Lady Frances Balfour

Lady Frances Balfour
Balfour in 1919
Born
Frances Campbell

22 February 1858
Kensington, London, England
Died25 February 1931(1931-02-25) (aged 73)
London, England
OrganizationNational Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS)
Known forWomen's rights activism and authorship
Political party
  • Whig until 1886
  • Liberal Unionists
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1879; died 1911)​
Children5
Parent(s)George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll
Lady Elizabeth Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
RelativesJohn Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll (brother)
Lord Colin Campbell (brother)
Lady Victoria Campbell (sister)
George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland (maternal grandfather)
Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland (maternal grandmother)

Lady Frances Balfour (née Campbell; 22 February 1858 – 25 February 1931)[1] was a British aristocrat, biographer, writer, and suffragist. She was one of the highest-ranking members of the British aristocracy to assume a leadership role in the Women's suffrage campaign in the United Kingdom. Balfour was a member of the executive committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage (NUWSS) from 1896 to 1919. As a non-violent suffragist, she was opposed to the militant actions of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).

Family and early life

Frances Campbell was born on 22 February 1858 at Argyll Lodge in Kensington, London, England.[2] She was the tenth child of British Liberal politician and Scottish peer George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (eldest daughter of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland and Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland).[3][4] Her siblings included John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, Lord Colin Campbell and Lady Victoria Campbell.[1]

Lady Frances Campbell had a hip joint disease and from early childhood was in constant pain and walked with a limp.[2] Her parents were deeply religious and involved in several different campaigns for social reform.[5] She reportedly helped with these campaigns as a child, for example by knitting garments to be sent to the children of former slaves after slavery was formally banned by the government within the British territories in 1833.

In February 1877, she slipped into the gallery of the House of Lords to listen to her father give a speech. She became a regular attendee to the Ladies Gallery in Parliament,[6] attending major debates over Ireland, South Africa, education and church policy.[5]

In 1879, she married Eustace Balfour, a London-based Scottish architect.[7] Eustace's uncle, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, had served three terms as Britain's prime minister. Her brother-in-law, Arthur Balfour, was also a Conservative British prime minister from 1902 to 1905.[8] However, in opposition to the Conservative politics of her husband's family, Balfour, along with both her parents, supported Liberal statesman William Ewart Gladstone and his government when she was a young woman. Lady Balfour and her husband never overcame these political differences and spent less and less time together. Hartley wrote that theirs was "not a particularly happy marriage."[9] Despite this, the Balfours had five children:[2][10]

Her husband Eustace Balfour died on 14 February 1911.[12] She survived her husband by 20 years.[1][2]

Suffrage

Lady Balfour was one of the highest-ranking members of the aristocracy to have a leadership role in the British women's suffrage campaign.[13] She began her work for women's suffrage in 1889, when she became the constitutionalists' main liaison with Parliament.[6][10] She was present in Parliament when a private members suffrage bill passed a second reading by 230 votes to 159 votes, a majority of 71, although the bill did not advance as the government would not grant parliamentary time.[6][14]

In 1897, Lady Balfour became a member of the executive committee of the newly formed National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), whose President was Millicent Garrett Fawcett. Lady Balfour served the NUWSS executive committee from its inception until some women got the vote in 1918.[6][10] Lady Balfour and Fawcett also founded a women’s Liberal Unionist organisation.[6]

In 1899, Lady Balfour addressed the Political Section of the Second International Congress of Women on the topic of "Women's Status in Local Government."[15] She led the suffragist Mud March demonstration on 9 February 1907, alongside Fawcett.[2][10]

Lady Balfour was also the President of the London Society of Women's Suffrage,[2] the largest single suffrage group in Britain, from 1896 to 1919. In addition, she served as President of the Lyceum Club, which rendered services to professional women, from 1903 to 1915. When her work for votes for women was almost over, Frances joined the National Council of Women in 1917, and served as president from 1921 to 1923.[16] In 1910, Lady Balfour was a member of the "Royal Commission upon the Law of Divorce and its Administration."[17]

Lady Balfour wrote political commentary in the monthly magazine National Review under the pseudonym "Grille."[6] She was joint editor of Women and Progress with Nora Vynne. The magazine was dedicated to achieving equal rights for men and women. They were happy to see younger women excluded from having the vote, as long as it applied equally to young men as well. The magazine appeared to be about to be a success when shortage of funds obliged it to fold in June 1914.[18] Today the magazine serves as a source of early suffrage history.[10]

Lady Balfour published six books,[2] writing biographies, including of her friend Dr. Elsie Inglis.[19] She completed her two-volume autobiography Ne Obliviscaris (Dinna Forget) in 1930.[20]

