Beatrice Harraden

[John Simkin]

Beatrice Harraden was born in London on 24th January 1864. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College, Queen's College, and Bedford College. She also spent time in Dresden.

Harraden's first novel, Ships That Pass in the Night, was published in 1893. This was followed by In Varying Moods (1894) The Remittance Man (1897)

The Fowler (1899) and The Scholar's Daughter (1906).

In 1905 Harraden joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Millicent Fawcett, like other members of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), feared that the militant actions of the WSPU would alienate potential supporters of women's suffrage. However, Fawcett and other leaders of the NUWSS admired the courage of the suffragettes and at first were unwilling to criticize members of the WSPU. In October 1906 Anne Cobden Sanderson, a former leading figure in the NUWSS, was arrested, along with members of the WSPU, Mary Gawthorpe, Charlotte Despard and Emmeline Pankhurst, in a large demonstration outside the House of Commons. After Sanderson's release the NUWSS organized a banquet at the Savoy on 11th December. Harraden sat between Minnie Baldock and Annie Kenney at the banquet.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WharradenB.htm