Isabel Cowe (1 December 1867 - 3 January 1931) was a Scottish suffragist, campaigner for the local Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and boarding house owner. She was nicknamed the "Provost of St Abbs".[1]
Life
editCowe was born in Coldingham, Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders, in 1867. Her father was a fisherman and her brother Robert died at sea in 1879.[2] Extended family members working as mariners were also lost at sea as she grew up.[3]
Cowe owned the St Abbs Haven boarding house in Berwickshire from 1914 to 1931 and was a popular figure in the village.[1] She campaigned and fundraised for St Abbs to have its own lifeboat and took part in the rescue of passengers and crew from the ship Glanmire when it floundered in Coldingham Bay. She was awarded a RLNI Gold Brooch for her bravery and campaigning.[4]
Cowe joined the Women's Freedom League (WFL) with her friend Jane Hay. She helped organise the 400-mile Scottish Suffrage March from Edinburgh to Downing Street, London in October 1912, to present a petition for women's enfranchisement.[5] During the march she would often ride ahead on her bicycle to secure accommodation for the marchers and get signatures for the petition from people living in out of the way farms, hamlets and villages.[6] She was one of six marchers who completed the entire journey,[2] wore the suffrage colours of a white scarf and green hat on the march, and was even arrested in Egham, Surrey, for cycling on a pavement.[3]
She refused to pay taxes to her local council on one occasion in protest of its "ineffectiveness" and resisted bailiffs armed with a hatchet and fire extinguisher.[6] Cowe was also a supporter of the Children's League of Pity.
She died in 1931 and a memorial garden was made in her honour at St Abbs, where her ashes were scattered and a marble-columned sundial was erected that was paid for by subscribers from across Britain.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b Brown, Iain E. (May 2021). Isabel Cowe: Shore Gull and Suffragist. Austin Macauley Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-1-5289-8758-5.
- ^ a b McCall, Alison (23 June 2024). "Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland, Isabel Cowe". The Women of Scotland. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
- ^ a b c Know, David (23 June 2024). "Borders village to honour woman arrested on march for the vote". BBC News. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
- ^ "Isabel Cowe Exhibition highlighted in Parliament". Rachael Hamilton MSP. 16 October 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
- ^ "Top 10 inspirational women from the Border region". ITV Border. 8 March 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
- ^ a b Robinson, Jane (11 January 2018). Hearts And Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4735-4086-6.