Florence Wallace Pomeroy

Florence Wallace Pomeroy, Viscountess Harberton (née Wallace Legge; 14 June 1843 – 30 April 1911) was a British campaigner for dress reform.

Life She was born at Malone House in Belfast, the daughter of wealthy landowner William Wallace Legge (died 1868), a and for County Antrim, and his wife, Eleanor Wilkie Forster. She married James Spencer Pomeroy (1836–1912) on 2 April 1861, and in 1862 she became Viscountess Harberton when he became the 6th Viscount Harberton. They had four children, Aline Florence, Hilda Evelyn, Ernest Arthur George (1867–1944, 7th Viscount), and Ralph Legge (1869–1956, 8th Viscount). and one of her most celebrated moments was when the landlady of the Hautboy Inn at Ockham, Surrey, refused to serve her because she was wearing her "rational dress" of baggy knickerbockers instead of a skirt. Pomeroy sued the landlady, but lost the case because she had been offered service in an alternative room, albeit one occupied by several men. The Cycling UK (formerly the Cycle Touring Club (CTC), which removed its badge of approval from the Hautboy at the time) says that "the case hit the national headlines, made CTC a lot of friends, led to more women's cycling groups, and was a milestone on the road to female emancipation". There was not sufficient support at that time and a club of that name was not successfully established until 1903.

In later years she took up the cause of women's suffrage. Her obituary in The Times says that she had written pieces for that newspaper to express the view that women could do more of the work currently done by men, and had also campaigned for reforms to prevent tuberculosis. It ended by saying that:

She died in Onslow Square, South Kensington, aged 67.