Phyllis Ayrton (1884-1975) was William's great-granddaughter, a women's suffragist. She was a prominent Suffragette - though no direct relation of fellow-Suffragette Barbara Ayrton - having joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1909. She was also a supporter of the Women's Party and campaigned in Smethwick, alongside the leading WSPU figure Flora Drummond, on behalf of Christabel Pankhurst in the 1918 Election, the first in which women could stand as candidates, or even vote. Earlier, Drummond and Ayrton had also trailed the Prime Minister on a visit to women workers in Manchester. Ayrton also escorted the Australian Premier when he also visited women war workers. Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Ayrton went back to the Far East to help the 'refugees' (in modern parlance: "Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)"). She was thus, rather remarkably for an Englishwoman, present in both Sino-Japanese Wars. She was in Hong Kong when the Japanese launched their series of attacks on 8 (or 7, East of the date-line) December, 1941 and spent nearly four years in captivity, in Stanley Internment Camp. Despite the ordeal, she survived to live into her nineties.