Editing Cicely Hamilton

{{Short description|English actress, writer and suffragist (1872–1952)}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Cicely Hamilton
| image              = Cicely Hamilton, c1907.jpg
| caption            = Cicely Hamilton, c. 1907
| birth_name         = Cicely Mary Hammill
| birth_date         = 15 June 1872
| birth_place        = [[Paddington]], London, England
| death_date         = {{death-date and age|6 December 1952|15 June 1872}}
| death_place        = 
| death_cause        = 
| other_names        = 
| known_for          = Suffragette, event organiser
| education          = 
| employer           = 
| occupation         = Actor, playwright, novelist
| parents            = 
| relatives          = 
| signature          = 
| website            = 
| footnotes          = 
| nationality        = 
}}
'''Cicely Mary Hamilton''' (née '''Hammill'''; 15 June 1872 – 6 December 1952), was an English actress, writer, journalist, [[suffragist]] and [[feminist]], part of the struggle for [[women's suffrage in the United Kingdom]]. She is now best known for the [[feminist theatre|feminist play]] ''How the Vote was Won'', which sees a male anti-suffragist change his mind when the women in his life go on strike.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3346832?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Ff5%3Dall%26amp%3Bc4%3DAND%26amp%3Bq4%3D%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bc6%3DAND%26amp%3Bbk%3Don%26amp%3Bf2%3Dall%26amp%3Bc1%3DAND%26amp%3Bla%3D%26amp%3Bf0%3Dall%26amp%3Bms%3Don%26amp%3Bq5%3D%26amp%3Bc3%3DAND%26amp%3Bq3%3D%26amp%3Bpm%3Don%26amp%3Bc5%3DAND%26amp%3Bq6%3D%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bisbn%3D%26amp%3Bf3%3Dall%26amp%3Bq2%3D%26amp%3Bsd%3D%26amp%3Bf4%3Dall%26amp%3Bq0%3Dhow%2Bthe%2Bvote%2Bwas%2Bwon%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bar%3Don%26amp%3Bpt%3D%26amp%3Bed%3D%26amp%3Bc2%3DAND%26amp%3Bf6%3Dall%26amp%3Bq1%3Dcicely%2Bhamilton%26amp%3Bf1%3Dall&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "Cicely Hamilton, Independent Feminist"], ''Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol 11'' No. 2/3 1990</ref><ref name="ls">Lisa Shariari, "Hamilton, Cicely" in Faye Hammill, Ashlie Sponenberg and Esme Miskimmin (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of British Women's Writing, 1900-1950''. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. {{ISBN|9781403916921}} (pp. 105-6)</ref> She was also the author of one of the most frequently performed suffrage plays, ''A Pageant of Great Women'' (1909), which featured the character of [[Jane Austen]] as one of its "Learned Women.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-10-21|title=A Pageant of Great Women: The Suffragettes and Performance|url=https://womenslibrary.org.uk/event/katharine-cockin-a-pageant-of-great-women/|access-date=2021-08-26|website=Glasgow Women's Library|language=en-US}}</ref>"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Looser|first=Devoney|title=The Making of Jane Austen|location=Baltimore, MD|publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]]|year=2017|page=169|isbn=978-1421422824}}</ref>

==Biography==
Born in 1872, Cicely Hammill in [[Paddington]], London, she was the eldest of the four children of Maude Mary and Denzil Hammil. She was educated in [[Malvern, Worcestershire]] and in [[Bad Homburg vor der Höhe]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=38633 |last1=Joannou |first1=Maroula |title=Hamilton [''née'' Hammill], (Mary) Cicely (1872–1952), writer and campaigner for women's rights  |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-38633 |accessdate=12 February 2020 |language=en}}</ref> Hammill was raised by foster parents because her mother had gone missing.<ref name="ls" /> After a short spell in teaching, she acted in a touring company. She took the pseudonym "Cicely Hamilton" out of consideration for her family. Then, she wrote drama, including feminist themes, and enjoyed a period of success in commercial theatre. Hamilton was praised for her acting in a performance of ''[[Fanny's First Play]]'' by [[George Bernard Shaw]].<ref name="ls" />

