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Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale (1883 – 5 September 1967) was an English actress, lecturer, writer, and suffragist.
Mrs. Hale left the stage after marriage and motherhood, but continued as a lecturer on women's rights, 
Mrs. Hale also wrote several books, including ''What Women Want: An Interpretation of the Feminist Movement'' (1914), ''The Nest Builder'' (1916, a novel), ''Little Allies: A Story of Four Children'' (1918), and ''What's Wrong with Our Girls?'' (1923). In ''What Women Want'', Hale surveyed the state of the American feminist movement in the 1910s, declaring:
Finding aid, Swinburne Hale Papers, New York Public Library.
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Early life
Beatrice Forbes-Robertson was born inEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, the daughter of Gertrude Knight and Ian Forbes-Robertson, and the granddaughter of drama critic Joseph Knight. She was the niece of actors Sir 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 Gertru ...
and Norman Forbes-Robertson
Norman Forbes-Robertson (24 September 1858 – 28 September 1932), known professionally as Norman Forbes, was an English actor and art dealer. He was the brother of actor Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson and a friend of Ellen Terry, Oscar Wilde, ...
, and the cousin of aviation engineer Maxine (Blossom) Miles
Maxine "Blossom" Miles, born 22 September 1901 as Maxine Forbes-Robertson, was a British aviation engineer, socialite, and businesswoman. She was born into a well-known family of actors. She became interested in aviation in the 1920s, and marr ...
and actress Jean Forbes-Robertson
Jean Forbes-Robertson (16 March 1905 – 24 December 1962) was an English actress. A versatile Shakespearean actress, she was often cast in boys' roles because of her slim build, playing Jim Hawkins in a stage version of ''Treasure Island'', Pu ...
.
Career and activism
Forbes-Robertson was active as an actress from age 17, and a suffrage speaker in England before she moved toNew York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1907 to continue her theatrical and political work. She joined the New Theatre Company, and played leading and ingenue roles in plays including ''The Morals of Marcus'', ''The Mollusc'', ''The Cottage in the Air'', and ''Strife'' by John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include ''The Forsyte Saga'' (1906–1921) and its sequels, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of the Chapter''. He won the Nobel Prize i ...
. She was a member of Heterodoxy
In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , "other, another, different" + , "popular belief") means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". Under this definition, heterodoxy is similar to unorthodoxy, wh ...
, a feminist debating club based in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
, and vice president of the Actresses' Franchise League
The Actresses' Franchise League was a women's suffrage organisation, mainly active in England.
Founding
In 1908 the Actresses' Franchise League was founded by Gertrude Elliott, Adeline Bourne, Winifred Mayo and Sime Seruya at a meeting in the ...
. During World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
she was president of the British War Relief Association, raising funds in New York for military hospitals abroad.
Mrs. Hale left the stage after marriage and motherhood, but continued as a lecturer on women's rights, dress reform
Victorian dress reform was an objective of the Victorian dress reform movement (also known as the rational dress movement) of the middle and late Victorian era, led by various reformers who proposed, designed, and wore clothing considered more ...
and fashion, and theatre topics, into her later years. On January 18, 1916, she spoke before the General Assembly of Kentucky on women's right to vote. In 1919 she spoke at a large rally in support of the Girl Scouting movement at the DAR Constitution Hall
DAR Constitution Hall is a concert hall located at 1776 D Street NW, near the White House in Washington, D.C. It was built in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to house its annual convention when membership delegations outgrew Memo ...
in Washington D. C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Mrs. Hale also wrote several books, including ''What Women Want: An Interpretation of the Feminist Movement'' (1914), ''The Nest Builder'' (1916, a novel), ''Little Allies: A Story of Four Children'' (1918), and ''What's Wrong with Our Girls?'' (1923). In ''What Women Want'', Hale surveyed the state of the American feminist movement in the 1910s, declaring:
Women have often been taunted with lack of the creative and reasoning faculties. But until the present age the number of women possessing opportunities to develop these has been so small in proportion to men as to make any comparison invidious. Only now are the faculties of women emerging from obscurity....When as many women as men are free to express themselves, there will remain but one struggle on earth, the struggle of all the dispossessed, men and women alike, for their inheritance.
Personal life and legacy
Beatrice Forbes-Robertson married lawyerSwinburne Hale
Swinburne Hale (1884–1937) was an American lawyer, poet, and socialist, best remembered as one of the leading civil rights attorneys of the decade of the 1920s. Hale was a Harvard College classmate of Roger Nash Baldwin and law partner of ...
in 1910. They were the parents of three daughters, Sanchia (b. 1911), and twins Rosemary and Clemency (b. 1913). The Hales divorced in 1920. About 140 of her letters from the period 1913-1919 are in the Swinburne Hale Papers at the New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...
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Further reading
* Nyberg, Lyle ''Summer Suffragists: Woman Suffrage Activists in Scituate, Massachusetts'' (Scituate, MA: by author, 2020) + 284 pp., ch. 5References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hale, Beatrice Forbes-Robertson 1883 births 1967 deaths British women in World War I English suffragists English actresses