Mary Adelaide Broadhurst

Mary Adelaide Broadhurst (May 23, 1860 – 1928) was a United Kingdom (1857/8–1928), agricultural reformer and radical. She was a leading suffragette who founded the National Land Council which trained women during the first world war to work on the land. After the war she championed the rights of Palestine and resisted the rise of Bolsheviks.

Mary Adelaide Broadhurst
BornMay 23, 1860
Chorlton-on-Medlock
Died1928 (aged 67–68)
NationalityUnited Kingdom

Life

Broadhurst was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock in 1860. Her parents were Maria (born Hutchinson) and William Broadhurst and she was their first born. Her father was a city councillor in Manchester and a bookkeeper and accountant.[1]

She came to notice before the first world war as a leader in the women's suffrage movement.[2] She and Margaret Milne Farquharson had been the salaried Liverpool organisers for the Women's Freedom League, but the WFL failed to establish a voice distinct from the WSPU despite some novel campaigning. Money was requested for a full time organiser but the posts were not supported after January 1909.[3]

In 1911 she formed the National Political League which was an apolitical group supporting reform. Suffragette and funder Janie Allan, socialist Ethel Annakin Snowden, suffragette Laura Ainsworth, MP George Lansbury and John Scurr were amongst the league's supporters.[4] She was the President and Margaret Milne Farquharson was the secretary[5] and the NPL was based in St James Street in London.[6]

Women being trained by the National Land Council in 1916

During the war the NPL created the National Land Council. This body created eleven locations in Britain where women could be trained to work on the land.[7]

The National Political League changed its name in 1917 to the National Political Reform League.[4] By 1922 the NPL had aligned themselves with supporting the Palestinians and Arabs in general. Broadhurst wrote a nationalistic letter to the Times and to parliament. It would appear that the NPL were supporting the Arab cause as they objected to the UK governments support for Zionism and they wanted to resist that and the rise of Bolshevikism.[8]

The NPL was funded by leading Muslims and UK government cabinet members were advised to avoid it. It was trying to undermine or overturn the Balfour Declaration.[9] Broadhurst died in 1928.[1] From 1929 the NPL continued its work and it was in touch with the Muslim–Christian Alliance of Palestine.[9]

References
  1. "Broadhurst, Mary Adelaide (1860–1928), agricultural reformer and radical". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50176. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  2. S Woman Suffrage. 1914–1919.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  3. Cowman, Krista (2004). Mrs Brown is a Man and a Brother: Women in Merseyside's Political Organisations, 1890-1920. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-0-85323-738-9.
  4. "National Political League". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  5. "Women of the Empire in War Time: In Honour of their Great Devotion and Self-Sacrifice — Viewer — World Digital Library". www.wdl.org. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  6. Toczek, Nick (2015-12-03). Haters, Baiters and Would-Be Dictators: Anti-Semitism and the UK Far Right. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-52587-5.
  7. Crawford, Elizabeth (2003-09-02). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-43401-4.
  8. Wagner, Steven B. (2019-07-15). Statecraft by Stealth: Secret Intelligence and British Rule in Palestine. Cornell University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-5017-3648-3.
  9. "INTRODUCTION". Royal Historical Society Camden Fifth Series. 38: 1–80. July 2011. doi:10.1017/S0960116310000278. ISSN 1478-5110.
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