest serving organizers in the

Women's Social and Political Union 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 ...

(WSPU), the leading militant organization campaigning for

Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Britai ...

Early life and education

Lamb was born in

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state ...

in British Guiana, and named after a palm that her father, the botanist William Davis Lamb, had discovered there. Her father died when she was a child, and Aeta, her two siblings and her mother Adelaide, daughter of General Henry Nicoll, CB returned to live in England. She attended

Notting Hill High School Notting Hill and Ealing High School is an independent school for girls aged 4 – 18 in Ealing, London. Founded in 1873, it is one of the 26 schools that make up the Girls' Day School Trust. It has a Junior Department of 310 girls (ages 4–11) ...

between 1898-1899.

WPSU work

Suffragette Aeta Lamb 1911 at Eagle House

She joined the WSPU in 1906 – she was noted to be very eloquent and she wrote some of

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 ...

's speeches while working in its information department, even being said to be the 'real brains' behind some of her best known rhetoric. In October 1906 she took part in a deputation to the House of Commons and was arrested, but ultimately released after her mother paid her fine. Despite this, she took part in another deputation in February/March 1907, and another in October 1908, resulting in prison terms of a week, then a month, served in

Holloway Prison HM Prison Holloway was a closed category prison for adult women and young offenders in Holloway, London, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It was the largest women's prison in western Europe, until its closure in 2016. Histor ...

.Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914 in The Papers of Annie Lacon, London Metropolitan University, The Women's Library 7LAC/2 c. 1960National Archives, UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Suffragettes: Amnesty of August 1914: index of women arrested 1906-1914''
/ref> In July 1907 she assisted with by-election campaign in North West Staffordshire alongside

Annie Kenney Ann "Annie" Kenney (13 September 1879 – 9 July 1953) was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union. She co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie ...

and August 1907 in Bury St Edmunds alongside Emmeline Pankhurst, following which she was appointed as a national WSPU organizer in October 1907 while working with Miss Kenney in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. Lamb was arrested with Patricia Woodlock and Emily Sproson and over 50 others, reported in the ''Evening Express''. Taxus Baccata Fastigiata 1911 at Eagle House for Aeta Lamb

Taxus Baccata Fastigiata 1911 at Eagle House for Aeta Lamb

In January 1908, she was again assisting Emmeline Pankhurst, this time at the Mid-Devon by-election, and then at the

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...

(Ross) by election. From there she was one of the main organizers the first meeting of the Bath branch of the WSPU in April 1908. It was here also that she got to know the Blathwayt family of Eagle House,

Batheaston Batheaston is a village and civil parish east of the English city of Bath, on the north bank of the River Avon. The parish had a population of 2,735 in 2011. The northern area of the parish, on the road to St Catherine, is an area known as No ...

, which they operated as a home of refuge for suffragettes between 1908 and 1912. In 1911, Lamb was one of the last WSPU members to go there, planting a commemorative tree in their arboretum which they had named the 'Suffragette's Rest', before the Blathwayts withdrew their support due to the militancy of the organization.of the Blathwayt family of Eagle House, Batheaston, near Bath''
in Records of The Blathwayte Family of Dyrham Park, Gloucestershire Archives D2659/19-29Plate

Glass plate negatives collection of Col Linley Blathwayt, Bath Central Library In April 1908 she helped

Mary Gawthorpe Mary Eleanor Gawthorpe (12 January 1881 – 12 March 1973) was an English suffragette, socialist, trade unionist and editor. She was described by Rebecca West as "a merry militant saint". Life Gawthorpe was born in Woodhouse, Leeds to John Ga ...

in the Kincardineshire by-election campaign, after which she went on to help in the Montrose Burghs, Dundee and Stirling Burghs by election campaigns in May, and then another in Pudsey in June 1908. After these campaigns, her health and stamina began to fail, so she returned to London to work at the WSPU headquarters at

Clement's Inn The Inns of Chancery or ''Hospida Cancellarie'' were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from a ...

until the outbreak of the Great War, becoming one of its longest serving organizers. One of her last duties was to draw up a list of suffragette prisoners for use in the campaign - by the time of its completion it contained over 1,200 documents relevant to the arrest of over 450 suffragettes. She remained loyal to the WSPU throughout its campaign, despite developing increasing misgivings of its policies of violent protest over the course of her time with them.

Later career and death

During the War she worked in War Depots, and afterwards was largely unsuccessful in finding gainful employment, despite learning shorthand, typing, and even cookery. She died of cancer at the

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital and its predecessor organisations provided health care to women in central London from the mid-Victorian era. It was named after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, one of Britain's first female phys ...

at the age of 41 years.England & Wales, Death Index: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England

References

Other sources

# #Aeta Lamb biography (by Vera Douie) in The Suffragette Fellowship Collection, Museum of London

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamb, Aeta 1886 births 1928 deaths People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School Eagle House suffragettes