Edith Rigby

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title: "Edith Rigby" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1872-births", "1950-deaths", "19th-century-english-women", "20th-century-british-criminals", "anthroposophists", "british-arsonists", "english-prisoners-and-detainees", "english-suffragettes", "feminism-and-history", "schoolteachers-from-preston,-lancashire", "people-with-parkinson's-disease", "prisoners-and-detainees-of-england-and-wales", "english-socialist-feminists", "women's-social-and-political-union", "hunger-strike-medal-recipients", "activists-from-lancashire"] description: "English suffragette (1872–1950)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Rigby" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English suffragette (1872–1950) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Edith Rigby
image	Edith Rigby (1872–1948).JPG
caption	Rigby in 1900
birth_name	Edith Rayner
birth_date	18 October 1872
birth_place	Preston, Lancashire, England
death_date
death_place	Llanrhos, Wales
education	Penrhos College
party	Labour Party
spouse	Charles Rigby
children	1
::

| name = Edith Rigby | image = Edith Rigby (1872–1948).JPG | caption = Rigby in 1900 | birth_name = Edith Rayner | birth_date = 18 October 1872 thumb | birth_place = Preston, Lancashire, England | death_date = | death_place = Llanrhos, Wales | education = Penrhos College | party = Labour Party | spouse = Charles Rigby | children = 1 Edith Rigby ( Rayner) (18 October 1872 – 23 July 1950) was an English suffragette who used arson as a way to further the cause of women’s suffrage. She founded a night school in Preston called St Peter's School, aimed at educating women and girls. Later she became a prominent activist, and was incarcerated seven times and committed several acts of arson. She was a contemporary of Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst.

Biography

Born Edith Rayner on St Luke's Day (18 October) in 1872 in Preston, Lancashire, she was one of seven children of Dr Alexander Clement Rayner and was educated at Penrhos College in North Wales.

She married Dr Charles Rigby and lived with him in Winckley Square in Preston. From an early age she questioned the differences between working-class and middle-class women and after she was married she worked hard to improve the lives of women and girls working in local mills. In 1899, she founded St Peter's School, which allowed these women to meet and continue their education which otherwise would have stopped at the age of 11.{{cite web | last =Roberts | first =Marian | title =Biography of Mrs Edith Rigby | work =WinckleySquare.org.uk | url =http://www.winckleysquare.org.uk/biography/mrs_rigby.html | access-date =31 May 2007 }}{{cite book | first = Elizabeth | last = Ashworth | title = Champion Lancastrians | year = 2006 | publisher = Sigma Leisure | isbn = 1-85058-833-3 | pages = 79–82 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HdqTrpjcbXsC | last = Oldfield | first = Sybil | title = This Working-day World: women's lives and culture(s) in Britain, 1914–1945 | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 1994 | pages = 29 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnHIb6AQfm0C | isbn =0-7484-0108-3 }}

Activism

In 1907 she formed the Preston branch of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).{{cite web |title = Avenham Walks – Stop 7 – Edith Rigby |work = Avenham Walks |url = http://www.avenhamwalks.co.uk/short7.htm |access-date = 31 May 2007 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070208203822/http://www.avenhamwalks.co.uk/short7.htm |archive-date = 8 February 2007 |df = dmy

When the 1911 census was enumerated, Rigby evaded by joining others at a house party in Manchester, possibly at the Dennison House party organised by Jessie Stephenson.

During later arrests and sentences, (seven in total) Rigby took part in hunger strikes and was subjected to force-feeding. Her activism included planting a bomb in the Liverpool Cotton Exchange on 5 July 1913, and although it was later stated in court that ‘no great damage had been done by the explosion’, Mrs Rigby was found guilty and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour. Rigby was awarded a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU.

She also claimed to have 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, contained a number of valuable paintings and the attack resulted in damage costing £20,000. Afterwards 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

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Edith_Rigby's_house.jpg" caption="Edith Rigby's house, 28 [[Winckley Square]], Preston"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Edith_Rigby_1872_-1948-_Suffragette.jpg" caption="Rigby plaque in Winckley Square, Preston, featuring incorrect year of death"] ::

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. With short hair and wearing men's clothes, she grew fruit and vegetables and kept animals and bees, following the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. She had a happy marriage with her husband, who lived with her at her cottage. They adopted a son called Sandy. In the 1920s, Rigby was a founding member and the president of the Hutton and Howick Women's Institute. Rigby became a vegetarian.

In 1926, Charles Rigby retired and the couple built a new house, called Erdmuth, outside Llanrhos, North Wales. Charles died before it was finished, however, and Edith moved there alone at the end of 1926. She continued to follow Steiner's work, forming an "Anthroposophical Circle" of her own, and visiting one of his schools in New York. Into old age she enjoyed a healthy lifestyle, bathing in the sea, fell walking and meditating in the early hours of every morning. She eventually suffered from Parkinson's disease and died in 1950 at Erdmuth. She was cremated and her ashes buried with her husband in Preston Old Cemetery.{www.findagrave.com|date=April 2025}

References

References

1. Crawford, Elizabeth. (2001). "The Women's Suffrage Movement: a reference guide, 1866–1928". [[Routledge]].
2. Hesketh, Phoebe. (1992). "My Aunt Edith, The Story of a Preston Suffragette". Lancashire County Books.
3. Atkinson, Diane. (2018). "Rise Up Women! The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes". Bloomsbury.
4. Atkinson, Diane. (2019). "Rise Up, Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes". Bloomsbury Publishing.
5. "Suffrage Map & Biographies".
6. Crawford, Elizabeth. (2003). "The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928". Taylor and Francis.
7. Mrs Rigby committed to trial, The Times, 18 July 1913, page 14, column c.
8. ‘The Explosion At Liverpool Exchange’, The Times, 31 July 1913, p. 8.
9. (10 July 1913). "A Desperate Woman. Suffragette Confesses to Deeds of Violence, Says She Fired Sir W. Lever's Bungalow". The Nottingham Evening Post.
10. Rivington Bungalow Fire, Confession by a Doctor’s Wife’, Bolton Evening News, 13 July 1913, p. 4
11. (2009). "The British Women's Suffrage Campaign 1866-1928". Routledge.
12. Brown, Heloise. "Rigby [née Rayner], Edith".
13. "Edith Rigby: the later years". Preston Historical Society.

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