Overview
Louisa Martindale, née Spicer (25 June 1839 – 15 March 1914) was a British activist for women's rights and suffragist.
Life
Martindale was born in Woodford Green, Essex. She founded the Ray Lodge Mission Station in Woodford Green in 1865. Her interest in women's rights dated from 1867. She spoke in Spicer's Monmouth constituency on issues such as the aforementioned admission of women into county councils, wrote lectures on the rights of women and related topics, and supported women's right to preach.
Personal life
In 1871, she married William Martindale, who was a merchant. Their marriage was short-lived; he died only a few years later. One of their children was Louisa who was a suffragist and surgeon. Another was Hilda, a civil servant and author. A third daughter died in infancy. After her husband's death in around 1874, Louisa travelled with her young daughters around England and Europe, eventually settling in Brighton. In 1903, she moved to Horsted Keynes in Sussex, where she built a Congregational church.
Death
, West Sussex, was founded in 1907 by Louisa Martindale as a Congregational church. Martindale died from pneumonia in Horsted Keynes on 15 March 1914, aged 74.
Legacy
Louisa Martindale's legacy is by now well-recognised. The history of her work in Horsted Keynes, as a founder of the Congregationalist "Free Church" there, as a community leader, and as an advocate of women's religious rights, is maintained in the Martindale Centre, in the heart of the village. Perhaps her legacy is best symbolized by her brother James Spicer's great-granddaughter, Harriet Harman QC MP, a Labour politician who has attained high-ranking functions such as Deputy Leader, and Party Chair of the Labour Party, Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal, and Minister for Women and Equality.
Further reading
*Banks, O. The Biographical Dictionary of British Feminists. Vol. 2. New York: New York UP, 1990. . *Levine, Philippa. Victorian Feminism, 1850–1900. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1989. . *Levine, Philippa. Feminist Lives in Victorian England: Private Roles and Public Commitment. Figueroa, 2004. . *Martindale, Hilda. From One Generation to Another. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1944. *Martindale, Hilda. Some Victorian Portraits and Others. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1948. Repr. Ayer, 1970. . *Martindale, Louisa. A Woman Surgeon. London: Gollancz, 1951.