A PIONEER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16486, 27 February 1914, Page 6

A PIONEER.

An almost forgotten chapter in the history of the feminist movement is recnlled by the death of Mrs Georgina Weldon, reported in the London newspapers last month. Forty year d ago Mrs Weldon, then a young married woman of unusual charm and mental vigour, was living in London and busying herself in philanthropic work. Her husband and many of her friends disapproved strongly of her spending time and money on friendless orphans, and their disapproval quickened into hostility when she began to tako an interest in spiritualism. Tlio breach widened as years passed until one evening in 1873 two strangers of professed benevolent disposition visited her in an apparently friendly way. They were medical men sent by her husband and a few hours later the keepers of a private asylum tried to force their way into the house and carry her off as a lunatic. She escaped and set herself to seek redress. At that time a married woman had very few rights under the law. She eould not make agreements and could not sue in the courts without the consent of her husband, so that Mrs Wcldou’s chances of securing justice appeared small. J, ut she did not relax her efforts and in 1882 the Married Woman’s Property Act was passed by Parliament partly as a result cf her agitation. Then she sued Dr Semple, who had signed the certificate of lunacy, and in 1884, after many delays and a trial lasting ten days, secured a verdict for £IOOO damages. Next she turned her attention to Dr Forbes Winslow, whom her husband had consulted before the attempt to put her under restraint, and got a verdict against tho doctor for £SOO damages for assault. A year later sho was successful in an action against another doctor who had been concerned in the affair. Mrs Weldon conducted her own case in all her actions and although her reputation suffered to some extent from her association with proceedings for libel arising from her friendships in artistic circles, rho fairly earned the right to rank among tho pioneers in the demand

for the emancipation of women. She helped to give a new meaning to citizenship as it concerned the members of her sox.