Barbara Ayrton-Gould

Barbara Ayrton-Gould
Ayrton-Gould in 1930s
Member of Parliament
for Hendon North
In office
5 July 1945 – 3 February 1950
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byIan Orr-Ewing
Personal details
BornBarbara Bodichon Ayrton
(1886-04-03)3 April 1886
Kensington, London, England
Died14 October 1950(1950-10-14) (aged 64)
PartyLabour
SpouseGerald Gould (d. 1936)
Relations
Alma materUniversity College, London
NicknameBarbie[1]

Barbara Bodichon Ayrton-Gould (née Ayrton; 3 April 1886[2] – 14 October 1950) was a British Labour Party politician, suffragist and pacifist, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hendon North from 1945 to 1950. She was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and co-founded the United Suffragists, was a member of the National Peace Council (NPC) and was the honorary secretary of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

Background and family life

Ayrton-Gould was born on 3 April 1886 in Kensington, London, the daughter of prominent electrical engineers and inventors Hertha Ayrton and William Edward Ayrton.[2] Her middle name of Bodichon was inspired by the surname of the English educationalist and feminist Barbara Bodichon.[3]

Ayrton-Gould was educated at Notting Hill High School, then studied a degree in chemistry and physics[4] at University College London.[5]

Ayrton-Gould married the writer Gerald Gould (1885–1936),[6] The artist and writer Michael Ayrton (1921–1975) was their son. Until 1930, Gould worked as publicity manager of the Daily Herald.[5]

Shortly after the death of her mother in August 1923, Ayrton-Gould requested that a biography of her mother's achievement be written,[7] which was completed by Evelyn Sharp.[7][8]

Suffrage work

Ayrton dressed as Grace Darling to promote the WSPU Women's exhibition, in May 1909[9]

In 1906, Aytron-Gould became a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) alongside her mother,[10] and gave up her science research[4] to be a full-time organizer for them by 1909.[11] She wrote the pro-suffrage pamphlet The Democratic Plea for the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement.[5][11]

In March 1912, Ayrton-Gould participated in smashing store windows[3] in the West End of London for suffrage, for which she served time in prison.[11] On her release, in 1913, she went to France, disguised as a schoolgirl, so she would not be arrested again.[5][11]

In 1914, Ayrton-Gould left the WSPU due to frustration with the autocratic tendencies of their leaders, Christabel Pankhurst's continuing absence.[5][11] and the use of arson.[3] On 6 February 1914, she, her husband, and Evelyn Sharp founded the United Suffragists,[5] notable for accepting both male and female members.[11] The United Suffragists ended their campaign when 1918's Representation of the People Act gave women limited suffrage in the United Kingdom.[11]

Pacifism

In 1918, Ayrton-Gould became a member of the National Peace Council (NPC) and the honorary secretary of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).[10]

In 1919, Ayrton-Gould was arrested in Trafalgar Square, London, alongside Eglantyne Jebb, for handing out leaflets demanding that the government end the naval blockade of the Central Powers, which was in violation of the Defence of the Realm Act 1914.[12] Ayrton-Gould and Jebb also chalked messages on the pavement in front of the National Gallery in London about their cause.[13]

Political office

Ayrton-Gould became a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party in 1929,[14] and served as vice-Chair in 1938 and Chair of the Labour Party from 1939 to 1940.[6]

From 1922 Ayrton-Gould made four unsuccessful attempts to get elected as a Member of Parliament.[5][15] During the general election of 1929 she missed victory in Northwich by only four votes.[16] She unsuccessfully stood for Northwich again in 1931 and in the 1935 Norwood by-election.[3][17]

