Caroline Phillips

Caroline Agnes Isabella Phillips (13 December 1870 or 1874 – 13 January 1956) was a Scottish feminist, suffragette and journalist.

Early life and work Caroline Agnes Isabella Phillips was born on 13 December 1870 or 1874 in Kintore, Aberdeenshire to James Phillips, a head teacher, and Jane Phillips (née Watt), a sewing teacher. Caroline Phillips worked for the Aberdeen Daily Journal – the more conservative of the two daily newspapers in Aberdeen at this time. In the Edwardian era, there were only 66 female journalists in the whole United Kingdom.

She was based out of offices in Broad Street, Aberdeen – which later became the offices for the Evening Express – and her dedication to campaigning for women's suffrage meant she often landed herself in trouble with her employer.

When she was eventually banned from attending political meetings, this made it very difficult for her to carry out her job as a journalist. and organised a march in Edinburgh in 1907. In January 1908, her employer warned Phillips that she was ‘identifying’ herself far too closely with the woman’s suffrage movement and that if she didn't stop being involved in women’s politics she could lose her job.

Her role as Honorary Secretary for the Aberdeen branch of the Women's Social and Political Union meant she met and corresponded with many of the leadership of the WSPU. However, Phillips fitted more into the role of a suffragist rather than a suffragette. Suffragists believed in using political means to achieve votes for women, while suffragettes employed the notion of "deeds not words". Hence, Phillips disagreed with the increasingly militant approach being employed by the WSPU. The suffragette headquarters had asked senior member Amy Sanderson to go up to Aberdeen urgently in September 1907.

One example of this was, in December 1907, when Emmeline Pankhurst planned on disrupting the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Henry Asquith's, visit to Aberdeen's Music Hall and Phillips did her level best to stop this from happening.

Phillips was overruled by Emmeline Pankhurst. Pankhurst arrived in Aberdeen and carried through with her plan to lead a protest. The disruption took place and it resulted in a fight in the orchestra pit and the suffragettes being thrown out.

In 1988, Rosemary Watt, a relative of Phillips, presented written correspondence between Phillips and members of the suffragette movement to Aberdeen Art Gallery.

In 2021, Phillips was one of a collection of Scottish suffragists celebrated in a deck of cards distributed as part of an education pack to 100 schools around the country.