Edith Rigby ( Rayner) (18 October 1872 – 23 July 1950) was an English suffragette. She wanted women in Britain to have the right to vote. She founded a night school in Preston. It was called St Peter's School and its aim was to educate women and girls. Later, she became an important activist. She was sent to prison seven times and committed several acts of arson (illegally setting things on fire).
Biography
Rigby was born on 18 October 1872 in Preston, Lancashire. She was one of seven children of Dr Alexander Clement Rayner and she was educated at Penrhos College in North Wales.
She married Dr Charles Rigby and lived with him in Winckley Square in Preston.
Activism
In 1907 Rigby formed the Preston branch of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She was a suffragette recruiter. Rigby took part in a march to the Houses of Parliament in London with Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst in 1908. Fifty-seven women, including Rigby, were arrested and sentenced to a month in prison. During this time, Rigby took part in hunger strikes and was force-fed. Rigby planted a bomb in the Liverpool Corn Exchange on 5 July 1913. In court, it was stated that ‘no great damage had been done by the explosion’. Mrs Rigby was sent to prison for nine months with hard labour.
Rigby had been given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU.
She said she set fire to the bungalow of Sir William Lever, Bt
(later Lord Leverhulme) on 7 July 1913. The property, near Rivington Pike on the West Pennine Moors, had a lot of valuable paintings and the attack resulted in damage costing £20,000. After she said:
Rigby disagreed with the WSPU's decision not to campaign on suffrage issues during World War I. She joined the Independent Women's Social and Political Union split, forming a branch in Preston.
Later life
According to Elizabeth Ashworth in Champion Lancastrians, in 1888, Rigby was the first woman in Preston to own a bicycle. During World War I, she bought a cottage near Preston named Marigold Cottage and used it to produce food for the war effort.
In 1926, Charles Rigby retired and the couple built a new house. It was called Erdmuth and it was located outside Llanrhos, North Wales. Charles died before it was finished, however, and Edith moved there alone at the end of 1926. She eventually suffered from Parkinson's disease and died in 1950 at Erdmuth.