Mary Phillips

Mary Elizabeth Phillips (15 July 1880 – 21 June 1969) was an English suffragette, feminist and socialist. She was the longest prison serving suffragette. She worked for Christabel Pankhurst but was sacked; she then worked for Sylvia Pankhurst as Mary Pederson or Mary Paterson. In later life she supported women's and children's organisations. Early life Mary Elizabeth Phillips was born in St. Mary Bourne, Hampshire, the daughter of William Fleming Phillips and Louisa Elizabeth (Simms) Phillips. Her father was a doctor who worked in Glasgow. Suffrage activism Phillips was encouraged by her father to campaign for women's rights and in 1904 she became a paid official of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women's Suffrage. She later reported that this taught her that quiet campaigning was not going to be sufficient and she joined the more radical Women's Social & Political Union in 1907 and established a Glasgow branch of the WSPU. She wrote articles for Forward which was the journal of the Glasgow Independent Labour Party. Phillips assisted Helen Fraser with campaigns for the movement in East Fife. Her next WSPU campaign was in the West of England organising visit plans with Annie Kenney, Elsie Howey, Gladice Keevil, Clara Codd and later was on the platform, speaking in Plymouth in November 1908 with Annie Kenney and Mary Blathwayt.