In 1908, she and [[Bessie Hatton]] founded the [[Women Writers' Suffrage League]]. This grew to around 400 members, including [[Ivy Compton-Burnett]], [[Sarah Grand]], [[Violet Hunt]], [[Marie Belloc Lowndes]], [[Alice Meynell]], [[Olive Schreiner]], [[Evelyn Sharp (suffragist)|Evelyn Sharp]], [[May Sinclair]], and [[Margaret L. Woods]]. It produced campaigning literature, written by Sinclair amongst others, and recruited many prominent male supporters. 
[[File:Cicely Hamilton by Lena Connell 1910s.png|thumb|left|Photo by [[Lena Connell]] from the 1910s]]
Hamilton supplied the lyrics of "''[[The March of the Women]]''", the song which [[Ethel Smyth]] composed in 1910 for the [[Women's Social and Political Union]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bennett|first=Jory|editor=Crichton, Ronald|title=The Memoirs of Ethel Smyth: Abridged and Introduced by Ronald Crichton, with a list of works by Jory Bennett|publisher=Viking|location=Harmondsworth|year=1987|page=[https://archive.org/details/memoirsofethelsm00smyt/page/378 378]|isbn=0-670-80655-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofethelsm00smyt/page/378}}</ref> was first performed at an 'At Home' in Suffolk Street Galleries, [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]] to celebrate the release of women violently arrested on [[Black Friday (1910)|Black Friday]]; it had suitably stirring lyrics for such an occasion:

{{blockquote|<poem>
Shout, shout up with your song! 
Cry with the wind for the dawn is breaking.
March, march swing you along, 
Wide blows our banner and hope is waking,
Sing with its story, dreams with their glory,
Lo! They call and glad is their word!
Forward! Hark how it swells
Thunder and freedom, the voice of the Lord!<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Atkinson|first=Diane|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=978-1-4088-4404-5|location=London|pages=245, 540|oclc=1016848621}}</ref></poem>}}

In the days before radio, one effective way to get a message out into society and to have it discussed was to produce short plays that could be performed around the country, and so [[suffrage drama]] was born. [[Elizabeth Robins]]'s "''Votes for Women"'' and Cicely Hamilton and [[Christabel Marshall|Christopher St. John]]'s "''How the Vote Was Won"'' are two predominant examples of the genre.<ref name="MaroulaJoannou">Maroula Joannou & [[June Purvis]], The Women's Suffrage Movement: New Feminist Perspectives (Manchester University Press, 1998), 127</ref> Hamilton also wrote "''A Pageant of Great Women"'', a highly successful women's suffrage play based on the ideas of her friend, the theatre director [[Edith Craig]].  Hamilton played 'Woman' while Craig played the painter [[Rosa Bonheur]], one of the 50 or so great women in the play.<ref name=Craig/> [[Lena Connell]]'s photographs of the leading players were sold to assist the suffrage cause and Connell exhibited the pictures at the [[Royal Photographic Society]] in 1910-11.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EMTiDQAAQBAJ&q=Lena+Connell+1949&pg=PT121|title=Edith Craig and the Theatres of Art|last=Cockin|first=Katharine|date=2017-01-26|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4725-7063-5|language=en}}</ref> The play was produced all over the UK from 1909 until the [[World War I|First World War]].<ref name=Craig>Cockin, Katharine. ''Edith Craig (1869–1947): Dramatic Lives'', Cassell (1998).</ref> Hamilton was a member of Craig's theatre society, the [[Edith Craig|''Pioneer Players'']].  Her play "''Jack and Jill and a Friend'' "was one of the three plays in the Pioneer Players' first production in May 1911.<ref name=Pioneer>Cockin, Katharine. ''Women and Theatre in the Age of Suffrage: The Pioneer Players 1911–25'', Palgrave (2001)</ref> Hamilton inspired young schoolgirls, supportive of suffrage, like [[Winifred Starbuck]], who had Hamilton and other leaders' pictures on her desk in purple, white and green frames and later herself protested by school disorder, such as graffiti and hiding the school registers and handbell, as a milder form of resistance to authority for women's suffrage.<ref name=":0" />

