Edith Key

Edith Key (1872–1937) was a British suffragette.

Biography Edith was born in January 1872 in Ecclesfield, Bradford. Her mother was Grace Procter, a mill worker. Her father was most likely Joseph Fawcett, a local mill owner, who signed an 'Agreement to a Child' to pay Grace a weekly allowance until Edith was thirteen years old. Raised by her aunts, Edith moved to Huddersfield some time before her 10th birthday. She worked in a mill from age 10 and left school at age 13.

Edith married Frederick Key, a blind musician, in March 1891. Together they opened a music shop in Huddersfield, which they lived above. Frederick was active in socialist politics, formed in 1906 at a meeting chaired by Emmeline Pankhurst. and provides a valuable insight into how local branches interacted with the WSPU, and of the concerns of WSPU members far removed from the militant actions which mostly took place in London.

She attended several suffrage demonstrations in London, at one being arrested and held in HM Prison Holloway for several days before being released due to lack of evidence. The WSPU minute book includes a copy of a letter sent by Edith on behalf of the branch to "dear friends" in Holloway Gaol, expressing hope from the branch "that your health and strength and womanly endurance may enable you to complete your sentences".

The Key's home above their music shop served as regional headquarters for the Huddersfield WSPU. According to Edith's son Archibald, it also became "unofficial headquarters for the ILP [the Independent Labour Party, of which Frederick was a member] and plotting room for suffragette militancy". Edith died in 1937 aged 65, and was buried in Edgerton Cemetery. and the Edith Key building at the University of Huddersfield, which houses the Department of Psychology in the School of Human and Health Sciences.