Mary Pollock Grant

Mary (May) Pollock Grant
Born	Mary Pollock Grant 2 December 1876 Partick, Glasgow, Scotland
Died	August 1957 Tunbridge Wells
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	suffragette, politician, missionary and policewoman

Mary (May) Pollock Grant (2 December 1876-August 1957) also known as Marion Pollock, was a Scottish suffragette,^[1] Liberal Party politician, missionary and policewoman.^[2]

Early life and work

Grant was born in Partick, Glasgow, the eldest daughter of Eliza Muirhead and Dr Charles Martin Grant, the minister of St Mark's parish church in Dundee.^[1][2] She was educated at the High School of Dundee and in Nordausques, France.^[3] She worked as a Church of Scotland missionary in Scotland^[2] and from 1905 she became an educational Missionary in India.^[4]

Women's rights

In 1911, after returning to Scotland from India she worked for women's rights in Dundee^[3] as a member of the militant Women's Social and Political Union. In December 1912 she was imprisoned at Perth Prison for smuggling herself with others into the Music Hall Aberdeen. They had intended to disrupt a Liberal meeting with the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George. She was imprisoned at Perth under the name Marion Pollock.^[5] Throughout 1913 and 1914 she wrote many letters to the press and was regularly removed from public meetings for being disruptive.^[1] Disguised in widow’s tweeds and glasses, she managed to get into a Labour meeting held by Ramsay MacDonald in the Gilfillan Memorial Hall, but was roughly dragged out by eight burly men – an onlooker describes this as “one of the strongest arguments for women’s suffrage that I have ever seen.”^[4]

World War I

At the outbreak of war in 1914 she enlisted as a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment at Caird Hospital, Dundee. In 1916 she joined Margaret Damer Dawson's Women Police Service, working first in a munitions factory^[2] and then serving in London as a Constable, then a Sergeant and, by 1918, had reached the rank of Sub-Inspector. She left the organisation at the end of the war.^[3]

Political career

After the war Grant became involved in politics and joined the Liberal party. To go from suffragette to policewoman to Liberal politician was a path also trodden by Mary Sophia Allen. By 1922 she was spending much of her time as a public lecturer on politics and social problems.^[3] She was then selected as a David Lloyd George supporting Liberal candidate for Leeds South East constituency for the general election. Her opponent was the sitting Labour MP James O'Grady who had been returned unopposed in 1918. As there was no Unionist candidate she polled a strong vote but did not win.

General Election 1922: Leeds South East[6] Electorate 35,074
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James O'Grady	13,676	58.9	n/a
	National Liberal	Miss Mary Pollock Grant	9,554	41.1	n/a
Majority			4,122	17.8	n/a
Turnout				66.2	n/a
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

After the Lloyd George and H. H. Asquith wings of the Liberals re-united, she stood as Liberal candidate in Pontefract, where the Liberal candidate had come third in 1922. Once again it was a three-cornered contest and Grant was unable to avoid a squeeze on the Liberal vote;

General Election 1923: Pontefract[6] Electorate 33,425
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Tom Smith	11,134	45.3
	Unionist	Albert Newby Braithwaite	8,872	36.1
	Liberal	Miss Mary Pollock Grant	4,567	18.6
Majority			2,262	9.2
Turnout				73.5
	Labour hold		Swing

She did not contest the 1924 General Election. By July 1928 she was selected as Liberal candidate for Salford West,^[7] another Labour/Unionist marginal where the Liberals were not expected to do that well. She again finished third.

General Election 1929: Salford West[6] Electorate 43,806
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alexander Wilkinson Frederick Haycock	15,647	42.8
	Unionist	Frederick Wolfe Astbury	15,289	41.8
	Liberal	Miss Mary Pollock Grant	5,614	15.4
Majority			358	1.0
Turnout				83.4
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

Later life

In the 1930s she became a Christian Scientist and worked as a healer for 20 years. She undertook civil defence work in London during the Second World War.^[4] In 1953 she was disabled by a stroke. She died in August 1957 in Tunbridge Wells.^[2]

References

1. A Guid Cause: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Scotland, by Leah Leneman (1991)
2. Ewan, Elizabeth; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Siân (2006). The biographical dictionary of Scottish women: from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 146–147. ISBN 0748617132.
3. The Woman's Year Book, 1923
4. http://www.dundeewomenstrail.org.uk/grant-mary-pollock-suffragette/
5. http://www.latebloomers.co.uk/wforum/ScottishSuffragists/marygrant.html
6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
7. Angus Evening Telegraph, 27 Jul 1928