Artist

49

Married

Black Rock House, Linthwaite, Huddersfield, Yorkshire

NUWSS

Complies

Florence Lockwood was born in 1861 in Devonport, Devon. She spent most of her childhood in Portsmouth, living with her parents and five siblings. Her father was a naval doctor, and she had a comfortable middle-class upbringing. In 1887, Lockwood moved to London to study at the prestigious Slade Art School. She then spent several years travelling in Europe, before returning to live alone in London, to make a modest career as an artist although no occupation is given on her census return for 1911. She retained her gift for sketching and painting throughout her life. In 1902 she married Josiah Lockwood, a woollen manufacturer, and moved to Black Rock House in Linthwaite, a village in the Colne Valley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The couple never had any children. She came to political activism quite late, in her mid-40s, but embraced it whole-heartedly. She first became involved in public political work in around 1907, and for the next fifteen years she was a significant figure in local politics. She was originally converted to the suffrage cause after hearing Emmeline Pankhurst of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) speak at the 1907 Colne Valley by-election. Lockwood became President of the Huddersfield Branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and served on the executive of the Huddersfield branch of its successor organisation, the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC). Her suffrage activism included writing pamphlets, writing letters to local newspapers, attending, and speaking at meetings, distributing leaflets on walking tours, and personally persuading other women to take up the cause. She encouraged her maid, Minnie (who was also living at Black Rock House in 1911) to take an interest in politics. Using her artistic talents, she designed and embroidered the NUWSS branch’s ‘Votes for Women’ suffrage banner which depicted the Colne Valley. The banner was completed in 1911 and is now held in Huddersfield’s Tolson Museum. In 1913, she attended the International Woman Suffrage Alliance congress in Budapest. She was also involved in local politics more broadly. She was President of Colne Valley Women’s Liberal Association, served on the Huddersfield Liberal Executive, and worked as a Poor Law Guardian and a School Director. During the First World War, her beliefs changed, and she became an ardent pacifist, rejected liberalism, and converted to socialism. She attended Women’s International League meetings and was on the executive of the Huddersfield branch of the Union of Democratic Control. She had retired from political work by around 1921. When Josiah died in 1924, she moved to London, where she died in 1937. She kept a diary throughout her life, and the diaries for 1914-1920 survive at West Yorkshire Archives and Leeds University Archives. In 1932, she privately published her autobiography, An Ordinary Life. Sources:
Manuscripts and Archives Huddersfield, West Yorkshire Archive Service KC909/1, F. Lockwood, ‘Autobiography of Florence Lockwood’ (unpublished typescript, 1905-1911). KC329/1, F. Lockwood, War Diary and Notes (manuscript, 1914-1915). KC329/2, F. Lockwood, War Diary and Notes (manuscript, 1916-1918). KC909/2, F. Lockwood, War Diary and Notes (manuscript, 1918-1920). Leeds, Leeds University Liddle Collection LIDDLE/WWI/DF/077, F. Lockwood, War Diary and Notes (manuscript, 1915-1916). Printed Leeds, Leeds University Liddle Collection LIDDLE/WWI/CO/056, F. Lockwood, Printed Diary Extracts (privately printed for small circulation, 1921). Lockwood, F., An Ordinary Life, 1861-1924 (Loughborough, 1932). Lockwood, F., The Enfranchisement of Women (Slaithwaite, undated). 'Obituary: Mrs. Lockwood', The Yorkshire Post, 31 March 1937, p.5. Secondary Sources Liddington, J., Rebel Girls: Their Fight for the Vote (London, 2006). Liddington, J., The long road to Greenham: feminism and anti-militarism in Britain since 1820 (London, 1989). Online Sources Kirklees Museums and Galleries, 'Huddersfield's Suffragist Banner', https://womenssuffrageinkirklees.blogspot.com/p/huddersfields-suffragist-banner.html. Contributed by Hannah Speed, PhD candidate, Glasgow University.