She was an author, scholar, secretary, and suffragist. Esther Roper was the daughter of a Manchester factory hand who became a Minister and missionary. She was the first woman to graduate and gain a BA in History from Owens College in Manchester. While working at the university, she also worked as secretary of the North of England Suffrage Society and that of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage. In 1893 she launched a suffrage campaign among the Lancashire textile workers. She traveled to Italy in or around 1896. While in Italy at George MacDonald's villa, she met Eva Gore-Booth. Both were recovering from consumption and the two bonded while walking and talking together in the hills of Bordigera and by the sea. When it was time for Eva to go home, she decided instead of returning to Ireland to join Esther in a new life in Manchester, England. They worked for the improvement of factory workers, women's rights, prison reform and the welfare of children. They were members of the suffrage movement and both actively involved in the trade union movement. As well campaigning for the rights of women circus performers, barmaids and the flower sellers of Oxford Circus. They founded the journal "Urania" in 1915 of which they shared their ideas of life and love. In 1921 they moved to Hampstead and she continued her suffragist work while Eva concentrated on writing her poems due to declining health. For thirty years they were together in a loving caring relationship until Eva's death from cancer, of the bowel, on June 30 1926. After her death, Esther collected many of her poems for publication and wrote a biographical introduction to them. She also published Eva's sister Constance Markievicz's letters to her while in prison in 1932. (Constance was in prison for her involvement in the Easter Uprising, in 1916 Ireland.) After twelve years Esther rejoined her companion in 1938. They were buried together under the same headstone in the Churchyard of St. John's Church of Hampstead, London, England.