{{for|the governor of New York, born Kathleen Courtney|Kathy Hochul}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use British English|date=July 2025}} {{infobox person | honorific_prefix = Dame | name = Kathleen D'Olier Courtney<br /><small>DBE</small> | image = Kathleen Courtney in 1915.png | caption = Kathleen Courtney in 1915 | birth_date = {{birth date|1878|03|11|df=y}}<ref name="spartacus">{{cite web |url=http://spartacus-educational.com/WcourtneyK.htm |work=Spartacus Educational |title=Kathleen Courtney profile |access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref> | birth_place = Gillingham, Kent, England, UK | death_date = {{death date and age|1974|12|09|1878|03|01|df=y}}<ref name="spartacus"/><ref name="NYT">{{cite news |title=Dame Kathleen Courtney, Headed U.N. Association |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/10/archives/dame-kathleen-courtney-headed-un-association.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=10 December 1974 |at=Page 48, column 4 |access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref> | death_place = London, England, UK | burial_place = St. Martin in the Fields | known_for = Suffragist, peace activist }}
'''Dame Kathleen D'Olier Courtney''', DBE ({{birth date|1878|03|11|df=y}}<ref name="spartacus"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rpuSzowmIkgC&pg=PA165 |title=Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers |volume=1 |editor-first=Helen |editor-last=Rappaport |editor-link=Helen Rappaport |isbn=9781576071014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2001 |page=165 |access-date=5 December 2014 |via=Google Books}}</ref> – {{death date|1974|12|09|df=y}}) was a leader in the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom.<ref name="spartacus"/><ref name="NYT"/><ref name="wilpf"/>
==Life== Kathleen D'Olier Courtney was born the youngest of five daughters and the fifth of seven children of Lieutenant (later Major) David Charles Courtney (1845-1909) of the Royal Engineers (a native of Milltown, County Dublin, Ireland), and his wife, Alice Margaret (née Mann) at 1 York Terrace, in Gillingham, Kent on 11 March 1878.<ref name="spartacus"/>
Courtney was educated at the private Anglo-French College in Kensington and the Manse boarding-school in Malvern, Worcestershire, before spending seven months in Dresden studying the German language. In January 1897 she went to Lady Margaret Hall to study modern languages. There she formed a lifetime friendship with Maude Royden.<ref name=odnb/>
The Courtney family were wealthy, allowing Kathleen the freedom to devote her life to good causes. In 1908 she was appointed secretary of the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage. One of its members, Helena Swanwick, later revealed that Courtney arrived in Manchester "with a big reputation" as an outstanding organiser.<ref name="spartacus"/>
In 1911, she moved to London where she worked closely with Millicent Fawcett, an English feminist, intellectual, political and union leader. She also became a writer and honorary secretary of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. She lived in Hampstead with Hilda Clark, Edith Pye and Edith Eckhart.<ref name="LSE">{{cite web |last=London School of Economics and Political Science |first= |title=The Suffrage Interviews |url=https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights/the-suffrage-interviews.aspx |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=London School of Economics and Political Science |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she abandoned her active campaigning for women's suffrage and devoted her life to studying international politics and trying to build bridges towards international cooperation.<ref name="wilpf" /><ref name="googlebooks">{{Cite book |last=Hartley |first=Cathy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFGR2OvCAS4C&pg=PA120 |title=A Historical Dictionary of British Women |date=2013-04-15 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-35533-3 |language=en}}</ref>
In April 1915, Aletta Jacobs, a suffragist in the Netherlands, invited suffrage members from around the world to an International Congress of Women in The Hague.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Paull |first=John |date=2018-01-01 |title=The Women Who Tried to Stop the Great War: The International Congress of Women at The Hague 1915 |url=https://www.academia.edu/36546779/The_Women_Who_Tried_to_Stop_the_Great_War_The_International_Congress_of_Women_at_The_Hague_1915 |journal=Global Leadership Initiatives for Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding |doi=10.4018/978-1-5225-4993-2.CH012}}</ref> The attendees included Mary Sheepshanks, Jane Addams, Grace Abbott, Lida Gustava Heymann, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Emily Hobhouse, Chrystal Macmillan and Rosika Schwimmer.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Simkin |first=John |title=Kathleen Courtney |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/WcourtneyK.htm |access-date=2025-07-04 |website=Spartacus Educational |language=en}}</ref> At the conference the women formed the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WIL).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holton |first=Sandra Stanley |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Feminism_and_Democracy/3P3iQCEOoDQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Helena+Swanwick&pg=PA138&printsec=frontcover |title=Feminism and Democracy: Women's Suffrage and Reform Politics in Britain, 1900-1918 |date=2003-12-18 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52121-5 |pages=138 |language=en}}</ref>
Courtney ultimately was elected as chair of the British section.<ref name=":0" /> In 1928, she became a member of the Executive Committee of the British League of Nations Union and in 1939 (the year World War II would begin) was elected Vice-Chairman. From 1949 to 1951 she served as Chairman.<ref name="wilpf">[http://www.wilpf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Courtney-Kathleen.pdf Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417143023/https://www.wilpf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Courtney-Kathleen.pdf |date=17 April 2021 }}, wilpf.org.uk; accessed 30 August 2015.</ref><ref name="googlebooks" />
Courtney continued to be involved in the campaign for women's suffrage. She helped establish the Adult Suffrage Society in 1916 and as joint secretary she lobbied members of the House of Commons to extend the franchise until the Qualification of Women Act was passed in 1918. The following year she became vice-president of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship. As well as advocating the same voting rights as men, the organisation also campaigned for equal pay, fairer divorce laws and an end to the discrimination against women in the professions.{{Citation needed|date=July 2025}}
In 1945, she became deputy of the United Nations Association, rising four years later to be joint president and chair of the UNA's executive committee.<ref name=odnb/>
Courtney was appointed a CBE in 1946 and in 1972 she was promoted to DBE. In 1968 she had the honour of giving a talk in Westminster to celebrate 50 years of some women having the vote.
In 1972 she was awarded the United Nations Peace Medal.<ref name=odnb>{{cite dictionary |first=Janet E. |last=Grenier |title=Courtney, Dame Kathleen D'Olier (1878–1974) |dictionary=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37316 |access-date=9 March 2017}}</ref>
In March 1977, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews,'' the historian, Brian Harrison, conducted an interview about Courtney with Elisabeth Furlong, who was Courtney's first cousin once removed, (related to the Mann's on her mother's side). She spoke about Courtney's family and schooling, time at Lady Margaret Hall, and her attitudes and experiences in old age.<ref name="LSE"/>
==Death and legacy== Kathleen Courtney died at her home at 3 Elm Tree Court, London, on 9 December 1974 at age 96.<ref name="NYT"/> She never married or had children. A memorial service was held on 11 April 1975 at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.<ref name=":1" />
A mural of Courtney was included in a series of murals displayed in Gillingham between 2022-2023 as part of Medway Libraries' ''Circle of Six'' project.<ref>{{Cite web |last=M |first=Skye |title=Circle of Six |url=https://www.medway.gov.uk/info/200181/libraries/1624/circle_of_six |access-date=2025-08-09 |website=www.medway.gov.uk |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Courtney, Kathleen}} Category:1878 births Category:1974 deaths Category:19th-century British people Category:Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Category:British pacifists Category:British women's rights activists Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:English suffragists Category:English women in politics Category:Pacifist feminists Category:People from Gillingham, Kent Category:British women civil rights activists