Mrs Edith How-Martyn
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Married
Born: 1875
Died: 1954
Place of birth: London, Middlesex, England
Education: North London Collegiate School; University College, Aberystwyth, Wales
Occupation: Lecturer
Main Suffrage Society: WFL
Other Societies: WSPU
Society Role: Honorary secretary; head of militant dept.
Arrest Record: Yes
Recorded Entries: 1
Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/m0f01kt
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)
Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/resource/3229/the-womens-freedom-league
https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3203/what-were-the-suffrage-campaigners-fighting-for
Family information: Married George Martin in 1899.
Additional Information: Edith was an early member of the WSPU, and in 1906 was jointly appointed, with Charlotte Despard, as honorary secretary of the WSPU. She gave up her job as a mathematics lecturer to devote herself to the cause. She was arrested in 1906 in a scuffle with police in the lobby of the House of Commons, and served one month of a two-month sentence. Together with Charlotte Despard, she broke away from the WSPU in 1907 to form the Women's Freedom League (WFL). She had come to believe that violent militancy would not win women the vote, but that law-breaking in the form of passive resistance would better win over politicians and members of the public. Edith was thence honorary secretary of the WFL from 1907 until 1911, when she became head of the 'Political and Militant' department. She resigned due to ill health in 1912, but was disappointed with what the society had achieved.
Other Suffrage Activities: Edith was a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which was how she had come to first hear about the WSPU. In the 1918 general elections after the war, she stood as an independent candidate in Hendon, London, but was unsuccessful. However, in 1919, she was the first woman member of the Middlesex County Council and was eventually its first woman chairman. She became actively involved in the birth control movement, becoming honorary director of the Birth Control International Information Centre.