Frances Balfour

Lady Frances Balfour (née Campbell; 22 February 1858 – 25 February 1931) was one of the highest-ranking members of the British aristocracy to assume a leadership role in the women's suffrage movement. The tenth child of British Liberal politician and Scottish peer George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (eldest daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland), Balfour was president of the National Society for Women's Suffrage from 1896 to 1914. As a non-violent suffragist, she was opposed to the militant actions of the Women's Social and Political Union, the suffragettes.

Born at Argyll Lodge in Kensington, London,^[1] Lady Frances Campbell was handicapped by a hip joint disease and from early childhood was in constant pain and walked with a limp. In 1879 she married Eustace Balfour, a heavy drinker who later became an alcoholic. Eustace's uncle, Lord Salisbury, had three terms as Britain's prime minister. Eustace's elder brother, Arthur Balfour, was also a Conservative British prime minister from 1902 to 1905.

However, in opposition to the Conservative politics of her in-laws, Frances, along with both her parents, supported Liberal statesman William Gladstone and his government. Lady Frances Balfour and her husband never overcame these political differences and spent less and less time together. Her parents were also involved in several different campaigns for social reform. She reportedly helped with these campaigns as a child, for example by knitting garments to be sent to the children of former slaves after slavery was formally banned by the government within the British territories in 1833.

She died in London on 25 February 1931 from pneumonia and heart failure, and was buried at Whittingehame, the Balfour family home in East Lothian, Scotland.

References

1. William Knox, The lives of Scottish women: women and Scottish society, 1800–1980, (Edinburgh University Press Ltd., 2006), 99.

• http://calmarchive.londonmet.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Persons&dsqSearch=Code==%27NA506%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl
• http://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst699.html
• http://oldoban.wikidot.com/suffragettes

• Martin Pugh, The Pankhursts: The History of One Radical Family (Paperback – 3 Jul 2008), Vintage Books, Random House Group Ltd. London . 537 pages, ISBN 978-0-09-952043-6 . 1st edition (2001), hardback, by Allen Lane, (2002) edition by Penguin Books, paperback. Martin Pugh, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Martin Pugh taught history at the Aligarh Muslim University, India, from 1969–71, was Prof. of British History at Newcastle University till 1999. and Research Prof. in History at the Liverpool University till 2001, being a member of the advisory Board "History Magazine" to the BBC.
• http://womenshistory.about.com/od/suffrageengland/Womens_Suffrage_British.htm
• http://womenshistory.about.com/od/britishhistory/British_Womens_History.htm
• http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/30554
• http://www.spartacus-educational.com/WmanchesterS.htm
• Banks, Oliver. The Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists, 1880–1930. Vol 1. New York University Press, (1985).
• Brockington, Grace (editor), Internationalism and the arts in Britain and Europe at the fin de siècle, conference held at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, July 2006, ISBN 978-3-03911-128-2, 334 pages, publ. (2009).
• Brockington, Grace, Lecturer in History of Art, University of Bristol, Above the Battlefield: Modernism and the Peace Movement in Britain, 1900–1918, Yale University Press, (08/03/2011) – 244 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-15195-4
• Brockington, Grace. Art and pacifism in World War I . University of London (Courtauld Institute of Art), (1999) – 190 pages,
• Caine, Barbara. Victorian Feminists. Oxford University Press, (1992).
• Crawford, Elizabeth. The Women´s Suffrage Movement: a reference guide, 1866 – 1928 Routledge Eds. (1999). Also UCL Press Europe. Available in hardcover and softcover ISBN 1-84142-031-X, ISBN 978-1-84142-031-8 . 786 pages.
• Crawford, Elizabeth (20 September 2002). Enterprising Women: The Garretts and their Circle. Francis Boutle Publishers. 341 pages, ISBN 1-903427-12-6. She is a curator of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson UNISON Gallery to be opened in 2011 in the former EGA Hospital building in London.
• Glynn, Jenifer (15 January 2008). The Pioneering Garretts: Breaking the Barriers for Women. Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 978-1-84725-207-4. Jenifer Glynn was a student of history at Newnham College, Cambridge University.
• Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, 1897–1914. Garland, 1982.
• Kent, Susan Kingsley. Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860–1914. Princeton University Press, (1987).
• Phillips, Melanie. The Ascent of Woman: A History of the Suffragette Movement and the Ideas Behind It. London: Abacus, (2004). ISBN 0-349-11660-1.
• Purvis, June and Sandra Stanley Holton, eds. Votes for Women. London: Routledge, (2000). ISBN 0-415-21459-9.
• http://www.radcliffe.edu/schlesinger_library.aspx
• Rubinstein D., A different World for Women: The life of Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Harvester Wheatsheaf Eds., (1991)

• thePeerage.com