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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Key</span></span>
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</style><table class="infobox biography vcard"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="font-size:125%;"><div class="fn">Edith Key</div></th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><div class="infobox-caption">Edith Key. Photo courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service Kirklees, KC1060/2</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th><td class="infobox-data">1872<span style="display:none"> (<span class="dtstart bday">1872</span>)</span><br><div style="display:inline" class="birthplace"><span class="nowrap"><a href="Ecclesfield" title="Ecclesfield">Ecclesfield</a>, England, <br> <a href="United_Kingdom_of_Great_Britain_and_Ireland" title="United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland">United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Died</th><td class="infobox-data">1937 (aged 64–65)</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Nationality</th><td class="infobox-data category">British</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Occupation</th><td class="infobox-data role">Suffragette</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Spouse</th><td class="infobox-data"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1298804929">
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<div class="marriage-display-inline"><div style="display:inline-block;line-height:normal;">Frederick Key</div> <div style="display:inline-block;"></div>(<abbr title="married">m.</abbr> 1891)<wbr></div></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><b>Edith Key</b> (1872–1937) was a British <a href="Suffragette" title="Suffragette">suffragette</a>.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Biography">Biography</h2></div>
<p>Edith was born in January 1872 in <a href="Ecclesfield" title="Ecclesfield">Ecclesfield</a>, <a href="Bradford" title="Bradford">Bradford</a>. Her mother was Grace Procter, a mill worker. Her father was most likely Joseph Fawcett, a local mill owner, who signed an 'Agreement to a Child' to pay Grace a weekly allowance until Edith was thirteen years old. Raised by her aunts, Edith moved to <a href="Huddersfield" title="Huddersfield">Huddersfield</a> some time before her 10th birthday. She worked in a mill from age 10 and left school at age 13.<sup id="cite_ref-:2_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Edith married Frederick Key, a blind musician, in March 1891. Together they opened a music shop in <a href="Huddersfield" title="Huddersfield">Huddersfield</a>, which they lived above.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Frederick was active in socialist politics,<sup id="cite_ref-:2_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and Edith soon became involved in the women's suffrage movement. She was the secretary-organiser of the Huddersfield branch of the <a href="Women's_Social_and_Political_Union" title="Women's Social and Political Union">Women's Social and Political Union</a> (WSPU),<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> formed in 1906 at a meeting chaired by <a href="Emmeline_Pankhurst" title="Emmeline Pankhurst">Emmeline Pankhurst</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-:2_1-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>Edith's diligent record-keeping ensured a complete record survives of this period of local suffragist history in the form of her minutes book, deposited in the <a href="West_Yorkshire_Joint_Services" title="West Yorkshire Joint Services">West Yorkshire Archives Service</a> by Edith's granddaughter.<sup id="cite_ref-:2_1-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> It is one of only three WSPU minute books known to have survived, and the only one outside of a London branch,<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and provides a valuable insight into how local branches interacted with the WSPU, and of the concerns of WSPU members far removed from the militant actions which mostly took place in London.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>She attended several suffrage demonstrations in London, at one being arrested and held in <a href="HM_Prison_Holloway" title="HM Prison Holloway">HM Prison Holloway</a> for several days before being released due to lack of evidence.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The WSPU minute book includes a copy of a letter sent by Edith on behalf of the branch to "dear friends" in Holloway Gaol, expressing hope from the branch "that your health and strength and womanly endurance may enable you to complete your sentences".<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
</p><p>The Key's home above their music shop served as regional headquarters for the Huddersfield WSPU. According to Edith's son Archibald, it also became "unofficial headquarters for the ILP [the <a href="Independent_Labour_Party" title="Independent Labour Party">Independent Labour Party</a>, of which Frederick was a member] and plotting room for suffragette militancy".<sup id="cite_ref-:2_1-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> From 1913–14, Edith used her home to hide a number of suffragette "mice", women who were evading prison under the <a href="Prisoners_(Temporary_Discharge_for_Ill_Health)_Act_1913" class="mw-redirect" title="Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913">Cat and Mouse Act</a>. Among those she offered shelter to was <a href="Adela_Pankhurst" title="Adela Pankhurst">Adela Pankhurst</a>, daughter of <a href="Emmeline_Pankhurst" title="Emmeline Pankhurst">Emmeline Pankhurst</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-:1_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Edith died in 1937 aged 65, and was buried in Edgerton Cemetery.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Legacy">Legacy</h2></div>
<p>Key's name is commemorated in Huddersfield through two organisations: the Edith Key Centre, a base for community and campaigning organisations, opened in 2014;<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and the Edith Key building at the <a href="University_of_Huddersfield" title="University of Huddersfield">University of Huddersfield</a>, which houses the Department of Psychology in the School of Human and Health Sciences.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
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