Cicely Hamilton

Cicely Hamilton was a British suffragist, author, playwright, actress, and journalist. She is best known for her feminist play, How the Vote Was Won (1909) and A Pageant of Great Woman (1909). Born in Paddington, London as the eldest of four children to Maude Mary and Denzil Hammil, Cicely was raised by foster parents after her mother had gone missing. She was educated in Malvern, Worcestershire and Bad Homburg vor de Höhe. After teaching for a short time, Cicely joined a touring acting company and took on the stage name of “Cicely Hamilton” to remove ties to her family. While working as an actor, she began writing.

In 1908, Hamilton and Bessie Hatton founded the Women Writers’ Suffrage League. This grew to over 400 members and is where Hamilton produced most of her works. Hamilton wrote the lyrics to songs for the Women’s Social and Political Union and is one of the pioneers of the genre of suffrage drama. During World War I, Hamilton worked in nursing near Paris and then joined the army as an auxiliary. She formed a repertory company to entertain troops and continued writing. After the War, Hamilton worked as a freelance journalist, writing pieces on issues concerning women such as birth control and reporting on the Geneva International Suffrage Conference. She was a playwright in residence at the Birmingham Repertory Company and continued to write plays, novels, and articles. Her autobiography, Life Errant, was published in 1935 and Cicely Hamilton died in Chelsea in 1952.