Lila Clunas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Maggie Eliza Clunas 10 August 1876 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | 29 December 1968 (aged 92) Dundee, Scotland |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Alma mater | Moray House School of Education |
| Occupation | Primary School Teacher |
| Known for | Scottish suffragette and Labour Party councillor |
Lila Clunas (born Maggie Eliza Clunas, 10 August 1876 – 29 December 1968) was a Scottish suffragette, educator, and Labour Party councillor. [1] [2] She was known as one of the leading suffragettes in Dundee. [3]
Lila Clunas was born in Glasgow on 10 August 1876, [4] to parents Elsie Melvin and Hugh Clunas, a dress shop owner. [1] Her sisters were Jessie Clunas and Elsie Clunas. [5] She was schooled at Bell Baxter High School, Cupar, and completed her teacher training in Moray House Teacher Training College, Edinburgh. [1] She then moved to Dundee where she taught at the Brown Street Elementary Public School. [1] [6] She was a part of the suffragettes in 1906 until 1908.
Clunas served on the Dundee Board of Education. [2]
In later life, she lived with her sister Elsie in Broughty Ferry. [1]
In 1906, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). The following year, she joined the Women's Freedom League (WFL), serving as the secretary of the Dundee branch between 1908 –1912. [1] [7] She was succeeded as secretary by Helen Wilkie. Her sisters were also involved with the WFL Dundee branch; Jessie was a member and Elsie served as treasurer until 1913. [5] In 1909, she was a member of a 9-woman delegation to the House of Commons.
Her suffragette political activities included heckling, deputations, arrest and imprisonment, letter writing, and writing to the press. Later in life, she held office in city council and participated in avocation.
In October 1907, Clunas heckled Chancellor of the Exchequer, H.H. Asquith while he was on a visit to Newport, Fife. [8] [9]
In November 1907, Clunas attended Rt Hon Edmund Robertson's address to constituents in Dundee's Gilfillan Hall with Agnes Husband and Annot Wilkie, in which Clunas asked Robertson if he was in favour of women's right to vote. When he said he was not, Wilkie moved for a vote of no confidence in Robertson. [7]
In 1908 she was expelled from an election meeting for Winston Churchill. [1] She picketed the House of Commons in 1909. [5] In 1909, she joined the WSPU deputation in Caxton from the Women's Parliament, which led to arrest and imprisonment. In 1914 she was ejected from a Ramsay MacDonald meeting, and this led to a split between the suffragettes and the Dundee Labour Party. [1] She continued to lead and participate in deputations, one to Winston Churchill and one to the Dundee MP. [5]
During the WSPU deputation at the end of June 1909, she was arrested while presenting a petition to Prime Minister Asquith, [5] although it has been suggested that she attempted to take a swipe at him. [10] She was charged with obstruction and was sentenced to three weeks in prison. [1] She was imprisoned in the London Holloway Prison, and was the first Dundee suffragette to be held there. [11] She went on hunger strike, and was released early, "on consideration of all the circumstances and as an act of clemency". [5]
In December 1908, Clunas began a sustained letter writing campaign to Winston Churchill, MP for Dundee and President for the Board of Trade. In anticipation of Churchill's upcoming visits to Dundee, Clunas, as Secretary of the Dundee's Women's Freedom League, was ‘directed to ask whether on the occasion of his next visit to Dundee Mr Churchill would receive a deputation from the Dundee Branch of the Women's Freedom League on the question of women's suffrage.’ After an initial refusal from Churchill, Clunas maintained correspondence with his Secretary throughout 1909, ultimately securing a 30-minute interview in October 1909 with nine members of the Dundee Women's Freedom League. [12]
Clunas tried on 11 September 1912 to get into the hall in Dundee where Winston Churchill was about to give a speech, but she was not allowed to enter. She then instead fastened a card on her chest and went to the Post Office. She asked to be delivered by express message to the prime minister's residence. In 1909, the suffragettes Daisy Solomon and Elspeth McLelland tried to do the same, which resulted in the issue of a statement to the post offices in the London region to not accept such actions. However, this instruction did not reach Scotland, so Clunas' request was accepted at the post office. But, just as in 1909, her attempt to be actually delivered was refused. [13]
In 1943, she was elected as a Labour Party Councillor in the Dundee City Council, and served until 1964. [1] She had an interest in education. [5] She also advocated for libraries and parks. [1]
Clunas died 29 December 1968 in Dundee. [4]
In 2008, the building that was Brown Street Elementary School was marked with a commemoration plaque in Clunas's honour. [14]
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Sylvia was eventually expelled.
The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom from 1907 to 1961 which campaigned for women's suffrage, pacifism and sexual equality. It was founded by former members of the Women's Social and Political Union after the Pankhursts decided to rule without democratic support from their members.
Flora McKinnon Drummond was a British suffragette. Nicknamed 'The General' for her habit of leading women's rights marches wearing a military style uniform 'with an officers cap and epaulettes' and riding on a large horse, Drummond was an organiser for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and was arrested nine times for her activism in the women's suffrage movement. Drummond's main political activity was organising and leading rallies, marches and demonstrations. She was an accomplished orator and had a reputation for being able to put down hecklers with ease.
Ethel Agnes Mary Moorhead was a British suffragette and painter and was the first suffragette in Scotland to be forcibly-fed.
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Rose Elsie Neville Howey, known as Elsie Howey, was an English suffragette. She was a militant activist with the Women's Social and Political Union and was jailed at least six times between 1908 and 1912.
Mary Elizabeth Phillips was an English suffragette, feminist and socialist. She was the longest prison serving suffragette. She worked for Christabel Pankhurst but was sacked; she then worked for Sylvia Pankhurst as Mary Pederson or Mary Paterson. In later life she supported women's and children's organisations.
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Amy Sanderson née Reid (1876–1931), was a Scottish suffragette, national executive committee member of the Women's Freedom League, who was imprisoned twice. She was key speaker at the 1912 Hyde Park women's rally, after marching from Edinburgh to London, and, with Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington-Greig, was a British delegate to the 1908 and 1923 international women's congresses.
Horatia Dorothy MoloneyLancaster (variously known as Dorothy,Mary, Dolly,Miss Maloney and Miss Molony, Moloney and O'Connor) was an Irish suffragette campaigner and member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She became Organiser to the London Council of the Women's Freedom League in 1908, following its split from the WSPU. She famously disrupted the 1908 Dundee by-election by ringing a bell every time Winston Churchill attempted to address a crowd demanding that he apologize for insulting remarks he had made about the women's suffrage movement.
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