Minnie Lansbury

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Minnie Lansbury (1889 - 1 January 1922) was a leading suffragette and an alderman on the first Labour-led council in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar, England.

Minnie was the daughter of coal merchant Isaac Glassman and the first wife (married 1914) of Edgar Lansbury, son of George Lansbury, mayor of Poplar and later leader of the Labour Party. (After Minnie's death, Edgar married actress Moyna MacGill and became the father of Angela Lansbury.)

Minnie Lansbury became a teacher, and joined the East London suffragettes in 1915. She was also chairman of the War Pensions Committee, fighting for the rights of widows, orphans and wounded from World War I. She was elected alderman on Poplar’s first Labour council in 1919, before women received Parliamentary suffrage.

In 1921, she was one of five women on Poplar Council who, along with their male colleagues, were jailed for six weeks for refusing to levy full rates in the poverty-stricken area. Due to her imprisonment, she developed pneumonia and died. She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in East Ham. There is a Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock on Electric House in Bow Road, Tower Hamlets.

[edit] References

• "Timely reminder of a suffragette", Jewish Chronicle, April 13, 2007, p.6

[edit] External links

• Workers Liberty
• Exploring East London