Suffragette and Activist. A militant campaigner for women's rights, she became an arsonist, was imprisoned seven times and endured hunger strike in her efforts to persuade the British Parliament to grant women the vote. Seeing the inequality of class distinctions as a youth, she set about challenging social norms, becoming critical of the treatment of servants. A doctor's daughter and a doctor's wife, she did not take on the traditional role of a middle-class housewife, but busied herself trying to improve working conditions for girls in the local mills and founded a school allowing women to meet and continue their education. She took up the Suffragist cause, which campaigned to grant women the vote, and took part in demonstrations, first being arrested in 1907 whilst marching in London. In total, she was arrested and imprisoned seven times and on each of these occasions she took part in hunger strikes and was force fed by the prison authorities. Her activism included planting a bomb in the Liverpool Cotton Exchange in 1913 and in the same year set fire to a property belonging to the gentry, which she claimed was "a beacon lighted to King and Country to [highlight] intolerable grievances for women." Other actions included throwing a potato at Winston Churchill, and organising her supporters to 'tar and feather' a statue of Lord Derby. Into old age she enjoyed a healthy lifestyle, bathing in the sea, fell walking and daily meditation.
Suffragette and Activist. A militant campaigner for women's rights, she became an arsonist, was imprisoned seven times and endured hunger strike in her efforts to persuade the British Parliament to grant women the vote. Seeing the inequality of class distinctions as a youth, she set about challenging social norms, becoming critical of the treatment of servants. A doctor's daughter and a doctor's wife, she did not take on the traditional role of a middle-class housewife, but busied herself trying to improve working conditions for girls in the local mills and founded a school allowing women to meet and continue their education. She took up the Suffragist cause, which campaigned to grant women the vote, and took part in demonstrations, first being arrested in 1907 whilst marching in London. In total, she was arrested and imprisoned seven times and on each of these occasions she took part in hunger strikes and was force fed by the prison authorities. Her activism included planting a bomb in the Liverpool Cotton Exchange in 1913 and in the same year set fire to a property belonging to the gentry, which she claimed was "a beacon lighted to King and Country to [highlight] intolerable grievances for women." Other actions included throwing a potato at Winston Churchill, and organising her supporters to 'tar and feather' a statue of Lord Derby. Into old age she enjoyed a healthy lifestyle, bathing in the sea, fell walking and daily meditation.
Bio by: Turnpike
Inscription
ALSO IN REMEMBRANCE OF
EDITH, BELOVED WIFE OF
CHARLES S RIGBY,
ENTERED INTO REST
JULY 23RD 1950
Gravesite Details
Edith's remains were cremated at Birkenhead Crematorium and her ashes were buried in her husband's grave in Preston Old Cemetery.
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