Papers relating to St Clair Townsend

The archive consists of 4 hardback photographs of family members, a pamphlet copy of a talk given by St. Clair Townsend titled 'The influence of women in politics' and a family tree.

St Clair Denham (1853-) was born into an Anglo-Irish family in 1853 and later married Walter Mallaby Townsend (brother to the arts and crafts architect, Charles Harrison Townsend who was responsible for the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Harrison Museum and the Bishopsgate Library). Walter Townsend was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company but was a frustrated actor and play-write and took to drink. After losing his job with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, he, his wife and their second daughter returned to England and ran a marble mine in Stanhope Northumbria. Any further biographical history becomes quite difficult to find; though at some time St Clair took up an interest in the political issues of the day it is apparent that she was anti-socialist and opposed the militant suffragettes. St Clair acted as local President of the Women's Unionist Association Stanhope branch.

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

Donated to The Women's Library by Baroness Hilton in 2003.

The Women's Library Catalogue

Records of the Women's Unionist Association can also be found at Bury Archive Service, and in the Law (Bonar Law) Papers held at the House of Lords Record Office.