Dorothy Frances Montefiore (; 20 December 1851 – 21 December 1933), known as Dora Montefiore, was an English-Australian women's suffragist, socialist, poet, and autobiographer.

Early life

Born Dorothy Frances Fuller at

Kenley Kenley is an area within the London Borough of Croydon. Prior to its incorporation into Greater London in 1965 it was in the historic county of Surrey. It is situated south of Purley, east of Coulsdon, north of Caterham and Whyteleafe and w ...

Manor near

Coulsdon Coulsdon (, traditionally pronounced ) is a town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, in the ceremonial county of Greater London since 1965. Prior to this it was part of the historic county of Surrey. History The l ...

, Surrey, daughter of Francis Fuller and Mary Ann Fuller (née Drew). Motefiore's father was involved with railway engineering and was a driving force behind

the Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...

. Her mother was a daughter of George Drew, a property speculator who developed

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valley but rises to equal ...

. Dora was educated by governesses and tutors and at Mrs Creswell's school at

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. In 1874, Dora went to Sydney to assist her brother's wife. Dora returned briefly to England, and on her return to Sydney married Jewish merchant George Barrow Montefiore, son of

Joseph Barrow Montefiore Joseph Barrow Montefiore (24 June 1803 – 8 September 1893), merchant and financier, was the youngest son of Eliezer Montefiore, merchant, of Barbados and London, and his wife, Judith (née Barrow). Montefiore was born on 24 June 1803 in Londo ...

. They had two children. In 1889, her husband was lost at sea. When Montefiore learned that she had no automatic right to guardianship of her children, she became an advocate of women's rights.Allen, J
Dorothy Frances (Dora) (1851–1933)
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 556–557. The first meeting of the

Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales ] The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales, was founded in 1891 and campaigned for women's right to vote in New South Wales. Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Origins Mary Windeyer and Rose Scott, among others, ...

was held at Montefiore's home on 29 March 1891. In 1892 Montefiore left Australia and after spending several years in Paris, settled in England.

Suffragette

An influence on her socialist views was from time with Julia Dawson, on the Clarion Van in the West Midlands and she continued to see the need for women to be given the right to vote, as a class issue. In 1898, Montefiore produced a book of verse ''Singings Through the Dark''. She also continued to be active in the suffrage movement, serving on the executive of

Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (née Garrett; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English politician, writer and feminist. She campaigned for women's suffrage by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights associati ...

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was ren ...

and she joined 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 and ...

that had been formed by

Emmeline ''Emmeline, The Orphan of the Castle'' is the first novel written by English writer Charlotte Smith; it was published in 1788. A Cinderella story in which the heroine stands outside the traditional economic structures of English society and ...

and

Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bord ...

. In 1897, Montefiore proposed the formation of the

Women's Tax Resistance League The Women's Tax Resistance League (WTRL) was from 1909 to 1918 a direct action group associated with the Women's Freedom League that used tax resistance to protest against the disenfranchisement of women during the British women's suffrage move ...

. In 1906, to protest lack of political representation, Montefiore refused to pay her taxes and remained barricaded in her home for six weeks. The League used this occasion as an opportunity for demonstrations and publicity: Her house had a banner displayed across the wall saying: “Women should vote for the laws they obey and the taxes they pay.” And she said "I was doing this because the mass of non-qualified women could not demonstrate in the same way, and I was to that extent their spokeswoman. It was the crude fact of women’s political disability that had to be forced on an ignorant and indifferent public." In October of the same year,

Adela Pankhurst Adela Constantia Mary Walsh ( Pankhurst; 19 June 1885 – 23 May 1961) was a British born suffragette who worked as a political organiser for the WSPU in Scotland. In 1914 she moved to Australia where she continued her activism and was co-found ...

, Montefiore and others were arrested for demanding votes for women in the lobby of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

. Montefiore later described the experience and the interior of Holloway Prison. Montefiore also joined several socialist organisations around this time, including 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 Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access ...

, the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

and the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...

