{{Short description|British suffragette (1861–1954)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person | name = Barbara Fanny Wylie | image = Barbara_Wylie.png | image_size = | caption = '''Barbara Wylie''' <ref name=":1">{{Citation|last=Ltd|first=London News Agency Photos|title=English: Barbara Wylie shaking hands with Emmeline Pankhurst at Euston Station before leaving for Canada on a speaking tour for the WSPU|date=12 September 1912|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barbara_Wylie.png|access-date=17 November 2021}}</ref> | other_names = | birth_name = | birth_date = 11 September 1861 | birth_place = Shrewbury, Shropshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1954|1862}} | death_place = | death_cause = | nationality = | education = | occupation = Political activist | employer = | relatives = David James Wylie (brother) | organisation = Women's Social and Political Union }} '''Barbara Fanny Wylie''' (11 September 1861 – 1954) was a British suffragette.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k31xpG5aFrIC |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 |date=2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780203031094 |pages=761-762 |doi=10.4324/9780203031094}}</ref> In 1909 she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and in 1910 she joined the Glasgow branch of WSPU as an activist and organizer.<ref name=":0" /> Wylie is best known for delivering a speech in support of women's suffrage during her 1912 Canadian speaking tour where she spoke the phrase "deeds not words".
== Family == Barbara Fanny Wylie was born on 11th September 1861 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Miss Barbara Fanny Wylie |url=https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/2675/miss-barbara-fanny-wylie |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=Database - Women's Suffrage Resources}}</ref> daughter of Scottish civil engineer, David Wylie and Elizabeth Clarke.
Wylie had three sisters and six brothers.<ref name=":0" /> All four Wylie sisters were a part of the British women's movement.<ref name=":0" />
== Women's Social and Political Union – WSPU == The Women's Social and Political Union was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903.<ref name=":0" /> The WSPU's agenda to achieve equal franchise for women and was known for its use of militant tactics. The women of the WSPU were not afraid to use violence, go against the law, break windows, rebel against the political leaders as well as spend time in jail.<ref name=":2" /> In 1909, Wylie joined the Glasgow branch,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cowman |first=Krista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6cbvP3XF0yMC&q=barbara+wylie+&pg=PA198 |title=Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organisers of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), 1904-18 |date=2007-07-15 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-7002-0 |pages=236 |language=en}}</ref> which had formed March 1906. By 1910 she was assigned as organizer, however, in 1913 she resigned when Sylvia Pankhurst took over as honorary secretary.<ref name=":0" />
Wylie engaged in the militant action, gave speeches and rallied marches. On 25 July 1910, she was a speaker at Calton Hill, Edinburgh, delivering a synchronized speech that was also being delivered in London about the passing of the women's suffrage bill in its second reading, along with a plea to Parliament to allow the bill to pass into law.<ref>"Suffragist Demonstrations in London and Edinburgh." ''Aberdeen Journal'', 25 July 1910, p. 6. Accessed 17 November 2021.</ref>
In 1911, Wylie was arrested and imprisoned for seven days.<ref name=":1" /> On 11 September 1911, she addressed a suffrage meeting held at the Art Galleries in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, and explained that women wanted enfranchisement as "only by its means could they express themselves as women and protect their interests as human beings”.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wright |first=Valerie |date=6 August 2022 |title=Hollie Watt – The Suffrage Movement in Ayrshire and Arran |url=https://womenshistoryscotland.org/2022/08/06/hollie-watt-the-suffrage-movement-in-ayrshire-and-arran/ |access-date=9 January 2025 |website=Women's History Scotland}}</ref>
In March 1912, she took part in a window smashing raid in London<ref name="Leneman">{{Cite book |last=Leneman |first=Leah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Va-IAAAAMAAJ&q=barbara+wylie |title=A Guid Cause: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Scotland |date=1995 |publisher=Mercat Press |isbn=978-1-873644-48-5 |pages=273 |language=en}}</ref> and was arrested.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Godfrey |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQ4PEQAAQBAJ&dq=barbara+wylie+wspu&pg=PT82 |title=Secret Missions of the Suffragettes: Glassbreakers and Safe Houses |date=2024-07-04 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-3990-1397-0 |language=en}}</ref> On 10 August 1912, Wylie was a part of an open-air meeting that addressed the injustice women were facing due to their lack of ability to vote, supported by the fact that women were already, in fact, a part of politics as well as working and supporting themselves, but without a voice.<ref>"Votes for Women." ''Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette'', 10 August 1912, p. 2. Accessed 17 November 2021.</ref>
