Elizabeth Lidgett

Elizabeth Sedman Lidgett (26 August 1843 – 8 April 1919) was a British Poor Law guardian and suffragist.

Life Lidgett was born in Mile End in East London to John Lidgett, a shipowner, and Ann Lidgett (née Hyett) on 26 August 1843. Her elder sister, Mary Hyett, married Percy Bunting in 1869 and John Scott Lidgett was her nephew. The Charity Organization Society was inspired to target work at the deserving poor whilst trying to avoid creating an expectation of dependency. At this stage women were being welcomed to serve in some public areas. They were helping to organise the workhouses for the poor and to supervise the process where children were "boarded out" and to help with schools serving the legal requirement to educate poor children. However it was apparent that women were expected to restrict themselves to these areas. For instance her sister was told by the male members of the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants that the women on the committee might assist with finding positions for female paupers. That same year she became involved in the management of the Gray's Inn Road schools. This was a position of some ambition as women were allowed to serve on school boards many years before they were given equal electoral rights in 1928.

Lidgett worked with Florence Davenport Hill. Lidgett was a Poor Law Guardian in St Pancras for nearly forty years and she continued always to support the Women's Local Government Society. She died on 8 April 1919 of a pulmonary malignant disease while living at 40 Gordon Square, London.