Elsie Edith Bowerman was a British lawyer, suffragette, political activist, and RMS Titanic survivor.
19 Facts About Elsie Bowerman
2.
Elsie Edith Bowerman was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the only daughter of William Bowerman and his wife Edith Martha Barber.
3.
Elsie Bowerman's father, William, was a prosperous businessman and died when Elsie was five years old.
4.
Elsie Bowerman attended Wycombe Abbey as a boarder from the age of 11 in 1901, becoming the youngest student there.
5.
Elsie Bowerman later wrote the biography of Frances Dove, her headmistress during her time at Wycombe.
6.
Elsie Bowerman once had Emmeline Pankhurst stay for a night when she gave a talk in nearby Cambridge.
7.
Elsie Bowerman campaigned on behalf of the WSPU at the general election in 1910.
8.
Elsie Bowerman addressed an open-air meeting to an audience of 1000 in Hastings, alongside Evelyn Wharry and Victor Duval.
9.
Elsie Bowerman's mother, Edith, who was a member of the WSPU, took part in this event.
10.
Elsie Bowerman later told author Antonia Raeburn that 'a nearby policeman [gave] her a blow on the head.
11.
In 1914, Elsie Bowerman was appointed the Eastbourne district organiser for the WSPU.
12.
Elsie Bowerman was then asked by Evelina Haverfield to join the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service.
13.
Elsie Bowerman worked as an orderly in Serbia during 1916 and 1917, and on her way back to England witnessed the beginnings of the Russian Revolution in Petrograd in March 1917.
14.
Alongside fellow former suffragette Flora Drummond, Elsie Bowerman co-founded The Women's Guild of Empire in later 1919 or early 1920.
15.
Elsie Bowerman joined Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1924, practising till 1938.
16.
Elsie Bowerman was the first woman barrister to appear at the Old Bailey, in a case in which she was part of a prosecuting team against Harry Pollitt, a prominent communist, for libel.
17.
Elsie Bowerman practiced on the South Eastern Circuit, one of the regional routes that barristers travelled on in England and Wales.
18.
Elsie Bowerman wrote a legal book titled The Law of Child Protection.
19.
The archives of Elsie Bowerman are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 7ELB.