Variations of Name | Elizabeth Edith Balfour | Elizabeth Bulwer-Lytton | Betty Balfour |
Biography | Elizabeth Balfour, Countess of Balfour, was a British suffragette, politician, and writer.
A staunch Conservative, she served as Dame President of the Woking Habitation of the Primrose League and was a founding member of the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, serving as president of the association's chapter in Edinburgh. After the 1910 Conciliation Bill failed to pass in the House of Commons, she went on a speaking tour across the United Kingdom to rally support for women's suffrage. In 1919, Lady Balfour became the first woman to sit on the Woking Borough Council.
Through her husband's social connections, she became associated with the elite social and intellectual group The Souls. She was a talented musician and became a close friend of the composer and suffragist Dame Ethel Smyth. |