Dorothy Jewson, born in Norwich in 1884, was a controversial figure: a suffragette, a pacifist, one of the first female Members of Parliament in the UK, and a tireless worker for the disadvantaged, especially women. Dorothy, a member of the well-known Jewson family of Norwich, studied at the Norwich High School for Girls and then Girton College, Cambridge: it was at Girton that she came under the thrall of the two ideas that were to give purpose to her life: Socialism and Feminism. She played an important role in the battle to obtain the vote for women and was one of the first members of the Norwich branch of Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union: Frank Meeres describes the debacle of Emmeline's visit to Norwich in 1912 and many other aspects of the local suffragette movement; he also looks at Dorothy's campaign to improve the conditions of the poor in her home city.
Dorothy's pacifism led her to oppose the First World War, and she went on to become a full-time worker in the women's trade union movement. She became an MP in 1923, the first female MP in East Anglia. Although her time in Parliament lasted only ten months, she continued to be very active in politics, campaigning for women's issues and for peace. Her contribution was always very practical and is shown by her work on behalf of the unemployed during her ten years on Norwich City Council.
Frank Meeres develops these themes in the first full telling of the story of a
fascinating and remarkable woman.