Lyceum Club

The writer Constance Smedley had decided to start a new type of club for women. Another founder, Jessie Trimble, proposed that the new club be called the Lyceum Club, and the new committee arranged for Smedley to meet Lady Balfour. The committee had decided to extend their net for new members from writers, to professional women and even the daughters or wives of prominent men. In 1903, Balfour agreed to lead the new club and served as their chair until 1915.[21] Her vice chair was Enid Moberly Bell, daughter of Charles Frederic Moberly Bell, editor of The Times.[22]

Death

Lady Balfour died in London on 25 February 1931 from bronchial pneumonia[4] and heart failure, and was buried at Whittingehame, the Balfour family home in East Lothian, Scotland.[5]

Publications

  • Dr Elsie Inglis (1920)
  • The Life of George, Fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1923)
  • Lady Victoria Campbell: a memoir (1911)
  • A Memoir of Lord Balfour of Burleigh, KT. (1924)
  • Dr MacGregor of St Cuthberts: A Memoir (1912)
  • Life and Letters if the Reverend James MacGregor (1912)
  • Ne Obliviscaris. Dinna Forget. (1930)
  • In Memoriam the Lady Frances Balfour, 1881-1931 (Newspaper cuttings compiled by the Committee of the Travellers' Aid Society (1931)

Distinctions and legacy

References

  1. ^ a b c Huffman, Joan B. (2018). Lady Frances: Frances Balfour, Aristocrat Suffragist. Troubador Publishing. ISBN 978-1788035057. OCLC 971535238.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Huffman, Joan B. (23 September 2004), "Balfour [née Campbell], Lady Frances (1858–1931), suffragist leader and churchwoman", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30554, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 25 February 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  3. ^ Dod, Robert Phipps. (1860). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Whitaker and Co. p. 92.
  4. ^ a b Knox, William (6 March 2006). The Lives of Scottish Women: Women and Scottish Society 1800-1980. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 98–114. ISBN 978-0-7486-2655-7.
  5. ^ a b c Simkin, John (1997). "Frances Balfour". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Pedersen, Susan (17 May 2022). "Lady Frances Balfour: A Woman in Parliament before Enfranchisement". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 25 February 2026.
  7. ^ Zebel, Sydney H. (10 May 1973). Balfour: A Political Biography. CUP Archive. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-521-08536-6.
  8. ^ Young, Kenneth (1963). Arthur James Balfour: The Happy Life of the Politician, Prime Minister, Statesman, and Philosopher, 1848-1930. G. Bell.
  9. ^ Hartley, Cathy (15 April 2013). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. Routledge. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-135-35534-0.
  10. ^ a b c d e Crawford, Elizabeth (2001). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928. Psychology Press. pp. 30, 216, 462. ISBN 978-0-415-23926-4.
  11. ^ Percy, Clayre (23 September 2004), "Dugdale [née Balfour], Blanche Elizabeth Campbell [Baffy] (1880–1948), author and Zionist", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/62138, ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8, retrieved 25 February 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  12. ^ "Colonel Eustace Balfour". The Times. No. 39509. London. 15 February 1911. p. 11.
  13. ^ "Scottish quote of the day: Lady Frances Balfour, writer and suffragist". The Scotsman. 24 October 2012. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  14. ^ Joannou, Maroula; Purvis, June (1998). The Women's Suffrage Movement: New Feminist Perspectives. Manchester University Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-7190-4860-9.
  15. ^ Women in Politics: Being the Political Section of the International Congress of Women, London, July 1899. Unwin. 1900. pp. 46–47.
  16. ^ Glick, Daphne (1995). The National Council of Women of Great Britain: the first one hundred years. National Council of Women of Great Britain. ISBN 978-0900915079.
  17. ^ The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality. Vol. 68. Ingram brothers. 1910. p. 100.
  18. ^ Sebba, Anne M. (21 May 2009) "Vynne, Eleanora Mary Susanna [Nora] (1857–1914), journalist and political activist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/55976. Retrieved 11 August 2020. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  19. ^ Brock, Claire, ed. (31 July 2024). Women in Medicine in the Long Nineteenth Century. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781003265269.
  20. ^ Bush, Julia (2001). "Ladylike Lives? Upper Class Women's Autobiographies and the Politics of Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain". Literature & History. 10 (2): 42–61. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  21. ^ "History of Lyceum". International Lyceum Clubs. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  22. ^ Doughan, David; Gordon, Peter (2006). Women, Clubs and Associations in Britain. New York: Routledge. p. 54. ISBN 9780415368667. OCLC 61448123. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  23. ^ "Historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett unveiled in Parliament Square". Gov.uk. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  24. ^ Topping, Alexandra (24 April 2018). "First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  25. ^ "Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth". iNews. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  26. ^ "Malicious Mischief?". Scottish Government. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
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