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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rachel Barrett | 1/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Barrett | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T10:43:58.069695+00:00 | kb-cron |
Rachel Barrett (12 November 1874 – 26 August 1953) was a Welsh suffragette and newspaper editor born in Carmarthen. Educated at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth she became a science teacher, but quit her job in 1906 on hearing Nellie Martel speak of women's suffrage, joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and moved to London. In 1907, she became a WSPU organiser, and after Christabel Pankhurst fled to Paris, Barrett became joint organiser of the national WSPU campaign. In 1912, despite no journalistic background, she took charge of the new newspaper The Suffragette. Barrett was arrested on occasions for activities linked to the suffrage movement and, in 1913–1914, spent some time incognito to avoid re-arrest.
== Early life == Barrett was born in Carmarthen on 12 November 1874 to Rees Barrett, a land and road surveyor, and his second wife Anne Jones, both Welsh-speakers. She grew up in the town of Llandeilo with her elder brother Rees and a younger sister, Janette. By the 1881 census, her mother Anne was the lone adult living at their address on Alan Road, her father having died in 1878. Barrett was educated at Stratford Abbey School, a boarding school in Stroud, along with her sister, and won a scholarship to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. She graduated in 1904 with an external London BSc degree in mathematics and science. After graduating she became a science teacher and taught in Llangefni, Carmarthen and Penarth.
== Life as a suffragette ==
=== Early activism with the WSPU === Towards the end of 1906 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 (WSPU) at the end of the meeting. She felt "that they were doing the right and only thing" and thought that she herself "had always been a suffragist." By the following year Barrett was active as a WSPU activist and helped organise Adela Pankhurst's meetings in Cardiff and Barry that year, sharing the stage with her as one of the speakers. 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 Barrett being flour-bombed with Adela Pankhurst at a rally in Cardiff Docks made the local papers. In July 1907, Barrett resigned as a teacher and enrolled at the London School of Economics (LSE), near the WSPU headquarters at Clement's Inn, intending to study economics and sociology and to work towards her DSc. That August she was heavily active for the WSPU, campaigning at the Bury St Edmunds by-election with Gladice Keevil, Nellie Martel, Emmeline Pankhurst, Aeta Lamb and Elsa Gye. She influenced the American student Alice Paul, and both sold copies of Votes for Women. Barrett was also active with Adela Pankhurst at Bradford. With her campaign activities over Barrett was free to attend the LSE, which proved useful for attending WSPU activities in nearby Clement's Inn. Over the Christmas period Barrett was again busy campaigning for the WSPU, with Pankhurst, Martel, Lamb, and Nellie Crocker at the "rough and boisterous" staunchly Liberal Mid-Devon seat at Newton Abbott, and next time in the lead up to the Ashburton by-election. Shortly afterwards Barrett was asked by Christabel Pankhurst to become a full-time organiser of the WSPU, an offer which would see her leave her course at the LSE. Barrett regretted giving up her studies but accepted the position stating, "It was a definite call and I obeyed." Barrett spent 1908 first organising a campaign in Nottingham and then working on the by-elections in both Dewsbury and Dundee where she supported Scottish suffragette campaigners Helen Fraser, Elsa Gye and Mary Gawthorpe. In June of that year she was the chair of one of the platforms at the Hyde Park rally, but the work took its toll on her health and shortly afterwards she was forced to temporarily step down from her position to recuperate, which included a period of time at a sanatorium. After recovering she moved closer to home, volunteering for Annie Kenney in Bristol. She 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, 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. The meeting lasted two and a half hours, and by its end she was convinced that Lloyd George had been insincere over his support for equal voting rights and believed him to be against women's suffrage. By the end of the year her post was changed to organising all WSPU activities in Wales and she was relocated to the country's headquarters in Cardiff. According to Ryland Wallace, writing in 2009, "No individual worked harder than Rachel Barrett to promote the campaign in Wales."
=== Editor of The Suffragette ===
In 1912, Barrett was selected by Kenney (who saw her as a 'highly-educated woman, a devoted worker' to help run the WPSU national campaign), following the raid by police on Clement's Inn and Christabel Pankhurst's subsequent flight to Paris. 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. Writing in her autobiography Barrett described becoming an editor as "an appalling task as I knew nothing whatever of journalism". By taking on the job she also took on the risks connected with the increasingly militant WSPU. She travelled under cover to Paris to meet with Christabel Pankhurst, and when speaking to her on the phone she recalled how she "could always hear the click of Scotland Yard listening in."