Private means

55

Single

8 Kinnaird Rd, Withington, Manchester.

NUWSS

Complies

Margaret Ashton (1856–1937) was born on 19 January in Withington, Manchester. She was the third of six daughters and three sons of Thomas Ashton (1818–1898), a Liberal and Unitarian wealthy cotton manufacturer, and his wife, Elizabeth (1831–1914). She never married. Her political career started in 1888 with her contribution to the foundation of the Manchester Women's Guardian Association. In 1895, she joined the Women's Liberal Association, and the following year became a founder member of the Women's Trade Union League. She was elected to the Withington urban district council in 1900 and the Lancashire Local Education Authority in 1903. She was the chair of the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage from 1906 to 1915. She was the society’s representative to the NUWSS and financially supported its newspaper, the Common Cause. In 1906, Margaret Ashton resigned from the Liberal Party after the prime minister refused to introduce a suffrage bill. She was a committed constitutional suffragist, who did not approve of law breaking and the militant tactics of the WSPU. In 1908, she stood as an independent candidate and was the first woman to be elected to the Manchester city council. As a Councillor she worked tirelessly on issues of women's health and education. She supported legislation to improve the conditions of employment for women too. In 1911, she was elected a governor of Manchester High School for Girls and was made a member of the court of governors of the university. Margaret Ashton was also a member of Manchester's public health committee, and chaired its maternity and child welfare subcommittee, supporting the implementation of health reforms that reduced considerably childhood mortality rates. In 1914, she founded the Manchester Babies' Hospital with Dr Catherine Chisholm. Margaret was a dedicated pacifist. She was one of the founders of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WIL) in 1915. However, due to her pacifist views she was removed from the council in 1921 - considered ‘pro-German’. Moreover, because of her pacifist ideas, her public contribution and work was never properly acknowledged, and the portrait painted by (see images) Henry Lamb to honour her seventieth birthday was not accepted by the Manchester City Art Gallery at that time in protest. Sources: P. Mohr, Ashton, Margaret (1856–1937), local politician and philanthropist. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2012, May 24). Jill Liddington, Vanishing for the Vote: Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the Census, (Manchester: Manchester Uni Press, 2014). Elizabeth
Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 (London, 1999). Contributed by: Oihane Etayo, Warwick University.