Eva McLaren

Eva Maria McLaren (née Müller; 1852 – 16 August 1921) was an English suffragist, writer and campaigner. She served as Superintendent of the Franchise department of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was actively associated with the Women's Liberal Federation, and was the vice-president of the National British Women's Temperance Association. In this capacity, she presided over and lead the white ribbon forces in England when the President, Lady Henry Somerset, was absent from the post.

McLaren was superintendent of the department for work among municipal women voters; was an authority on parliamentary drill, as well as rules and procedure in debate; wrote leaflets on the subject of "The Duties of Women on Parish and District Councils"; and had the cause of woman's franchise greatly at heart. She was also a fine speaker. Her husband, Walter McLaren, M. P., was a nephew of John Bright and one of the chief champions of woman's cause in the British Parliament.

Early years Eva Maria Müller was born in 1852. She was the younger daughter of German businessman William Müller, and his English wife, Maria Henrietta. One of Eva's sisters, Henrietta Müller, was also a notable suffragist.

She spent her early life in Valparaíso, Chile, before the family moved to London, living in Portland Place.

Career McLaren's mother had progressive political views and introduced Eva to Octavia Hill for whom she collected rents and managed tenant welfare in Marylebone. a fore-runner of the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as County Councillors (1888) which eventually (1893) became the Women's Local Government Society.

On 18 April 1883, at the Meeting House in St Martin's Lane, Westminster, she married politician Walter McLaren (1853–1912), whose mother, Priscilla Bright McLaren (1815–1906), was president of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage. Walter McLaren also supported women's suffrage and the couple joined the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage in 1884.

McLaren wrote many pamphlets including Civil Rights of Women (published by the National Society in 1888), The Election of Women on Parish and District Councils and The Duties and Opinions of Women with Reference to Parish and District Councils (both 1894),

Posthumous recognition Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.

On 8 August 2023 at Great Comp Garden in Kent, the trustees, alongside Sue Chandler (former England international hockey player and England captain) unveiled a portrait poster dedicated to Eva McLaren's contribution to women's hockey.