death_date death_place birth_place party name birth_date spouse image article_title birth_name
07 july 1947 fernhurst , surrey , uk westbourne terrace , london , uk liberal jane cobden 28 april 1851 thomas -rrb- fisher unwin -lrb- m. 1892 -- d. 1935 jane cobden crop.jpg jane cobden
 emma jane catherine cobden
jane cobden

emma jane catherine cobden -lrb- 28 april 1851 -- 7 july 1947 -rrb- , known as jane cobden , was a british liberal politician who was active in many radical causes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries .
a daughter of the victorian reformer and statesman richard cobden , she was an early proponent of women 's rights , and in 1889 was one of two women elected to the inaugural london county council .
her election was controversial ; legal challenges to her eligibility hampered and eventually prevented her from serving as a councillor .
from her youth jane cobden , together with her sisters , sought to protect and develop the legacy of her father .
she remained committed throughout her life to the `` cobdenite '' issues of land reform , peace , and social justice , and was a consistent advocate for irish independence from britain .
the battle for women 's suffrage on equal terms with men , to which she made her first commitment in 1875 , was her most enduring cause .
although she was sympathetic and supportive of those , including her sister anne cobden sanderson , who chose to campaign using militant , illegal methods , she kept her own activities within the law .
she stayed in the liberal party , despite her profound disagreement with its stance on the suffrage issue .
after her marriage to the publisher thomas fisher unwin in 1892 , jane cobden extended her range of interests into the international field , in particular advancing the rights of the indigenous populations within colonial territories .
as a convinced anti-imperialist she opposed the boer war of 1899 -- 1902 , and after the establishment of the union of south africa in 1910 she attacked its introduction of segregationist policies .
in the years prior to the first world war she opposed joseph chamberlain 's tariff reform crusade on the grounds of her father 's free trade principles , and was prominent in the liberal party 's revival of the land reform issue .
in the 1920s she largely retired from public life , and in 1928 presented the old cobden family residence , dunford house , to the cobden memorial association as a conference and education centre dedicated to the issues and causes that had defined cobdenism .
