44 Facts About Eleanor Rathbone

Eleanor Florence Rathbone was an independent British Member of Parliament and long-term campaigner for family allowance and for women's rights.

Eleanor Rathbone was a member of the noted Rathbone family of Liverpool.

Eleanor Rathbone was educated mainly at home, tutored in Latin and Greek by feminist Janet Case, later attending Kensington High School, London.

Eleanor Rathbone went on to attend Somerville College, Oxford, against the protests of her mother, and received Classics coaching from Lucy Mary Silcox.

Eleanor Rathbone studied with tutors outside of Somerville, which at that time did not yet have a Classics tutor, taking Roman History with Henry Francis Pelham, Moral Philosophy with Edward Caird, and Greek History with Reginald Macan.

Eleanor Rathbone was devoted to her studies, taking little part in the entertainments available to female students such as games, and engaging in limited socialising with male students.

Eleanor Rathbone's handwriting was reportedly so poor that she had to dictate her final exam papers to a typist, and she received a result in the Second class.

In 1903 Eleanor Rathbone published their Report on the results of a Special Inquiry into the conditions of Labour at the Liverpool Docks, a report that revealed the impact of erratic docker's wages on the living standards of their wives and children.

Eleanor Rathbone joined the Liverpool Women's Suffrage Society shortly after university and soon became a member of the executive committee of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.

Eleanor Rathbone wrote a series of articles for suffragist magazine The Common Cause.

Eleanor Rathbone was elected as an independent member of Liverpool City Council in 1910 for the seat of Granby Ward, a position she retained until 1935.

Eleanor Rathbone campaigned for a number of social and political issues at the local level and was involved in establishing various groups and charitable organisations.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Eleanor Rathbone organised the Town Hall Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association to support wives and dependants of soldiers.

Eleanor Rathbone formed the Liverpool 1918 Club alongside Elizabeth Macadam, a luncheon club for women aiming to maintain friendships and professional contacts forged during the First World War and women's suffrage campaign.

In 1919, Eleanor Rathbone co-founded the Liverpool Personal Service Society with social worker Dorothy Keeling.

From 1918 onwards, Eleanor Rathbone campaigned for a system of family allowances paid directly to mothers.

Eleanor Rathbone opposed violent repression of rebellion in Ireland.

Eleanor Rathbone campaigned for women's rights in India, although in a misguided manner.

Eleanor Rathbone claimed that there had been a 50 percent increase in wives under the age of 15 and a quadrupling of wives under 5 years old since 1921, and that the lives of women were being blighted.

Eleanor Rathbone thought Indians incapable of helping themselves and in need of firmer instruction from British authorities, who should enforce change, rather than merely encourage it.

Eleanor Rathbone herself was confronted by Rama Rau, an Indian feminist, who said that the British were simply not well-placed to understand Indian culture and that "educated Indian women were working in every province of their country to eradicate social evils and outmoded customs and prejudices, and we refused to accept the assertion that the removal of social evils in Indian society was the responsibility of the British".

Eleanor Rathbone contested the 1922 General Election as an Independent candidate at Liverpool East Toxteth against the sitting Unionist MP and was defeated.

In 1929 Eleanor Rathbone entered parliament as an independent MP for the Combined English Universities.

Eleanor Rathbone realised the nature of Nazi Germany and in the 1930s joined the British Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi Council to support human rights.

Eleanor Rathbone favoured rearmament and argued for its necessity in the Manchester Guardian.

Eleanor Rathbone became an outspoken critic of appeasement in Parliament.

Eleanor Rathbone denounced British complacency in Hitler's remilitarisation of the Rhineland, and the Italian conquest of Abyssinia.

Eleanor Rathbone supported the League of Nations' attempt to impose sanctions on Italy, although she expressed sympathy for France's opposition to the sanctions including oil, as France had no oil.

Eleanor Rathbone criticised when Britain, having imposed sanctions on Italy, subsequently lifted them, and was appalled when in January 1939, on a visit to Italy by Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax at a state banquet in Rome, Mr Chamberlain set the seal of social cordiality on the Abyssinian betrayal by raising his glass to "His Majesty the King of Italy, Emperor of Ethiopia".

Eleanor Rathbone's determination was such that junior ministers and civil servants of the Foreign Office would reputedly duck behind pillars when they saw her coming.

Eleanor Rathbone supported the points of Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee but earned the enmity of Neville Chamberlain.

In 1936, Eleanor Rathbone was one of several people who supported the British Provisional Committee for the Defence of Leon Trotsky, and signed a letter to the Manchester Guardian defending Trotsky's right to asylum and calling for an international inquiry into the Moscow Trials.

On 30 September 1938, Eleanor Rathbone denounced the just-publicised Munich Agreement.

Eleanor Rathbone pressured the parliament to aid the Czechoslovaks and grant entry for dissident Germans, Austrians and Jews.

Eleanor Rathbone often supported unpopular causes such as German and Italian internees.

Later, Eleanor Rathbone achieved limited success when the minister agreed not to allow the deportation of pregnant women or young children during the winter months.

Eleanor Rathbone believed that concern for others was the foundation of ethics.

Eleanor Rathbone was a first cousin once-removed of the actor Basil Eleanor Rathbone.

Eleanor Rathbone's great-niece, Jenny Rathbone, was a Labour councillor in Islington and later was the Parliamentary Candidate for the Labour Party in the South Wales constituency of Cardiff Central at the 2010 General Election.

Eleanor Rathbone was elected to the National Assembly for Wales as representative for Cardiff Central in the 2011 National Assembly elections.

Cox and Schaerli talk about Eleanor Rathbone's working and domestic arrangements with Elizabeth Macadam, and of the demands Eleanor Rathbone placed on her employees and her style of working.

An August 1977 interview took place with Helga Wolff, who became an employee of Eleanor Rathbone after being introduced by Erna Nelki.

In 1945, the year before her death, Eleanor Rathbone saw the Family Allowances Act pass into law.

The University of Liverpool acknowledges Rathbone by way of its Eleanor Rathbone Building; the site houses the School of Law and Social Justice and the Department of Psychology, as well as the Eleanor Rathbone Theatre used for stage productions and musical performances.