Suffragette Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy (1833-1918) was a well known poet, author and women's rights campaigner. Her brother Joseph received a private school education and became Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge university however she received only 2 years of formal education. Elizabeth became a member of the Manchester Women's Suffrage Society in 1865, she was a founding member of the Women's Franchise League as well as the Emancipation Union. She campaigned for women's educational provision and after educating herself at home and coming into an inheritance she bought a girls school. She believed that teaching was a highly skilled occupation and that specialist training was necessary. In 1865 she was one of the members of the Kensington Society, a discussion group also attended by Elizabeth Garrett and Emily Davis.