Suffragette, playwright, terrorist - meet Warrington's first female journalist

To mark the anniversary of women gaining the vote, Hannah White, from Warrington Museum, has been discovering more about her.

“Manchester born Mabel Capper came from a family of active suffrage fighters.

Her father was honorary secretary of the Manchester branch of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage, her mother in the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and her brother was secretary of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage.

Mabel started her career as a journalist aged 10 by editing a manuscript magazine and quickly progressed to the columns of the press.

Mabel was appointed Warrington’s first female journalist on the Examiner in 1907. She married Cecil Chisholm in 1921 near Hastings and died in 1966.

Mabel Capper was a militant campaigner for votes for women. She was in all, imprisoned six times and was one of the first suffragettes to be force fed.

Mabel took part in various forms of acts of sabotage including against the 1911 census, disruption of political meetings and polling stations, window breaking and an attempt in Dublin to target Prime Minister Asquith with a bomb.

Between 1907 and1912, Mabel is said to have given all her time to the WSPU including taking part in by-election and protest campaigns.

Mabel worked as the first lady journalist for the Warrington Examiner in which she is described as the ‘engaging lady journalist’.

During the First World War, Mabel was a nurse with the British Red Cross and with the Voluntary Aid Detachment. In 1912, she had her first play ‘The Betrothal of Number 13’ performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

Mabel was profusely politically active in fighting for the vote for women and it is without doubt that her activities raised the profile of this cause.

As the first female journalist in Warrington, Mabel actively engaged in correspondence in newspapers such as the Manchester Guardian arguing the cause for women.

As a ‘Pioneer of Suffrage’ she is a role model for the women of Warrington to not be afraid of fighting for political and social causes which they believed in.”

Her social and political awareness and commitment are an inspiration to all communities in both recognising the invaluable contribution that women can make to society birth alone and in supporting men.

Mabel Capper has clearly secured a place in the history of the fight for women’s suffrage both locally with connections to Manchester and also nationally. Both her political activities and civic roles demonstrate that in many areas it is possible for women to take on the same roles as men. Her strength of character and ultimately willingness to undergo personal distress for the women’s suffrage cause is remarkable. Mabel’s undying desire to support those who are in need is humbling, whether it is as a VAD nurse or her various escapades to fight for the vote for women.