Swanwick, Helena (1864–1939)

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Swanwick, Helena (1864–1939)

British suffragist and pacifist. Born Helena Maria Lucy Sickert, 1864, in Munich, Germany; died 1939; dau. of Oswald Sickert; m. Frederick Swanwick, 1888.

Staunch advocate of pacifism and disarmament, studied Moral Sciences at Girton College and became psychology lecturer and journalist; joined North England Suffrage Society (1900) but opposed militancy; edited suffragist newspaper, The Common Cause, and later contributed to The Manchester Guardian, The Observer, The Nation, and The Daily News; became chair of Women's International League for Peace (1915); after WWI, was delegate to League of Nations (1924, 1929) and became vice-president of League of Nations Union; writings include The Future of the Women's Movement (1913), Builders of Peace (1924), Collective Insecurity (1937) and Roots of Peace (1938).

See also autobiography, I Have Been Young (1935).