Private means

53

Widowed

32 Addison Road, Kensington, London

NUWSS

Complies

Frances Elizabeth Balfour was born in 1858 to her father, the 8th duke of Argyll and her mother, the daughter of the 2nd duke of Sutherland. She was brought up in a traditionally liberal household. Her family strongly supported slave emancipation. Her eldest brother married Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria. Frances Married Architect Eustace Balfour in 1879. Eustace was the younger brother of Arthur Balfour, the Conservative Prime Minister from 1902-1905. Frances and Eustace had 5 children together. She became close friends with her sister-in-law, Lady Betty Balfour, who was also the sister of Lady Constance Lytton. In her memoirs, she said she always passively believed in women's suffrage, and she began helping the cause in the 1880s, working with active suffragists, Miss Jenner. Her political education grew as she became a member of the executive committee of the Unionist Women’s Association from the 1890s. In 1896, she became the president of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage as well as a member of the special appeals committee. In 1904, she became president of the Central Society for Women’s Suffrage, a position she held until 1914. In 1906, she became a member of the Women’s Franchise Declaration Committee. In that same year, she donated 1 guinea to the WSPU to help fund the Savoy banquet for released suffragette prisoners. She reluctantly took part in the mud march held by the NUWSS in 1907. She became a member of the NUWSS executive committee in 1903, but in a 1911 meeting, it was decided she would not be re-elected as she didn’t attend enough meetings. However, if she were not re-elected, she would be named vice-president. Frances complied with the 1911 census. She is recorded as a visitor at the palace in Peterborough, which is the residence of the bishop of Peterborough. However, she is placed on the map where she was based throughotu the campaign in Kensington, London. On the 27th of October 1911, she spoke at a NUWSS meeting in Newport on the Isle of Wight, chaired by MP Douglas Hall. She also spoke in Shanklin the next day at a meeting for the NUWSS. As a traditional Liberal, she was initially against the NUWSS election fighting fund, but she later came around to it as she felt it was the correct approach. She continued her work with women after the war. In 1922, she became vice president of the Elizabeth Garrett Hospital and of Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for women and children. She died in 1931. Sources: Crawford, Elizabeth, The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 18661928 (London, 1999). Contributed by Becca Aspden, URSS student researcher, History Dept., Warwick University