Agnes Harben

Agnes Helen Harben (née Bostock; 15 September 1879 – 29 October 1961) was a British suffragist leader who also supported the militant suffragette hunger strikers, and was a founder of the United Suffragists.

Agnes Harben
Born
Agnes Helen Bostock

15 September 1842
Died29 October 1961
Jersey
OrganizationUnited Suffragists
Known forsuffragist leadership and international delegate for women Fabian Society
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1899)​
Children4 including Henry Eric Southey Harben
Relatives10 siblings

Family and life

Harben was born on 15 September 1879, at 7 North Street, Horsham, Sussex,[1] to Dr. Edward Ingram Bostock, J.P. (1842-1946) who later became chairman of the Horsham Urban District Council and Sarah Southey Bostock née Baker (1845-1920), and she was the fourth of ten siblings:[2]

Agnes Bostock married Henry Devenish Harben (of Warnham Lodge[4]) on 2 September 1899 at St. Mary's Church,[5] and later moved to Newland Park, Chalfont St. Peter (her husband inherited in 1910).[6] The Harbens had four children: Major Henry Eric Southey Harben (1900 - 1971) and County cricketer for Sussex; Edward (born 1901); Agnes Mary (born 1903) and Naomi (1907-1996)[7]

Harben died on 29 October 1961, in the Jersey parish of St. Saviour.[8]

Political activism

Harben was a member of the Fabian society, a socialist and internationalist debating society, which influenced the formation of the Labour movement.[9]

Harben and her husband supported the women's right to vote[10][11] and moved in senior political and intellectual circles, for example dining on 6 February 1912 with Baron Cecil Harmsworth, a Liberal MP,[12] and entertained other political activists and writers e.g. Emmeline Pankhurst, George Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb and H. G. Wells.[6] Harben's husband was close to the Pankhursts and provided funding to the WSPU and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. [11] Although Harben herself was not imprisoned for militant action, she gave practical support, rather than denounce those women who did so, and raised money e.g. by an 'American Fair'.[13] The Harbens provided a home for Annie Kenney after one of her imprisonments, supported Rachel Barrett and many other suffragettes, released from prison to aid recovery from hunger strike and force-feeding. Harben's husband left the Liberal Party as a result of the policy and lack of action about this cruel treatment.[11][14]

In autumn 1914, the Harbens' support for women released to recover before being re-arrested (under the 'Cat and Mouse Act' ) suddenly brought the 'county set' in contact with 'criminals' as philosopher C.E.M. Joad remarked:

"Suffragettes, let out of prison under the Cat and Mouse Act, used to go to Newlands to recuperate, before returning to prison for a fresh bout of torture. When the county called, as the county still did, it was embarrassed to find haggard-looking young women in dressing-gowns and djibbahs reclining on sofas in the Newlands drawing-room talking unashamedly about their prison experiences. This social clash of county and criminals at Newlands was an early example of the mixing of different social strata which the war was soon to make a familiar event in national life. At that time it was considered startling enough, and it required all the tact of Harben and his socially very competent wife to oil the wheels of tea-table intercourse, and to fill the embarrassed pauses which punctuated any attempt at conversation."[14]

United Suffragists and international leagues

In 1913, Agnes and her husband were delegates to the 7th Women's International League in Budapest, Hungary, with Harben representing the Fabians,[14] and in autumn 1915, to an international women's conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands to discuss peace, contrary to Millicent Fawcett and the NUWSS's position.[15]

On 13 February 1914, Harben became one of the founder committee[16] members of the United Suffragists which brought together militant and non-militant women and included men, like her husband, along with Louisa Garrett Anderson, H. J. Gillespie, Gerald Gould, Bessie Lansbury and George Lansbury, Mary Neal, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Julia Scurr and John Scurr, Evelyn Sharp, and Edith Ayrton; Louise Eates and Lena Ashwell also became members in 1914, and the organisation grew rapidly, and it took over the publishing of the weekly Votes for Women from the militant WSPU.[11] United Suffragists established active groups in Amersham, Stroud, Edinburgh and in by-election campaigns in Poplar and Bethnal Green.[11]

United Suffragist colours were purple, white and orange used in banners for suffrage events and processions, but their activity extended to clubs for working women in Southwark and grew across the country as they took members from WPSU and NUWSS e.g. in Birmingham and Portsmouth. On the achievement of (some) women's right to vote, via the Representation of the People Act 1918, the United Suffragists held major celebration events with NUWSS on 13 March 1918, and their own event on16 March 1918, presenting their Votes for Women editor, Evelyn Sharp with a book signed by the members (Note: it is not known, but highly likely that Harben signed it).[11]

Cat and Mouse Act poster 1914

In 1915, Harben attending the International Women's Suffrage Alliance helped to establish the Women's International League of Great Britain with Sylvia Pankhurst, Mary Sheepshanks, Charlotte Despard, Helen Crawfurd, Mary Barbour, Agnes Dollan, Ethel Snowden, Ellen Wilkinson, Mary Corbett-Ashby, Selina Cooper, Helena Swanwick, Olive Schreiner.[15]

Harben later joined the League of Rights for Soldiers and Sailors Wives and Relatives with others including George & Bessie Lansbury.[11]

Death

Harben died on 29 October 1961, in the Jersey parish of St. Saviour.[8]

References
  1. Dale, Martin (15 February 2019). A-Z of Horsham : places-people-history. Stroud. ISBN 978-1-4456-8632-5. OCLC 1090435716.
  2. "Edward Lyon Bostock". Saint Ronan's School. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  3. "NEVILLE STANLEY BOSTOCK". Saint Ronan's School. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  4. "WATER TOWER AT THE FORMER WARNHAM LODGE, Warnham - 1285020 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  5. "Our History – St Mary's Horsham". www.stmaryshorsham.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  6. AdseRudita. "Newland Park, Chalfont St Peter Information". Military Vehicles Center (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2021-01-20.
  7. Dennett, Laurie (1998). A sense of security : 150 years of Prudential. Cambridge: Granta Editions. p. 47. ISBN 1-85757-060-X. OCLC 60215084.
  8. "Will and testament of Agnes Helen Harben née Bostock". Jersey Heritage. 21 November 1961. D/Y/B1/66/49. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  9. "Fabian Society". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
  10. "Mr and Mrs H.D.Harben". Votes for Women. 4 February 1912.
  11. Crawford, Elizabeth (1999). The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866-1928. London: UCL Press. pp. 269–271, 694. ISBN 1-84142-031-X. OCLC 59376897.
  12. Harmsworth, Cecil (2016). Thorpe, Andrew; Toye, Richard (eds.). 'Parliament and Politics in the Age of Asquith and Lloyd George'. The Diaries of Cecil Harmsworth, M.P. 1909-1922. 50. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Historic Society. p. 109. ISBN 9781107162457.
  13. "The Suffragette February 6 1914 | LSE Digital Library". digital.library.lse.ac.uk. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  14. "Henry Devenish Harben". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
  15. "Women's International League". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  16. Holtan, Sandra (1980). FEMINISM AND DEMOCRACY: THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN. WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES 1897-1918. Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Stirling: The University of Stirling. pp. 346, footnote 2.
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