. Montefiore was a linguist and responsible for the first English translation of the work of

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

. Montefiore was friends with suffragette

Adelaide Knight Adelaide Knight, also known as Eliza Adelaide Knight, (1871–1950), was a British suffragette. Biography Born in Tower Hamlets in 1871, Eliza Adelaide ("Addy") Knight was a frail child, born with deformed thumbs, who had two accidents in ch ...

Adelaide Knight, leader of the first east London suffragettes — East End Women's Museum
/ref> and

Minnie Baldock Lucy Minnie Baldock (née Rogers; 20 November 1864''1939 England and Wales Register'' – 10 December 1954)''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995'' was a British suffragette. ...

. Montefiore was one of the speaker's at Baldock's Canning Town WSPU group and wrote to support Baldock's 'noble stand' in visiting the Liberal leader in December 1906. Montefiore left the WSPU and joined the Adult Suffrage Society, for which she became honorary secretary in 1909, to support the case for full suffrage not based on financial status but for all men and women over the age of majority (21), rather than the limited option, some argued as a first step of women with property being enfranchised. Montefiore's socialist views were shared by

Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with ...

whom she kept in contact with after the split with WSPU.

Later life

Montefiore lectured in Holland, attended the Socialist International Conference and went on a lecture tour of Europe and in the US, then returned to Australia in 1910 to visit her son Gilbert. While in Australia, Montefiore edited '' International Socialist Review of Australasia'' when its owner Henry Holland fell ill in 1911. Montefiore also met Premier

William Arthur Holman William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch), Labor Party, ...

. In 1912 Montefiore went to South Africa and wrote about the effect of capitalism. In October 1913, Montefiore was involved in a “holiday plan” to take the children of unionised workers

locked out Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

by employers in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

into the respite care of sympathetic families in England.

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

William Joseph Walsh William Joseph Walsh (30 January 1841 – 9 April 1921) served as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin from 3 July 1885 until his death in 1921. Early life and priestly ministry He was born at 11 Essex Quay in Dublin, the only child of Ralp ...

, wrote a public letter condemning the plan as dangerous to the children’s Catholic faith. Those involved were arrested and charged with

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

. The charges were later dropped. During the

First World War 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 ...

, Montefiore volunteered in France but also joined the

, and contributed articles to '' The Call''. In 1920, she was elected to the provisional council of its successor, the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

. When Montefiore's son died in 1921 from the effects of mustard gas poisoning acquired during his service in the War, the Australian government would not allow her to visit Australia until Holman spoke on her behalf and assured them that she promised not to engage in communist propaganda. Montefiore was allowed to visit, and also used the time to make connections in the Australian communist movement, meeting

Christian Jollie Smith Christian Jollie Smith (15 March 1885 – 14 January 1963) was an Australian socialist lawyer and co-founder of the Communist Party of Australia. She was notable for her work representing striking miners, underprivileged tenants during the great ...

. Montefiore represented the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been i ...

in Moscow in 1924. Montefiore wrote her autobiography in 1927; it was called ''From a Victorian to a Modern''. Montefiore died at home in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

in 1933, and her cremation was at

Golders Green Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in England. A smaller suburban linear settlement, near a farm and public grazing area green of medieval origins, dates to the early 19th century. Its bulk forms a late 19th century and ea ...

, Middlesex.

Posthumous recognition

Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...

of the

statue of Millicent Fawcett The statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, honours the British suffragist leader and social campaigner Dame Millicent Fawcett. It was made in 2018 by Gillian Wearing. Following a campaign and petition by the activist Caroline C ...

Parliament Square Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contai ...

, London, unveiled in 2018.

References

External links

Dora Montefiore Archive at marxists.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montefiore, Dora 1851 births 1933 deaths Australian communists Australian feminist writers Australian Marxists Australian socialists Australian suffragists Australian women writers British Socialist Party members British socialist feminists Communist Party of Great Britain members English tax resisters People from Kenley Social Democratic Federation members Women of the Victorian era People from Coulsdon Communist women writers Women's Social and Political Union 19th-century Australian women 20th-century Australian women Australian socialist feminists