The fifth time that Ayrton-Gould stood for office, she was elected Member of Parliament for newly created Hendon North constituency in Labour's landslide victory of 1945.[10] The forerunner constituency, Hendon, had since 1935 grown considerably in population (and to some extent number of homes) and was split in two; it had been solidly won by Conservative candidates since 1910, however the north division fell to Gould's campaign, a feat not to be repeated until 1997 by a Labour candidate. In Parliament, the two main issues of Gould's concern were food supplies and child poverty. She succeeded in introducing a resolution which called for a government enquiry into child neglect.[18][19] Aytron-Gould also was a Justice of the Peace in Marylebone[4] and served as a member of the Arts Council.[19]

Ayrton-Gould held the seat until losing the next general election (in 1950), when it was gained by Ian Orr-Ewing (Conservative).[14] She withdrew as prospective candidate for the constituency in September because of ill health.[14] A month later on 14 October 1950 Gould died, aged 64, eight months after leaving the House of Commons.[6][19]

References

  1. ^ Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century (3rd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-15031-X.
  2. ^ a b Kelly, Serena (2004). "Gould, Barbara Bodichon Ayrton (1886–1950), suffragist and politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50046. Retrieved 17 April 2020. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ a b c d Brasher, Stephen (26 November 2015). "The Returning Officer: Suffragettes IV". New Statesman. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  4. ^ a b c Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 146, 539. ISBN 9781408844045. OCLC 1016848621.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Crawford, Elizabeth (2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928. Women's and Gender History. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-135-43401-4.
  6. ^ a b c "FORMER M.P.-Death of Mrs. Barbara Ayrton Gould". Western Morning News. 16 October 1950. Retrieved 12 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ a b Jones, Claire G. (2009), Jones, Claire G. (ed.), "Bodies of Controversy: Women and the Royal Society of London", Femininity, Mathematics and Science, 1880–1914, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, p. 175, doi:10.1057/9780230246652_8, ISBN 978-0-230-24665-2, retrieved 3 February 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  8. ^ Sharp, Evelyn (1926). Hertha Ayrton, 1854-1923, a Memoir. E. Arnold.
  9. ^ "Soldiers in petticoats: portraits of the suffragettes – in pictures". The Guardian. 19 June 2015. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  10. ^ a b c "Barbara Ayrton Gould and Caroline Ganley". UK Vote 100. 29 March 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Keller, Sarah. (23 October 2015) 'Suffragette': The Real Women Who Inspired the Film; Bio. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  12. ^ Mahood, Linda (2009), Mahood, Linda (ed.), "The Sisters and Social Action", Feminism and Voluntary Action: Eglantyne Jebb and Save the Children, 1876–1928, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, p. 142, doi:10.1057/9780230245204_9, ISBN 978-0-230-24520-4, retrieved 3 February 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  13. ^ Mayhew, Emily (11 May 2019). "Eglantyne Jebb and the war against children". The Lancet. 393 (10184): 1928–1929. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30997-3. hdl:10044/1/72417. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 31084956.
  14. ^ a b c "Mrs Ayrton-Gould Withdraws". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 5 September 1950. Retrieved 12 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  15. ^ Thackeray, David; Berry‐Waite, Lisa (2025). "'It's the party that counts'? The Rise of Labour and the Image of the Woman Politician at English Elections, c .1929–1950". Gender & History. 37 (2): 684–699. doi:10.1111/1468-0424.12756. hdl:10871/134380. ISSN 0953-5233. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  16. ^ "THIRTEEN WOMEN MEMBERS". Gloucestershire Echo. 1 June 1929. Retrieved 15 October 2015 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. ^ Craig, F. W. S. (30 December 2015). British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Springer. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-349-81467-1.
  18. ^ Perera, Kathryn (3 January 2011). "For what we have done and for what we have failed to do: Barbara Ayrton Gould". LabourList. Retrieved 3 February 2026.
  19. ^ a b c "MRS. GOULD, NOTED IN BRITISH LABOR; Party Chairman for 1939-40, Active, as Suffragette, Dies --Served in Commons". The New York Times. 16 October 1950. p. 27. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 February 2026.

Bibliography

allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Gould