Private means

62

Widowed

20 Bryanston Square, London.

NUWSS

Complies

Lady Laura Palmer was born in London in 1849 the daughter of the First Earl of Shelbrooke. In 1876, she married George Ridding, who in 1884 became Bishop of Southwell, Nottingham so the couple moved there. Laura was a keen suffragist though this was something she had to downplay because of her husband’s prominent role in the church. Nonetheless, she was very active in social projects for women and girls in Nottingham, for example, founding a rescue home - Southwell House in Broad Marsh and Hope Lodge - for girls in prostitution. She was also involved in campaigning for better factory conditions and reduced hours helping set up in 1895 the National Union of Women’s Workers, and was involved in the Girls’ Evening Home Movement – clubs to keep young working women off the streets and out of pubs. She was responsible for founding Family Care, an organisation still helping families today. She was also a Poor Law Guardian and rural district Councillor for Southwell Union from 1895 – 1904 at which time her husband died. In 1911, she spent some time with her sister and brother-in-law, the Earl, and Countess Waldergrave in London, where she can be found on the census. She later appears as one of the patrons of a fete held in aid of the East Midlands Federation of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1912, though by this time she had moved back to live at a former residence the Rectory in Wonston, Hampshire. Laura among her other activities, wrote for various periodicals and the Times newspaper on subjects such as women’s education. She wrote three biographies of her husband, sister, and nephew. She also wrote a historical novel ‘By Weeping Cross’ in 1899. During WWI she remained active in the Soldiers and Sailors Family Association, the Women’s War Agricultural Committee, and the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association). Laura died in 1939 and is buried alongside her husband in Southwell where she did so much good work. Source: No Surrender: Women's Suffrage in Nottinghamshire - NWHG. Contributed by Nottingham Women's History Group www.nottinghamwomenshistory.org.uk.