Una Dugdale

Una Harriet Ella Stratford Duval [née Dugdale] (1879–1975) was a suffragette and marriage reformer.[1]

Early life

Una was the debutante[1] daughter of Commander Edward Stratford Dugdale and his wife, who were supporters of the suffrage movement. Una was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, and later in Hanover and Paris where she studied singing.[2] She was niece of Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel, Speaker of the House of Commons.[3]

Activism

Una Dugdale was introduced to the suffrage movement by Frank Rutter. In 1907 she first heard Christabel Pankhurst speaking in Hyde Park and from thence on toured the country with Mrs. Pankhurst raising political awareness and helping her in her work. In 1908 she began working with Helen Fraser in Aberdeen.

On 24 February 1909 Dugdale was arrested in Parliament Square during a suffragette "raid" on the House of Commons. She remained in prison for one month.

During 1909 and 1910 Dugdale joined Mrs Pankhurst on her two Scottish tours.[2]

Marriage controversy

Entry by Victor Duval in Mabel Cappers WSPU prisoners scrapbook October 1910

Dugdale sparked a national scandal in 1912 when she married Victor Duval, who she had met when he acted as best man at Frank Rutter's wedding, but refused to use the word "obey" in her marriage vows.[4]

Duval was the founder of the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement and brother of fellow suffragist Elsie Duval, the second person to be released under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 (the so-called "Cat and Mouse law"),[5] and brother-in-law to Hugh Franklin. Duval's father, Ernest Charles Augustus Diederichs Duval, was a German Jewish immigrant.[6]

As a response to the scandal, Mrs. Duval wrote 'To Love Honour - But Not Obey'``.[7]








References

  1. 1 2 "Catherine Blackford, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  2. 1 2 Crawford, Elizabeth (2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. p. 177. ISBN 9780748403790. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  3. ↑ "The Marriage Vow". Ashburton Guardian. New Zealand. 1 March 1912. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  4. ↑ Alan Travis (10 October 2003). "Big Brother and the sisters". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Elizabeth Crawford (2013). "Elsie Duval". Women's Suffrage Movement. pp. 179–180. ISBN 1135434026.
  6. ↑ "Naturalisations published in the Jewish Chronicle between 1902 and 1906. Extracted by Ian Melville". Ancestry.co.uk.
  7. ↑ Duval, Una (1912). Love and Honour But Not Obey. UK: George Villiers Press. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
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