Scarborough Civic Society has unveiled a new plaque dedicated to one of women’s suffrage’s most prominent campaigners, Florence Balgarnie.
Florence attended boarding schools in London and Germany. She became interested in women’s suffrage because she was concerned by the limited educational and political opportunities for women. The writings of John Stuart Mill, Mary Wollstonecraft and the Italian revolutionary Guiseppe Mazzini all influenced her.
In Scarborough she studied political economy, passing Cambridge exams through the University Extension Lecture Scheme. She gained experience in public speaking and campaigning by being elected as a member of Scarborough School Board, one of the few political opportunities for women. Florence became a Suffragist rather than a Suffragette. The Suffragist acted within the law; Florence believed that Suffragettes were a disgrace to their sex.
She went on to lecture internationally in America and the colonies as a member of the Women’s Trade Union Association, championing suffrage, temperance and trade unionism. Florence believed that the economic independence of women would lead to emancipation.