Miss Dorinda Neligan
The following obituary was published in the Women’s Freedom League’s (WFL) newspaper, The Vote on the 7th of August, 1914. The WFL was founded in 1907 by seventy-seven members of the Women’s Social and Political Union and was an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigned for women’s suffrage and sexual equality
The following particulars of the life of a great woman will be read with deep interest, tinged with the regret that so staunch a supporter of the Women’s Movement did not live to register her vote as a badge of citizenship.
Miss Dorinda Neligan who passed away on July 18 at the age of 81, was a daughter of the late Lieutenant Thomas Neligan, of Cork, who served in the Peninsular War. Miss Neligan served as a Red Cross nurse in the Franco-German War in 1870. She spent some years both in France and Germany as a governess and obtained a French diploma. It was her great knowledge of modern languages which helped to secure for her the appointment as Head Mistress of the Croydon High School for Girls in 1874, which position she held for 27 years.
She always took a keen interest in the higher education of women, and it was natural she should become a strong Suffragist. On June 29 1909, she went on a deputation to the House of Commons and was arrested for refusing to go away. In November of the following year she went on another deputation to the House of Commons, the ‘Black Friday’ memorable deputation. She succeeded in entering the yard of the House, and sat for some hours with Mrs Pankhurst and others on the steps of the Strangers’ Entrance. She went up again on the following Tuesday, but did not go out with the deputation, as she was afraid she might be a hindrance to the others in their rush to Downing Street. She always regretted the fact that she had not been to prison for the Cause.
Miss Neligan was a Tax Resister for several years; the fact became so well known that one of the local papers in giving an account of her last sale, headed it “Miss Neligan’s Hardy Annual” and another “No Surrender”. It was always the same silver teapot that was sold.
When she sent her last subscription to the W.S.P.U. for the great meeting at Holland Park Skating Rink a friend said to her “Supposing you are prosecuted for subscribing to the funds of the W.S.P.U. and sent to prison.” She replied “Let them; I do not mind!
Her last illness was a very short one. She had a heart attack on Friday afternoon, July 17, on her way home from lunching with a friend. After lying down on her bed she seemed better, but afterwards became worse, and the doctor was called in. The next morning, before breakfast, she declared she was getting on famously, and kept very bright during the day, but a great change came during the evening, and she passed away at 8.30pm.
Among the many wreaths sent was one from the Headquarters of the W.S.P.U. with the following message attached from Mrs Pankhurst:- “With love and remembrance for a brave veteran, whose life was spent in noble work for women and for the race”. There were also lilies from the Croydon W.S.P.U., and a wreath from the Croydon Branch of the Women’s Freedom League.
Source: British Newspaper Archive
Images: Museum of Croydon Collection