Also during 1912, the WSPU hosted an open-air meeting in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and a crowd of anti-suffragists attacked the event, heckling Wylie who was speaking, snatching away leaflets and throwing rotten eggs and orange peel until the meeting was broken up.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cowman |first=Krista |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x8uugZ_Yfh8C&dq=barbara+wylie&pg=PA22 |title=The Militant Suffragette Movement in York |date=2007 |publisher=Borthwick Publications |isbn=978-1-904497-21-9 |pages=22 |language=en}}</ref> Violet Key Jones was one of the organisers of the event and later said: "this sort of rowdyism can only help the cause... I would have spoken if I could make my voice heard above the noise".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Liddington |first=Jill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e6wICgAAQBAJ&dq=violet+key+jones&pg=PT201 |title=Rebel Girls: How votes for women changed Edwardian lives |date=2015-09-03 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-0-349-00781-6 |language=en}}</ref> When Wylie spoke in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, with Aethel Tollemache, the women had to be escorted to the railway station by the Police in order to protect them from a crowd of young men who had howled at and rushed at them.<ref>Boyce, Lucienne. [https://lucienneboyce.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Swindon-and-the-Suffragettes-July-23-update.pdf Swindon, Wiltshire and the Suffragettes]. Retrieved 9 January 2025.</ref>
== Canada tour (1912-1913) == Wylie went to Canada in 1912 on a speaking tour.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Mass|first=Boston|date=20 September 1912|title=Suffragist goes to Canada|work=The Christian Science Monitor|url=https://libraryh3lp.com/file/6dqjgr8cdkrz0t%40web.libraryh3lp.com/1637029636.png?t=2Njw0e0SDrJRasNFMhQXME|access-date=17 November 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lang |first=Marjory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGUXSfMt8hwC&dq=barbara+wylie&pg=PA222 |title=Women Who Made the News: Female Journalists in Canada, 1880-1945 |date=1999-08-26 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-6774-0 |pages=222 |language=en}}</ref> The women's rights movement of Canada had asked for a representative of their sister branch the WPSU to speak across the country to bolster and unite the suffragists’ branches within Canada, to strengthen the position of the women in Canada, to offer them support and, according to Wylie, if all else fails to instil militant action in order to make change happen.<ref>{{Cite web|title=500|url=https://cdm22007.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p22007coll2/id/114008/rec/3|access-date=18 November 2021|website=cdm22007.contentdm.oclc.org}}</ref> Pankhurst felt that Wylie had an advantage in Canada as her brother David was in the Province of Saskatchewan Conservative government. David Wylie, however, was not a supporter of the women's movement until 1917.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}} Another Conservative member Albert Bradshaw took Wylie's initiative to the legislature.<ref name=":2" />
Wylie was initially not welcomed to Canada due to her militant reputation and was warned that if she started any riots that she would be deported immediately, as the suffragists in Canada did not display the same type of militant force as the WSPU.<ref>"At the First Sign of Violence." ''Nottingham Evening Post'', 28 September 1912, p. 5. Accessed 17 November 2021.</ref> However, this would not stop Wylie, and she indicated that she would come to Canada by airplane if she had to.<ref>"Will Not Be Kept out of Canada." ''Nottingham Evening Post'', 20 September 1912, p. 6''.'' Accessed 17 November 2021.</ref>
Before her departure, Wylie met with Prime Minister Robert Borden of Canada in London.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brookfield |first=Tarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVlxDwAAQBAJ&dq=barbara+wylie&pg=PA134 |title=Our Voices Must Be Heard: Women and the Vote in Ontario |date=2018-11-01 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-6022-2 |pages=134 |language=en}}</ref> She laid a foundation for why the WSPU was coming to Canada, in the hope that he would show full support women's rights.<ref>{{Cite web|title=1209|url=https://cdm22007.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p22007coll2/id/214598/rec/2|access-date=18 November 2021|website=cdm22007.contentdm.oclc.org}}</ref> She had a single major goal during her tour, to move Canadian women from passivity to demands to be heard.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Sangster|first=Joan|date=5 July 2018|title=Exporting suffrage: British influences on the Canadian suffrage movement|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09612025.2018.1493765|journal=Women's History Review|volume=28|issue=4|pages=566–586|doi=10.1080/09612025.2018.1493765| s2cid=149626808 |issn=0961-2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
