Teresa Billington-Greig (15 October 1876 – 21 October 1964) was a British suffragette who was one of the founders of the Women's Freedom League in 1907. She had left the Women's Social and Political Union - also known as the WSPU – as she considered the leadership led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters too autocratic. In 1904, she was appointed by the WSPU as a travelling speaker for the organisation. In Autumn 1906, Billington-Greig was tasked with drumming up support for branches of WSPU in Scotland. On 25 April 1906, she unveiled a 'Votes for Women' banner from the Ladies Gallery during the debate in the House of Commons. In June 1906, she was arrested in a fracas outside of Chancellor of the Exchequer H. H. Asquith's home, and as a result was the first suffragette to be incarcerated in Holloway Prison.
She founded the Women's Billiards Association in 1931. Her publications include The Militant Suffrage Movement (1911), which contained criticism of suffragettes' tactics, and The Consumer in Revolt (1912), which explored links between consumerism and feminism. Her archives are held at the Women's Library at the London School of Economics.
Early life
Teresa Mary Billington was born in Preston, Lancashire, on 15 October 1876. Her mother, Helen Wilson, ran a small shop, with two other partners, that was subsidised by her own father, who managed Preston's first department store. At her own father's behest, Wilson married William Billington, who became involved with the running of the shop. After the business failed, the family moved to Blackburn where William Billington joined a boiler-making company. Teresa and her elder sister attended the Convent of Notre Dame School, where the education was limited. She was a keen reader and writer of poetry and essays, selling stories to a Roman Catholic magazine.
After leaving school at 13, Billington was apprenticed in the millinery trade. However, she realised that at home she would not have the opportunity to study, owing to the expectations upon her to contribute to the work of the household, and at 17 she ran away. She approached her grandfather for a job at his department store, which he refused, and it was agreed in the family that she would stay with her uncle, George Wilson, and his family in Manchester. She took night classes there, and qualified to become a teacher.
She taught at a Roman Catholic school in Manchester, studying at the University of Manchester (Ancoats) Settlement in her spare time. Billington's parents were Roman Catholic, however she became an agnostic whilst a teenager. Billington joined the Municipal Education School service where her objection to teaching about the Bible led her to consider a formal protest.
In 1903, she encountered Emmeline Pankhurst through the Education Committee. Pankhurst persuaded Billington to avoid protesting, because it could interfere with her completing her degree, and found her a position in Jewish school. In the same year, Billington joined the Independent Labour Party and became an organiser for them. In April 1904, she founded the Manchester branch of the Equal Pay League of the National Union of Teachers and became honorary secretary.
Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) Billington was appointed by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) as a travelling speaker in 1904. She went to London as a speaker, together with Annie Kenney, whom she had inspired with her "sledgehammer of logic and cold reason". Together they worked on increasing support for the movement. In 1905, Keir Hardie asked to her become the second full-time organiser for the WSPU's activities with the Labour Party.