Emily Langton Massingberd

Emily Massingberd
by John C Moore (1829–1880)

Emily Caroline Langton Massingberd (19 December 1847 – 28 January 1897) of Gunby Hall was a women's rights campaigner and temperance activist. She founded the Pioneer Club in 1892 as a club with the object of the political and moral advancement of women.[1][2][3]

Air Chief Marshal Leigh-Mallory in an anecdote suggested he had seen the ghost of Mrs Emily Langton Massingberd at Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire and he intervened to stop the destruction of the hall for a war-time airfield.[4]

Family

Born in East Stonehouse, Devon, 19 December 1847, eldest daughter of Charles Langton Massingberd of Gunby Hall and Harriet Anne Langford she married her second-cousin, Edmund Langton, in 1867 but he was to die just 12 years later. Her four children were to give the Gunby Hall estate to the National Trust. She was mother-in-law to Field Marshal Montgomery-Massingberd and to his brother General Hugh M. de Fellenberg Montgomery and was great-grandmother to Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd

It is singular that in the history of her family Mrs Massingberd was the third only daughter upon whom the estates had devolved.[1]

The advancement of women

After marriage in 1867 their home was the Red House in Knyveton Road, Bournemouth. Her husband died in 1875 aged in his early 30s leaving her with a son and three daughters and Massingberd turned to temperance work with the British Women's Temperance Association. When her father died in 1887 she succeeded to Gunby Hall and resumed her maiden name by royal licence. For the next four years she managed the estate herself then moved to London.[5]

In London she involved herself in the temperance, anti-vivisectionist and women's movements. She was an enthusiastic supporter of women's suffrage, she had made her first speech in favour of it at Westminster Town Hall in 1882. Becoming a vice president of the United Kingdom Alliance, a Manchester based temperance movement, she was also honorary treasurer to Lady Henry Somerset's Cottage Homes for Inebriates, a farm colony for women at Duxhurst, just south of Reigate.[5]

Pioneer Club

Massingberd founded the Pioneer Club in 1892 to provide middle-class women, in particular unmarried women, with a place to socialise outside their homes, "a place where women gathered to meet each other, to help each other and to discuss the leading questions and principal progressive work of the day". It was to remain active until 1939.[6]

It was the only British club to be affiliated to the General Federation of Women's Clubs.[6]

By 1895 it had more than 300 members (by 1899 more than 600), stressed the unimportance of social position, provided members and their guests with meals and on Thursday evenings organised lectures, debates and discussion on social political and literary themes. Speakers included Bernard Shaw, Millicent Fawcett, Mrs Pearsall Smith, Lady Henry Somerset and Frances Willard. Men might be invited by members on Wednesday evenings.[5][6]

She underwent a serious operation at Llandudno but a few weeks later died on 28 January 1897 a month into her 50th year.[5]

Her birth surname was Massingberd, her married surname Langton. She re-assumed the surname Massingberd by royal licence 20 May 1887.[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Obituary. Mrs Massingberd, The Times, Jan 29, 1897; pg. 10; Issue 35113
  2. ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (2001). Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866–1928 (Women's and Gender History). Routledge. ISBN 978-0415239264.
  3. ↑ WOMEN'S CLUBS Victorian Dictionary
  4. ↑ Dunn, Bill Newton (1992). Big wing: the biography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, KCB, DSO and Bar. Airlife. ISBN 978-1-85310-240-0.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Clement, Mark (May 2007). "Massingberd, Emily Caroline Langton (1847–1897)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53060. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Doughan, David. "Pioneer Club (act. 1892–1939)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)