{{Short description|British political activist (1837-1897)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Sophia Fry | image = Sophia Pease 1810 (page 71 crop).jpg | birth_name = Sophia Pease | birth_date = 11 June 1837 | birth_place = Darlington, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1897|3|30|1837|6|11|df=y}} | death_place = Biarritz, France | occupation = Political activist | known_for = Founding the Women's Liberal Federation | spouse = Theodore Fry, 1st Baronet | children = 8 }} '''Sophia Fry''' later '''Lady Fry''' (11 June 1837 – 30 March 1897) was a British political activist, notable for founding the Women's Liberal Federation.
==Life== Born in Darlington as '''Sophia Pease''', she was brought up as a Quaker and as an activist in liberal politics. Her parents were John Pease who was a Quaker and a director of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and Sophia Pease who was also a Quaker. She and her sister Mary Anna were educated at home, and for one year at a school in Frenchay, where she met Sarah Sturge and Theodore Fry. She developed an interest in education for the working class, and started running weekly training for pupil-teachers, and ran cookery classes.<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB|id=56104|title=Fry, Sophia}}</ref>
Sophia married Fry in 1862, the couple settling in Darlington, and had eight children. Sophia was a founder of the Girls' Friends Day School in Bristol and was active in the North of England College, run by the British and Foreign School Society.<ref name="odnb" />
At the 1880 UK general election, Theodore was elected as the Member of Parliament for Darlington and, inspired by this and by William Gladstone's Midlothian Campaign, Sophia formed a Women's Liberal Association in the town in 1881. While there was not yet consensus that women should play a role in politics, Fry was determined that women should campaign for the Liberal Party.<ref name="odnb" /> She corresponded with members of various women's liberal associations around the country, and in 1886 invited fifteen of them to her house to discuss forming a national federation. This was agreed, and the Women's Liberal Federation (WLF) was established in London in 1887, Fry becoming its honorary secretary.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cowman|first1=Krista|title=Women in British Politics, c.1689-1979|date=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0230545571}}</ref><ref name="hollis">{{cite book|last1=Hollis|first1=Patricia|title=Ladies Elect: Women in English Local Government 1865-1914|date=1989|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0198221579|page=57}}</ref> It grew rapidly, and had 75,000 members within five years.<ref name="odnb" />
In 1892, the WLF split over whether to support women's suffrage. While Fry was personally in favour, she felt it was a divisive issue and should not become the policy of the group. As a result, when the policy was voted in, she left to become a founder of the rival Women's National Liberal Association, serving as its vice-president.<ref name="odnb" />
Theodore was made a baronet in 1894, so Sophia became '''Lady Fry'''. In 1896, the couple holidayed in Italy, but she suffered a severe accident, and died in March 1897 in Biarritz.<ref name="odnb" />
==References== <references />
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fry, Sophia}} Category:1837 births Category:1897 deaths Category:English Quakers Category:Liberal Party (UK) politicians Sophia Category:People from Darlington Category:Wives of baronets