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Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett was an English political leader, activist and writer, known primarily as a campaigner for women's suffrage.
Fawcett was born on 11 June 1847 in Aldeburgh, to Newson Garrett, an entrepreneur, and his wife Louisa (née Dunnell). She was the eighth of their ten children.
As a child, Fawcett's elder sister Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, who became Britain's first female doctor, introduced her to Emily Davies, an English suffragist. In the biography, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Davies is quoted as saying to Elizabeth, "It is quite clear what has to be done. I must devote myself to securing higher education, while you open the medical profession to women. After these things are done, we must see about getting the vote." She then turned to Millicent: "You are younger than we are, Millie, so you must attend to that."
Aged 19, although unable to sign as a minor, Fawcett collected signatures for the first petition for women's suffrage and became secretary of the London Society for Women's Suffrage. In 1897 Fawcett became President of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, and remained so until 1919. She focused on improving women's chances of higher education, serving as a governor of Bedford College, London (now Royal Holloway) and a co-founder of Newnham College, Cambridge.
Fawcett lived to see British women win the right to vote. She died in 1929, aged 82.
Janet Doncaster is a novel about the rights of women, written in 1875, by Millicent Garnett Fawcett who was a champion of women rights. Janet has nothing but her intelligence going for her, no skills or money, and gets coerced into a marriage with a man whose history has been hid from her. She doesn't accept her fate, she fights for her rights and for the man she truly loves. Again Victorian Secrets has published a novel from a little know Victorian author and made it available to the modern reader. Great editing, introduction and excellent appendixes makes this edition one to add to your collection of Victorian novels.