I’d never even heard of Frances Balfour before and was delighted to discover her in this thoroughly researched and entertaining biography. Fully immersed in the political life of her times (1858-1931) she was one of the highest-ranking members of the British aristocracy to take an active role in the suffrage movement. She married into the Balfour family and thus was connected to many of the movers and shakers of her era. This is a readable and accessible biography that brings her deservedly back into prominence.

Lady Frances Balfour

This book appears to be a doctoral thesis expanded into book form.
I read this on a Kindle and when I had got 75% through the book and started to despair, I found that the remaining 25% were references. There are 1559 in total. Lady Frances was obviously an avid writer of letters. There are so many that the references refer to a bundle of letters rather than an individual letter. Some are also references to newspaper articles. All of this might be of interest to other historians, but it somewhat bypasses the need of the general reader and irrelevant.
The author has obviously immersed herself in the politics of the period, but for someone not familiar with it, it can be a bit difficult to follow at times.

It was a bit tricky reading this on a Kindle, as it is much more difficult to check back on previous sections. Also there was a list of persons at the front of the book, consultation of which would have made it easier to remember who was who, and which is easier in a paper copy. I therefore recommend buying the book to read this.

Lady Frances, daughter of the 8th Duke of Argylll and his wife, the daughter of the Duke of Sutherland, was born in 1858 and had a difficult childhood. She was born with a deformed hip and had to spend long periods in bed with her leg strapped to a splint, attempting to straighten her hip joint. She was alone during these times as her parents and siblings were otherwise occupied. (Aren't we glad of advances in medicine). She was allowed to join the family for meals where she could participate in conversation. She apparently could read by age four and spent a lot of time reading while alone.
She was obviously extremely intelligent as she developed into a fine public speaker in her later life. There are a lot of references to this in the book. Unfortunately for us, she always spoke extempore, so there are no records of her speeches. She did do some talks on radio in the 1920s, but there do not appear to be any records of them either.
She was interested in politics and attended parliament in the Ladies Gallery. This was screened off from the floor of the house; presumably so that the poor MPs would not get distracted by seeing women watching them. This screen was removed in August 1917.
She became involved in women's issues even before she became involved in the suffragist movement. There is a distinction between suffragists - those who wanted to effect change within the political system of the day - and the suffragettes - who decided this would not work and went for a more violent approach. The suffragettes are the ones who are remembered, but it was more likely that the suffragists had more of an effect. They managed to get various bills discussed by the Commons, but when the Commons passed them, the House of Lords usually defeated them.
In the end, World War I engendered a change in attitudes. During the war, the suffragists worked at getting women into work, to replace the men who had become soldiers. For this purpose they ran various training courses, for example in welding. They also attempted to get equal pay for women at that point, but that was obviously a step too far for the policicians.
The House of Commons finally voted to give some women over the age of 30 the vote in 1917, followed by the House of Lords in early 1918. In November 1918 women were also allowed to be elected as MPs.

Frances married into the Balfour family and the book has a lot of information about the various male members of her family and of the Balfour family and their roles in government, e.g. governor in Sudan, various government ministers etc.
Many people may have heard of Balfour in the context of the Balfour Declaration, which is still causing problems today.

Frances was Scottish and very much attached to the Church of Scotland which, of course, was undergoing its own problems during that time. She was very interested in what was happening to the church, but since women were not allowed any say in church affairs at that time either, she could only influence matters indirectly by talking to her church friends.

This is a very interesting read, if you are a history buff. It is full of facts to the almost to much side. For myself if did not have enough personality to it.

Sometimes those who have played a significant and arguably pivotal role in changing our society can be somewhat overlooked and their contribution may become undervalued and overshadowed by others. When we think of the struggle for British female suffrage one immediately thinks of the Pankhursts and the Women's Social and Political Union personified by the term Suffragettes but it could be argued that of equal and perhaps more significance were members of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies led by Millicent Fawcett known as Suffragists. President of this organisation for many years who used her considerable political and organisational skills together with her family connections was the aristocratic Lady Francis Balfour the subject of this well researched., thorough but readable biography by Joan B Huffman.

Born into the aristocratic Campbell family, her father was the Liberal politician and Scottish peer George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (eldest daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland) Francis was always perceived as the cleverest of the Duke's numerous children. By marrying Eustace Balfour she became the brother in law of Arthur Balfour a future Conservative Party prime minister. In addition Eustace's uncle Lord Salisbury was also a three term Conservative Party prime minister. Francis's two great passions were politics spending many hours in the public gallery at the House of Commons and religion with her devotion to the Church of Scotland. The biography charts her remarkable life with her myriad acts of service including being President of the Travellers Aid Society and the foundation of the Lyceum Club for women. She would now be known as a political insider at a time when women of her class were expected not to get involved. Francis was able to use her contacts to pursue her chosen causes.

The author expertly charts us through the somewhat complicated political scene at that time with Liberal, Liberal Unionist and National Liberal party candidates being evidenced and the fissures that emerged regarding Irish home rule and free trade, Francis is best described as a Unionist Whig, conservative by inclination but possessing a belief in free trade and against collectivism with an over riding belief in maintaining the union which at that time was focused on preventing home rule for Ireland. The somewhat at times abrasive personality of Francis is explored together with the relationships she had with other family members. There is a section containing photographs that assist us with the narrative.

How Francis would have fared in the modern world is of course just a matter of speculation but with the unexpected emergence of Scottish conservatism as the principal opponent of nationalism then there would be no doubt that she would have relished being at the forefront of the debate regarding preserving the union. I really liked this biography and as I live in the Lothians I was thinking of visiting Whittingehame House but sadly this has been converted into apartments and is no longer open to the public. If you like biographies, interested in British politics or history then I would recommend this book to you.