10 Facts About Sophia Sturge

Sophia Sturge was the first daughter of the Quaker abolitionist Joseph Sturge and his second wife Hannah Sturge born Dickinson.

Sophia Sturge was a pacifist who emphasised peace-making by women, worked with the Neutrality League to oppose WWI, initiated a programme to help enemy aliens in WWI and contributed to post-war relief for German children.

Sophia Sturge was a president of Young British Women's Temperance Association and a member of the Women's Liberal Social Council.

Sophia Sturge taught young girls the art of basket-making, leading to a self-sustaining enterprise that sold many of its products in Britain.

Sophia Sturge lived there for seven years but then returned to England for health reasons.

Sophia Sturge opposed the Second Boer War and supported the campaign against it led by the Nobel Prize winner Norman Angell.

Sophia Sturge became a member of the Union of Democratic Control, which was a British pressure group formed in 1914.

Sophia Sturge wrote a letter to Stephen Hobhouse, a fellow Quaker and prominent peace campaigner, to suggest that the enemy aliens would need help.

Sophia Sturge was on the Committee to organize British participation.

Sophia Sturge spoke at many British schools and published several works for children, including The Children of Hunger, a collection of children's letters from Germany and Austria written after the First World War.