Selina Cooper
Selina Jane Cooper (née Coombe; 4 December 1864 – 11 November 1946)
Early life
Selina Cooper was born Selina Coombe in
Callington, Cornwall, in 1864, the sixth of seven surviving children of Charles Coombe, railway labourer (and later railway subcontractor) and Jane Coombe (née Uren), dressmaker. She moved to Barnoldswick when she was a child, after her father died of typhoid in 1876. In the same year, aged 12, she began working in the local textile mills at Barnoldswick. She left school at the age of thirteen and started work full-time in the mills.[2][1]
Trade union and political activities
Cooper became active in trade union activities and took practical courses in laundry, hygiene and first aid and became a member of the Barnoldswick St John's Ambulance Committee in 1895.
In 1901, Cooper was elected to the
First World War Cooper developed the first ever Maternity Centre in Nelson, Lancashire. She was later elected to the town council and went on to become a local magistrate. She resigned from the Labour Party in the 1930s due to her belief that the party did not take a strong enough line against fascism.[3]
Recognition
Selina Cooper's house at 59 St Mary's Street, Nelson is marked with a heritage blue plaque.[6] In 2015, she was the subject of a play by the Function Factory theatre in Nelson titled "Hard-Faced Woman".[7]
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39078. Retrieved 26 November 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c d "Selina Cooper". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ OCLC 4379457.
- ^ ISBN 1853310913.
- ^ Sandra Stanley Holton, Feminism and Democracy: Women's Suffrage and Reform Politics in Britain, 1900-1918, Cambridge University Press (2002) - Google Books pg. 68
- OCLC 900415080.
- ^ Magill, Peter (27 August 2015). "Suffragette's story set to hit streets". Lancashire Telegraph. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
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