29 Facts About Rachel Barrett

Rachel Barrett was a Welsh suffragette and newspaper editor born in Carmarthen.

In 1907, she became a WSPU organiser, and after Christabel Pankhurst fled to Paris, Barrett became joint organiser of the national WSPU campaign.

Rachel Barrett was born in Carmarthen in 1874 to Rees Rachel Barrett, a land and road surveyor, and his second wife Anne Jones, both Welsh-speakers.

Rachel Barrett grew up in the town of Llandeilo with her elder brother Rees and a younger sister, Janette.

Rachel Barrett was educated at a boarding school in Stroud, along with her sister, and won a scholarship to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Rachel Barrett graduated in 1904 with an external London BSc degree and became a science teacher.

Towards the end of 1906 Rachel Barrett attended a suffrage rally in Cardiff and was inspired by a speech from Nellie Martel to join the Women's Social and Political Union at the end of the meeting.

Rachel Barrett spoke on behalf of the WSPU at many meetings, often in Welsh, which conflicted with her role as a schoolteacher as her headmistress disapproved of the publicity, especially after news of Rachel Barrett being flour-bombed with Adela Pankhurst at a rally in Cardiff Docks made the local papers.

In July 1907, Rachel Barrett resigned as a teacher and enrolled at the London School of Economics, near the WSPU headquarters at Clement's Inn, intending to study economics and sociology and to work towards her DSc.

Rachel Barrett influenced the American student Alice Paul, and both sold copies of Votes for Women.

Rachel Barrett spent 1908 first organising a campaign in Nottingham and then working on the by-elections in both Dewsbury and Dundee where Rachel Barrett supported Scottish suffragette campaigners Helen Fraser and Elsa Gye and Mary Gawthorpe.

Rachel Barrett soon agreed to resume her role as a paid organiser for he WSPU and was sent to Newport in south-east Wales to continue her duties.

In 1910, Rachel Barrett was chosen to lead a group of women to talk to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, regarding the Liberal Party's role in supporting the first Conciliation Bill.

In 1912, Rachel Barrett was selected by Kenney, following the raid by police on Clement's Inn and Christabel Pankhurst's subsequent flight to Paris.

Rachel Barrett moved back to London and within a few months she was given the role of assistant editor of the WSPU newspaper, The Suffragette, on its launch in October 1912.

Rachel Barrett immediately went on hunger strike, was transferred to Canterbury Prison, and after five days she was released under the "Cat and Mouse Act".

Rachel Barrett moved into "Mouse Castle", 2 Campden Hill Square, home of the Brackenbury family who were sympathetic suffragists.

Rachel Barrett went back on hunger strike and after four days was again released to "Mouse Castle".

Wylie at St John's Wood, known as the "Mouse Hole" and for the third time, Rachel Barrett was released after a hunger strike, but this time, she successfully eluded the authorities and fled to a nursing home in Edinburgh where she remained until December 1913.

Rachel Barrett continued to edit The Suffragette, but she travelled to Paris to discuss the future of the newspaper with Christabel Pankhurst after its offices were raided in May 1914.

Rachel Barrett moved to Edinburgh with Ida Wylie and assumed the pseudonym "Miss Ashworth".

Rachel Barrett continued to publish the paper until its final edition on the week after the First World War was declared.

Rachel Barrett was a contributor to the WSPU 'Victory Fund' which was launched in 1916 to sponsor campaigns against "a compromise peace" and industrial strikes.

Rachel Barrett understood the international connections of suffrage and contacted important Canadian and American campaigners for financial support.

Rachel Barrett attempted to publish a memoir of Marshall in the late 1940s, but it was turned down for publication.

Rachel Barrett moved to Sible Hedingham in Essex in the early 1930s and joined the Sible Hedingham Women's Institute in 1934, remaining a member until 1948.

When Rachel Barrett died, she left the residue of her estate to Wylie.

Rachel Barrett died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 26 August 1953 at the Carylls Nursing Home in Faygate, Sussex.

Rachel Barrett left Lamb Cottage to her niece Gwyneth Anderson, who lived there with her husband, the British poet, J Redwood Anderson.