Papers of Elizabeth Impey

The archive consists of photographs, press cuttings, periodicals, photographs, postcards, invitations, and other ephemera relating to Elizabeth Impey, suffragette

Elizabeth Impey (fl.1920-c.1950) lived in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. She was married to Arthur Impey, a business man, and together they were active members of the local Liberal Association. Elizabeth was interested in women's suffrage, and when the candidate whom she and her husband had helped return as their Liberal MP voted in Parliament against extending the franchise to women, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union, eventually becoming secretary of the Hertfordshire branch. Arthur Impey was one of the founder members of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage. In 1907 Elizabeth was arrested after a WSPU demonstration in London and sentenced to 14 days in Holloway for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. She spent the next few years campaigning for the organisation with Mary Gawthorpe, arranging meetings and speakers in Hitchin, often in the face of considerable local opposition.

An arrangement was imposed by the cataloguer, Veronica Howes, in consultation with the archivist, Liz Taylor

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Gift

The Women's Library Catalogue

Donated by Alan and Elizabeth Cowlishaw in Jan 2010

The Women's Library holds significant related material on the women's suffrage movement. See archives held in Strand 2: Women's Suffrage Societies. For records of the Hitchin, Stevenage and District Women's Suffrage Society, 1909-1919, see 2HWS.