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Georgiana Solomon
Extract from a painting by her son William
Born	Georginana Thomson 18 August 1844 near Kelso, Scotland
Died	24 June 1933 Eastbourne
Nationality	British, South African
Occupation	School principal, suffragette
Spouse(s)	Saul Solomon

Georgiana Margaret Solomon (born 18 August 1844 – 24 June 1933) was a British suffragette and member of the Women's Social and Political Union. She and her daughter, Daisy Solomon, were imprisoned several times in the UK during the campaign for women's suffrage. She was jailed for breaking the windows of Black Rod's office.

Early life

Solomon was born near Kelso in Scotland to George Thompson and Margaret Stuart Thomson, née Scott. Her father was a farmer and she was obliged to take work as a teacher and a governess.^[1]

Career and family

Invited to be the principal of a school in South Africa, Solomon married Saul Solomon, a liberally minded Cape Colony politician, at his home, Clarensville House, on 21 March 1874. She was a head teacher at 29; he was an older, successful businessperson.^[1] Her husband was nominally Jewish and was known for his belief in equality based on creed, colour or class.^[2] His attitude to women is evidenced by his daughter Daisy; she made a gift of a first edition, from her father's library, of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to the Fawcett Library.^[3]

In 1881 the couple's eldest daughter, Maggie, drowned. Saul Solomon retired from public life, and the family moved to Bedford in England in 1888, where their sons attended Bedford School. He died at their home in Kilgreggan in Scotland on 16 October 1892; Solomon survived her husband by over 40 years. Of their three children, Daisy Solomon was also a suffragette, the Hon. Saul Solomon became a high court Judge, and William Ewart Gladstone Solomon was a noted painter.^[1]

Activism

Daisy Solomon and Elspeth McClellan outside 10 Downing Street in 1909, trying to have themselves delivered as letters

In 1902 Solomon visited South Africa, where she assisted in the campaign for women's suffrage. This led to the creation on 16 October 1904 of the Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie (South African Women's Federation) by Solomon and Annie Botha.^[4]

Back in England, Georgiana and Daisy Solomon both joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1908, and the following year Georgina was involved in two unsuccessful deputations to the British Prime Minister. The first was in March and the second was on 18 November 1910 (Black Friday), when the deputation was led by Emmeline Pankhurst to petition Prime Minister Asquith. The delegates included Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson, Anne Cobden-Sanderson, Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, Dorinda Neligan and Hertha Ayrton.^[5]

On 4 March 1912 she began a one month's sentence in Holloway jail for breaking nine windows in the House of Lords. The office attacked was that used by Black Rod.^[1]

Solomon died in Eastbourne.^[1]

Works

• 
  Echoes of Two Little Voices (1883), poetry concerning the early deaths of her children.

References