Agnes Helen Bostock

Agnes Helen Harben (née Bostock; 15 September 1879 – 29 October 1961) was a British suffragist leader who also supported the militant suffragette hunger strikers, and was a founder of the United Suffragists.

Family Harben was born on 15 September 1879, at 7 North Street, Horsham, Sussex, to Edward Ingram Bostock, J.P. (1842–1946) who later became chairman of the Horsham Urban District Council and Sarah Southey Bostock née Baker (1845-1920), and she was the fifth of eleven siblings:

Eva May Bostock (b.1875), John Southey Bostock (1875–1930) MBE served in the Army Medical Corps. Archibald Thomas Bostock (1877–1915) who fought in the Boer War, and World War One and died after the Battle of Loos. Robert Vernon Bostock (1878–1949) who was wounded serving in Palestine but emigrated to Australia after WWI. Agnes Helen Bostock (1879–1920) Alpen Bostock (b.1880). Constance Marjorie Bostock (1881–1967). Francis Edward Henry Bostock (1883–1955) who was wounded and awarded the Military Cross, emigrated to South Africa and wrote a book "The Chronicles of Capota 1927–1943", subtitled "The Travels in Africa of Major Francis E H Bostock, MC ". Agnes Bostock married Henry Devenish Harben (of Warnham Lodge ) on 2 September 1899 at St. Mary's Church, and later moved to Newland Park, Chalfont St. Peter (her husband inherited in 1910). The Harbens had four children: Major Henry Eric Southey Harben (1900–1971) and County cricketer for Sussex; Edward (born 1901); Agnes Mary (born 1903) and Naomi (1907–1996).

Political activism Harben was a member of the Fabian society, a socialist and internationalist debating society, which influenced the formation of the Labour movement.

Harben and her husband supported the women's right to vote and entertained other political activists and writers e.g. Emmeline Pankhurst, George Bernard Shaw, Sidney and Beatrice Webb and H. G. Wells. Although Harben herself was not imprisoned for militant action, she gave practical support, rather than denounce those women who did so, and raised money e.g. by an 'American Fair'. The Harbens provided a home for Annie Kenney after one of her imprisonments, supported Rachel Barrett and many other suffragettes, released from prison to aid recovery from hunger strike and force-feeding. Harben's husband left the Liberal Party as a result of the policy and lack of action about this cruel treatment.

United Suffragists and international leagues In 1913, Agnes and her husband were delegates to the 7th Women's International League in Budapest, Hungary, with Harben representing the Fabians,

On 13 February 1914, Harben became one of the founder committee members of the United Suffragists which brought together militant and non-militant women and included men, like her husband, along with Louisa Garrett Anderson, H. J. Gillespie, Gerald Gould, Bessie Lansbury and George Lansbury, Mary Neal, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Julia Scurr and John Scurr, Evelyn Sharp, and Edith Ayrton; Louise Eates and Lena Ashwell also became members in 1914, and the organisation grew rapidly, and it took over the publishing of the weekly Votes for Women from the militant WSPU.