In Memoriam.

White Ribbon, Volume 8, Issue 96, 1 May 1903, Page 8

In Memoriam.

Helen Blackburn.

From the Englishwoman s Review for January we take the following In sketch of its late Editor, Miss Helen Blackburn, who passed away at her residence, 18, Grey Coat Gardens, Westminister, on January 11, aged sixty years: - There has lately passed away at her residence in Grey Coat Gardens, Miss Helen Blackburn, one of the pioneers of the movement for improving the position of women politically, industrially, and education* ally, which was so prominent a feature of the second half of the nineteenth century. Miss Blackburn had a wide and accurate knowledge of the chief events connected with this movement, and in many of them she had taken an active personal part, devoting herself to the vatious phases of the work with a remarkable self-devotion and loyalty. Those who worked with her were constantly indebted to her wide knowledge of what bad gone before and to her readiness to grasp what was essential to the immediate work in hand, and, most of all, to her gentle courtesy and generous appreciation of the part tahen in the work by her colleagues. In committee no one was more tenacious of her own opinion, formed, as it invariably was, after careful thought and with due consideration to the special circumstances of the case: but if the decision went against her no one was more loyal in using every endeavour to make the conclusion arrived at a practical success. She acted as secretary, and afterwards as honorary secretary, for many years to the Central Committee for Women’s Suffrage in London. At an earlier period she had been secietary to the Bristol and West of Fingland Women’s Suffrage Society. She was a strenuous opponent of legislative restrictions on the labour of adult women, and contended that what women w anted was more and not fewer opportunities of earning an honest living She edned for many years, and up to the time of her death, the Englishwoman’s Review. Her ingenuity in devising new ways of presenting her views to the public may possibly have l>een the form in which she inherited her father's gifts as an inventor. He was driving al»out Regent’s Fark in a horseless carriage of his own construction more than twenty years before the appealance of the modem motor-car. Miss Blackburn

had marked antiquarian tastes. She collected and arranged an interesting series of portraits of abbesses, peeresses, and other notable women who in days long gone by had represented the spindle side in the councils of the nation. She presented this collection a few years ago to the Women’s H ill in connexion with University College, Bristol. Her father’s family were settled at St. Peter s, Isle of Thanet, from the seventeenth century. On her mother’s side she traced her descent to a brother of John Knox. One of her ancestors was Thomas Coventry, Lord Keeper and Chancellor for sixteen years during the reign of Charles I. He became possessed of one of the shirts worn by the King at the time ot his execution. He wore two, and desired his groom of the chambers to give him “ a shirt more than ordinary by reason the season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some may imagine proceeds from fear. I would have no such imputation. I fear not death.” This shirt, stained with blood, was handed down through nine generations of Miss Blackburn’s family. It was shown at the Stuart Exhibition a few years ago. Miss Blackburn was born in Ireland, and spent her youth at \ alentia, where her father managed some slate quarries belonging to the Knight of Kerry. She cherished a warm affection for I lie land of her birth, and took a strong interest in all that concerned its welfare. Her knowledge of Ireland and of Irish life and character made her a staunch supporter of the maintenance of the union with Great Britain. Millicent Garrett Fawcett.