This biography is republished from The London School of Economics and Political Science and was written by Dr. Gillian Murphy. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 21 October 1867, Morocco
Died: 28 January 1953
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
The Cavendish Bentinck Library belonged to the suffragist and socialist Ruth Cavendish Bentinck.
Ruth was involved with the National Federation of Women Workers and the Fabian Society. She was also a keen supporter of the women’s suffrage movement, quite willing to walk up and down outside the Houses of Parliament with billboards strapped to her.
Ruth was an eloquent speaker and toured the country giving speeches about women’s suffrage. She also organised, and took part in, the Women’s March from Edinburgh to London in October 1912. She later joined the executive of the United Suffragists, a group set up by Fred and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.
Ruth had started to collect books on and for women in 1909 with the objective of providing information to women who could all vote in local elections from 1896. Ruth sat on the executive committee of the London Society for Women’s Service and continued to donate books to the Library until she died in 1953.