Papers of Nina Popplewell

The archive consists of typescript and manuscript lectures by Nina Popplewell, correspondence and papers relating to her work as secretary of the National Council of Women (mainly about women's employment and pensions), and a letter from the former suffragette Lilian Lenton describing her experience of being force-fed in Holloway.

Nina Popplewell (1890-1979) took the Social Science Certificate Course at London School of Economics (LSE) (1913-1914) and gained a Bsc Econ in sociology / social psychology in 1916. She was Professor Hobhouse’s sole honours student and contemporary with Mary Stocks, Lord Piercy and Sir Theo Gregory. She was tutored by Clement Attlee and taught by Sidney Webb. After hearing a speech by Mrs Pankhurst in 1911, she began work at the offices of the Women’s Social & Political Union (WSPU) in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, sorting letters, making tea and helping at fund-raising bazaars. She started her career by undertaking care committee work in Whitechapel and Stepney and became Vice-Chair of Stepney Juvenile Advisory Committee and a member of the main Employment Committee. Following her degree she worked at the Trade Boards as an assistant secretary and was the only woman on the staff. After five years in post, she was compelled to retire on her marriage to Frank Popplewell, although she was able to return for a year at the end of the First World War. She was later Secretary of the Equal Pay Campaign Committee and active in the National Council of Women and the Fawcett Society. Nina Popplewell was a volunteer in the Fawcett Library and as a lover of cricket.

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

Deposited in 2003.

The Women's Library Catalogue

London Metropolitan Archives holds the records of the National Council of Women. the Women's Library holds the records of the Equal Pay Campaign Committee (6EPC) and the Fawcett Society (2LSW). The Women's Library holds the records of a number of militant, Women's Social & Political Union members, including Emily Wilding Davison (7EWD) and Louisa Garrett Anderson (7LGA). The records of the Women's Social & Political Union are held at The Museum of London. The Women's Library Printed Collections also holds a number of publications by the Women's Social & Political Union.