From Liberal to Labour with Women's Suffrage: The Story of Catherine Marshall

Jeremy Caple is an assistant professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier
University in Waterloo.

The life of Catherine Marshall proves to be an excellent vehicle for the
study of the political education of the suffragist movement in early
20th-century Britain. The daughter of an upper-middle-class family that
encouraged a liberal education, supported the suffrage movement, and
provided a warm family background, Marshall was able to pursue and
develop her ideas secure in the knowledge of her own self-worth.

Aided by the voluminous Marshall papers, Vellacott’s book is superb
in its treatment of the growing political awareness of the suffragist
movement. As an organizer and political strategist, Marshall was second
to none. One of the most interesting chapters in the book deals with the
role she played in helping to create and then expand the cause in the
Lake District. This account of Marshall’s involvement in the movement
at the local level is highly instructive and makes an important addition
to the current material. In later chapters, which deal with election
strategies, Vellacott is able to demonstrate how the movement
capitalized on its local connections and was able to bring wide-ranging
support to candidates friendly to suffrage.

Marshall’s growing independence from a loving but dominating father
is mirrored in the development of the movement. Locked into its nonparty
status but growing increasingly frustrated with the Liberal Party, the
National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies began to look for support
from the left, particularly from the Labour Party and working-class
women.

This excellent biography will appeal to readers interested in feminism
and to historians who wish to consider pre–World War I liberalism from
a fresh perspective.