{{Short description|British social reformer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Emily Townshend | birth_name = Emily Caroline Gibson | birth_date = {{Birth year|1849}} | death_date = {{Death year and age|1934|1849}} | education = Hitchen College (didn't graduate) | occupation = {{hlist|Social reformer|suffragette}} | organisation = Fabian Society | spouse = Chambré Corker Townshend | children = 5 including,<br/>Caroline Townshend | relatives = Isabella Frances Townshend (sister-in-law) }} '''Emily Caroline Townshend''' ({{nee|Gibson}}; 1849 &ndash; 1934) was a British social reformer and suffragette. Townshend was one of the first five students at Hitchen College (present-day Girton College, Cambridge).<ref name="ArtUK">{{cite web |title=Isabella Frances Vere Townshend (Self Portrait) |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/isabella-frances-vere-townshend-self-portrait-195254 |website=Art UK Discover |publisher=Art UK |access-date=25 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="PioneeringHistory">{{cite web |title=Student Experience: Stroll through history with Girton’s students |url=https://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/pioneering-history/student-experience |website=Pioneering History |publisher=Girton College, University of Cambridge |access-date=25 February 2026 |location=Cambridge}}</ref>

== Early life and education == Emily Gibson was born in 1849. In 1869, Townshend was one of five women to enroll at Hitchen College<ref name="PioneeringHistory"/>, of which she was the first applicant. Townshend studied there from 1869 to 1872, and while there met her husband, Chambré Corker Townshend, through his sister and fellow student, Isabella Frances Townshend.<ref>Stephen, Barbara. (2010) [1933]. ''Girton College 1869–1932.'' Cambridge University Press. p. 24, 193. {{ISBN|978-1-108-01531-8}}.</ref><ref>Murphy, Ann B. and Deirdre Raftery. (eds.) (2004). ''Emily Davies: Collected Letters, 1861–1875.'' Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press. p. 396, 494. {{ISBN|0-8139-2232-1}}.</ref><ref>White, Dr. Sarah. (6 November 1975). [https://books.google.com/books?id=rM19SWUSN9gC&pg=PA349&lpg=PA349 "Gaining Parity by Degrees: Women at Cambridge."] ''New Scientist'' p. 349.</ref> Townshend left Hitchen College without obtaining a qualification.<ref name="PioneeringHistory"/>

== Social reform and activism == Emily Townshend joined the Fabian Society in 1894, becoming active in its Research Department and writing several tracts for the group. She also served a term on its executive in 1915/16. Townshend spent two years as editor of the ''School Child'' journal, and was also active on the Walham Green Juvenile Advisory Committee.<ref name="bio">{{cite journal |title=Biographies of new candidates |journal=Fabian News |date=April 1915}}</ref>

In 1907, age 57, Townshend spent two weeks in Holloway Prison for her part in a suffragette protest. In 1909, her daughter Rachel Townsend spent two months imprisoned there for similar activities.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Caroline Townshend|url=https://womanandhersphere.com/tag/caroline-townshend/|access-date=2022-01-08|website=Woman and her Sphere|language=en}}</ref>

Her daughter Caroline Townshend (1878–1944) was a leading stained glass artist and followed her mother in membership of the Fabian Society and interest in women's suffrage.<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy == In November 1979 the historian, Brian Harrison, interviewed Townshend’s granddaughter, Mrs Joan Radice (née Keeling), as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=London School of Economics and Political Science |title=The Suffrage Interviews |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights/the-suffrage-interviews.aspx |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=London School of Economics and Political Science |language=en-GB}}</ref> Joan talked about Emily’s career, household arrangements, relationship with her daughter Rachel and with the suffrage movement. Joan was the daughter of Emily’s daughter Rachel, who married social reformer Frederic Keeling (known as Ben) in 1909.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-12 |title=Townsend (Townshend) Family Records - Rachel Susannah Townshend (5D32) |url=http://user.astro.wisc.edu/~townsend/tree/record.php?ref=5D32 |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=user.astro.wisc.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Keeling, Frederic Hillersdon [Ben] (1886–1916), social reformer |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-75464 |access-date=2024-08-09 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/75464}}</ref> Although the couple later divorced, Keeling kept in touch with his former mother in law. After Frederic’s death in the trenches of the First World War in 1916, Townshend edited and published his letters in a 1918 volume titled Keeling Letters & Recollections, with a foreword by H. G. Wells.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Keeling |first1=Frederick Hillersdon |url=http://archive.org/details/keelinglettersre00keeliala |title=Keeling letters & recollections |last2=Townshend |first2=Emily Caroline Gibson |date=1916 |publisher=New York : Macmillan Company |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Townshend, Emily}} Category:1849 births Category:1934 deaths Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Category:Members of the Fabian Society Category:British suffragettes Category:Prisoners and detainees of England and Wales Category:English feminists Category:British women's rights activists