Emma Boyce (1867–1929) was a Hackney

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

and

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

activist. Emma had been involved from 1907 in the Social Democratic Foundation (SDF) as a speaker and activist in the women's circles. She was appointed as organiser of the Women’s Education Committee but resigned in 1910, although she continued her activism in 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 ...

. At the age of almost 50, she became a tireless organiser for the

East London Federation of Suffragettes The Workers' Socialist Federation was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom, led by Sylvia Pankhurst. Under many different names, it gradually broadened its politics from a focus on women's suffrage to eventually become a left com ...

, working closely with

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 ...

. At the outset of

World War 1 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 traveled the country in her ELFS role, concentrating on Glasgow and Newcastle, but also speaking several times a week all over the country. She spoke for the

suffrage movement 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 ...

but also against the war's

conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

, advocating for freedom of choice for the working classes. After the war, Emma was elected as a Hackney Labour Councillor from 1918 until 1923. From then until her death, she served as a life governor of the London Maternity Hospital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyce, Emma 1867 births 1929 deaths English suffragettes Councillors in the London Borough of Hackney Labour Party (UK) councillors Social Democratic Federation members English socialist feminists Women councillors in England