During World War I, Hamilton initially worked in the organisation of nursing care, with the [[Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service|Scottish Women's]] ambulance service near [[Paris]],<ref name=":0" /> and then joined the army as an auxiliary.<ref name="ls" /> Later she formed a [[repertory company]] to entertain the troops. After the war, she wrote as a freelance journalist, particularly on [[birth control]], and was a press officer for the [[Geneva]] International Suffrage Conference<ref name=":0" /> and as a playwright for the [[Birmingham Repertory Theatre|Birmingham Repertory Company]].<ref name="ls" /> When [[Lena Ashwell Players]] Ltd was formed in 1923, Hamilton was one of the directors. The other three were [[Lena Ashwell]], [[Esme Church]] and [[Marion Fawcett]], who were the company's [[Theater manager|theatre managers]].<ref name=herbook>{{Cite book|last=Leask|first=Margaret|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7DIAwAAQBAJ&q=lena+ashwell+Fawcett%2C+Marion&pg=PA1914-IA90|title=Lena Ashwell: Actress, Patriot, Pioneer|date=2012|publisher=Univ of Hertfordshire Press|page=1914|isbn=978-1-907396-64-9|language=en}}</ref>

Hamilton was a regular contributor to ''[[Time and Tide (magazine)|Time and Tide]]'' magazine, and an active member of the feminist [[Six Point Group]], campaigning for the rights of children, widows and unmarried mothers; equal guardianship of children, and equal pay in teaching and civil service.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="ls" /><ref>Anne Logan, ''Feminism and criminal justice : a historical perspective''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. {{ISBN|9780230584136}} (pp. 24-5)</ref> In 1938, she was given a [[Pensions in the United Kingdom#Civil List pensions|Civil List pension]]. She was a friend of [[E. M. Delafield]] and is thought to be the model for "Emma Hay" in Delafield's "''Provincial Lady"'' books.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.starcourse.org/emd/emdwho.htm|title=EM Delafield Who's Who|website=www.starcourse.org}}</ref>

Hamilton's "''Theodore Savage"'' (1922, vt. ''Lest Ye Die'' 1928) is a science-fiction novel about a Britain devastated by a war.<ref>[[E. F. Bleiler]] and [[Richard Bleiler]]. ''Science-Fiction: The Early Years''. Kent State University Press, 1990. (p.331). {{ISBN|9780873384162}}.</ref> She also contributed many pieces to juvenile [[story papers]] published by the [[Amalgamated Press]], often under the [[pen name]] 'Max Hamilton'; under the latter, she became the first female writer to pen a story featuring the detective [[Sexton Blake]] in a 1906 issue of ''[[Union Jack (magazine)|The Union Jack]]''.<ref name=MenBehind>{{cite book|title=The Men Behind Boys Fiction|last1=Lofts|last2=Adley|first1=W. O .G.|first2=D. J.|date=1970|publisher=Howard Baker|author-link1=W. O. G. Lofts|author-link2=Derek Adley}}</ref>

Hamilton's autobiography "''Life Errant"'' was published in 1935. She died in Chelsea in 1952.<ref name=":0" />

In July 2017, the [[Finborough Theatre]] staged the first London production of Hamilton's play "''Just to Get Married''" in over 100 years. It received positive reviews (4 stars) from ''[[The Times]],''<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/theatre-dance/article/theatre-review-just-to-get-married-at-the-finborough-theatre-sw10-8jc007s6v|title=Theatre review: Just to Get Married at the Finborough Theatre, SW10|last=Treneman|first=Ann|date=2017-08-01|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=2018-01-23|issn=0140-0460}}</ref> ''[[The Observer]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/aug/06/just-to-get-married-review-road-jim-cartwright-lemn-sissay-john-tiffany|title=Just to Get Married; Road review – fire and anxiety|last=Clapp|first=Susannah|author-link=Susannah Clapp |date=2017-08-06|website=The Guardian|access-date=2018-01-23}}</ref> ''[[Evening Standard|The Evening Standard]]''<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-08-23|title=Just to Get Married, theatre review: Catch this now or risk waiting a century {{!}} London Evening Standard|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/just-to-get-married-theatre-review-catch-this-now-or-risk-waiting-a-century-a3599851.html|access-date=2021-06-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823165834/https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/just-to-get-married-theatre-review-catch-this-now-or-risk-waiting-a-century-a3599851.html|archive-date=23 August 2017}}</ref> and ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/theater/women-without-options-and-spoiled-for-choice.html?referer=https://www.google.co.uk/|title=Women Without Options and Spoiled for Choice|work=The New York Times |date=7 August 2017 |access-date=2018-01-23|language=en|last1=Brantley |first1=Ben }}</ref>