The tour started in Quebec. On 4 November 1912, she was in Montreal, Quebec, giving a speech with Emmeline Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst and Forbes Robertson Hale. She urged the women who attended to stand up for rights and freedoms and voice a stance for change.<ref>{{Cite news|date=4 November 1912|title=British newspaper|url=https://libraryh3lp.com/file/6dqjgr8cdkrz0t%40web.libraryh3lp.com/1637028865.png?t=3x1ULcaQfrDCXXPjfHxgY6|access-date=17 November 2021}}</ref>
On 3 April 1913, in Calgary, Alberta, Wylie gave a speech that became the speech she was known for and also became a slogan for the WPSU. She said: “Abandon ladylike constitutional methods. Don’t be docile, don’t be ladylike. Don’t dread being conspicuous. Now is the time for deeds, not words".<ref name=":2" /> She used descriptive language and implications that the women had not been standing up for themselves and that it was imperative that these women needed to start taking action and by any means possible, yet the women of Calgary did not take to these implications too lightly.<ref>{{cite news|last=Leader|first=Raymond|date=3 April 1913|title=Item Aroo5o9|url=https://libraryh3lp.com/file/6dqjgr8cdkrz0t%40web.libraryh3lp.com/1637029778.png?t=23f0y5GIY7CSwMAujPVqZU|access-date=17 November 2021}}</ref>
She also spoke in Vancouver and New Westminster in British Columbia<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jmfqDwAAQBAJ&dq=barbara+wylie&pg=PA170 |title=A Great Revolutionary Wave: Women and the Vote in British Columbia |date=2020-06-15 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-6325-4 |pages=170 |language=en}}</ref> and addressed meetings in Regina, Moose Jaw and Maple Creek in Saskatchewan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Woman Suffrage |url=https://www.esask.uregina.ca/entry/woman_suffrage.html |access-date=9 January 2025 |website=The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan}}</ref>
== Return to England == Back in England, Wylie published articles about her tour including one called "Woman's position in Canada."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhEFEAAAQBAJ&dq=barbara+wylie&pg=PA121 |title=Ours by Every Law of Right and Justice: Women and the Vote in the Prairie Provinces |date=2020-11-01 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-6190-8 |pages=123 |language=en}}</ref>
On 22 June 1914 Wylie was arrested again outside His Majesty's Theatre.<ref name=":0" />
== Friendship with Emmeline Pankhurst == Wylie was a close friend and ally of Emmeline Pankhurst within the suffrage movement.<ref name=":0" /> There were many times that Wylie supported Pankhurst, including on 22 May 1914 when she was acting as a bodyguard to protect Pankhurst from being arrested at St. Andrew's Hall, Glasgow. This ended with Wylie being injured and arrested.<ref name=":0" /> Wylie's home was also considered a safe haven, nicknamed “the mouse hole” that Pankhurst used when she was hiding from the police.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Purvis|first=June|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35376|title=Pankhurst [née Goulden], Emmeline (1858–1928), suffragette leader|date=23 September 2004|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography| doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/35376 }}</ref>
In 1919, Wylie was among a group of former suffragettes who raised a "testimonial fund" to support Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst through a time of financial difficulty.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Purvis |first=June |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VitEDwAAQBAJ&dq=barbara+wylie&pg=RA3-PA93 |title=Christabel Pankhurst: A Biography |date=2018-01-18 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-24664-4 |pages=105 |language=en}}</ref> When Emmeline Pankhurst died on 14 June 1928, Wylie was one of her pallbearers, alongside other former suffragettes Georgiana Brackenbury, Marie Brackenbury, Marion Wallace Dunlop, Harriet Kerr, Kitty Marshall, Marie Naylor and Ada Wright.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Purvis |first=June |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wtx_AgAAQBAJ&dq=barbara+wylie&pg=PA353 |title=Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography |date=2003-09-02 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-34191-7 |pages=353 |language=en}}</ref>
== Later life == {{Expand section|date=January 2025}} Wylie died in 1954.<ref name=":0" /> ==See also == * List of suffragists and suffragettes
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=Barbara+Wylie&_sd=&_ed=&_hb= The National Women's Social and Political Union Annual Reports 1908-1912] at the London School of Economics Digital Library * [https://picryl.com/media/barbara-wylie-and-emmeline-pankhurst-1912 Photograph of Wylie and Emmeline Pankhurst in 1912] at PICRYL * [https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ee5a777f-1d7c-416b-a249-c7cb64fcc0a8 Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914] at the National Archives
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wylie, Barbara}} Category:Wikipedia Student Program Category:1862 births Category:1954 deaths Category:British women activists Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Politicians from Shrewsbury Category:British suffragettes