None given

66

Married

Sulney Fields, Upper Broughton near Melton Mowbray

NUWSS

Complies

Born to a middle-class family in Cheshire Alice moved to Nottingham on marriage to Benjamin Dowson a solicitor (1870 set up Dowson and in 1874 Dowson and Wright) with whom she had 10 children by the age of 34. Alice a Liberal, was active in various social and political matters. She spent four hours in the market place listening to debates re the election in 1866; was active in the campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Act; in March 1869 in campaigning to protect women’s property rights and sat on a committee working to allow women to be appointed as Poor Law Guardians. In the 1870s and 1880s, Alice attended various women’s suffrage meetings and became secretary of the Nottingham Women’s Suffrage Society in 1894 though she handed over to her daughter in law Nellie in 1896 due to ill health. In 1906, Alice and Ben moved to Sulney Fields, Upper Boughton near Melton Mowbray (map position approximate) where they were still resident in 1911 as was daughter and suffragist (see) Maud Dowson. Later, the extended family rented a property in Salcombe in Devon which they later brought, and it remained in the family for over 100 years. We know a lot about her activities as her granddaughter published Alice’s diaries ‘What Grandmother said’. Researched and contributed by Nottingham Women's History group www.nottinghamwomenshistory.org.uk. Sources: Dame Alix Meynell ''What Grandmother Said': Life of Alice Dowson, 1844-1227' (1998); No Surrender! Women's Suffrage in Nottinghamshire, Rowena Edlin-White (Ed.) Nottingham Women's History Group ISBN:978-1-900074-31-5