WRITER AND SUFFRAGIST, CICELY HAMILTON – Paddington

Born in 1872, Cicely Hammill was an English actress, writer, journalist, suffragist and feminist. She is now best known for the play Diana of Dobson's, with a setting in an Edwardian department store, but also wrote Women’s Vote (1908), and How the Vote was Won 1909 – a play which she co-wrote with Chris St John

She was born in Paddington, London and educated in Malvern. After a short spell in teaching she acted in a touring company. Then she wrote drama, including feminist themes, and enjoyed a period of success in the commercial theatre.

In 1908 she founded with Bessie Hatton the Women Writers' Suffrage League. This grew to around 400 members, including Ivy Compton-Burnett, Sarah Grand, Violet Hunt, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Alice Meynell, Olive Schreiner, Evelyn Sharp, May Sinclair, and Margaret L. Woods. It produced campaigning literature, written by Sinclair amongst others, and recruited many prominent male supporters.

During World War I she initially worked in the organisation of nursing care, and then joined the army as an auxiliary. Later she formed a repertory company to entertain the troops.

After the war, she wrote as a freelance journalist, particularly on birth control, and as a playwright for the Birmingham Repertory Company. In 1938 she was given a Civil List pension.

She was a friend of EM Delafield and was portrayed in A Provincial Lady Goes Further as "Emma Hay"

She died in 1952