==Works==
[[File:Suffrage theatricals, performed by the Actresses' Franchise League, c1909-1914.jpg|thumb|Probably the play 'A Pageant of Great Women' performed by the [[Actresses' Franchise League]].]]
{{wikisource author}}
* ''The Traveller Returns'' (1906) play
* ''[[Diana of Dobson's]]'' (novel, play 1908)
* ''Women's Votes'' (1908)
* ''Marriage as a Trade'' (1909)
* ''How the Vote was Won'' (1909) play
* ''A Pageant of Great Women'' (1910) play
* ''Just to Get Married'' (1911) play
* ''Jack and Jill and a Friend'' (1911) play
* ''[[Lady Noggs]]'' (1912) play
* ''[[William - an Englishman]]'' (1919) novel (Reprinted by [[Persephone Books]] in 1999)
* ''The Child in Flanders: A Nativity Play'' (1922)
* ''Theodore Savage: A Story of the Past or the Future'' (1922)
* ''The Old Adam'' (1924) play
* ''Non-Combatant'' (1924)
* ''The Human Factor'' (1925)
* ''The Old Vic'' (1926) with [[Lilian Baylis]]
* ''Lest Ye Die'' (1928)
* ''Modern Germanies, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1931)
* ''Modern Italy, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1932)
* ''Modern France, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1933)
* ''Little Arthur's History of the Twentieth Century'' (1933)
* ''Modern Russia, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1934)
* ''Modern Austria, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1935)
* ''Life Errant'' (1935) autobiography
* ''Modern Ireland, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1936)
* ''Modern Scotland, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1937)
* ''Modern England, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1938)
* ''Modern Sweden, as seen by an Englishwoman'' (1939)
* ''The Englishwoman'' (1940)
* ''Lament for Democracy'' (1940)
* ''The Beggar Prince'' (1944) play
* ''Holland To-day'' (1950)

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book | last=Bleiler | first=Everett | authorlink=Everett F. Bleiler | title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature | location=Chicago | publisher=[[Shasta Publishers]] | year=1948 | page=112}}
* Lis Whitelaw (1990) ''The Life & Rebellious Times of Cicely Hamilton''

==Further reading==
* Stowell, S. (1994). ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/245753786 A stage of their own: Feminist playwrights of the suffrage era]''. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan Press. p.&nbsp;71–99.

==External links==
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/cicely-hamilton}}
* {{Gutenberg author|id=47185}}
* {{Library resources about|onlinebooks=no|viaf=54947993}}
* {{Library resources by|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=54947993}}
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1956 page at Literary Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/FWWhamiltonC.htm page at Spartacus]
* [http://www.ellenterryarchive.hull.ac.uk AHRC Ellen Terry and Edith Craig Archive Database]
* [http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/cicely-hamilton/ Author Profile at Persephone Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319091346/http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/cicely-hamilton/ |date=19 March 2018 }}
* ''[http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/william-an-englishman.html William – An Englishman]'' at Persephone Books
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Cicely Mary Hamilton |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=10128}}
* Play script of [https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/script/2976/ '<nowiki/>''A Child in Flanders''']  accessible from [https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk The Great War Theatre Project]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Cicely}}
[[Category:1872 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:Actors from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:British women in World War I]]
[[Category:English suffragists]]
[[Category:English feminist writers]]
[[Category:English stage actresses]]
[[Category:English women dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:English travel writers]]
[[Category:English science fiction writers]]
[[Category:Women of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:English women travel writers]]
[[Category:English women science fiction and fantasy writers]]
[[Category:Writers from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:Authors of Sexton Blake]]
[[Category:Members of the Women Writers' Suffrage League]]
[[Category:People from Paddington]]