Helena Shearer

Helena Paulina Shearer (née Downing; – 8 March 1885) was an Irish socialist and suffragist in England.

Life Shearer was born in Dublin around 1842, the daughter of Washington Downing, a journalist, and Mary Frances Downing. She and her family moved to London by 1848.

In 1875 she was on the executive committee of Emma Paterson's Women's Protective and Provident League where her knowledge of employment legislation and women suffrage campaigning and a talent for public speaking was noted. Her uncle, McCarthy Downing, was a member of Parliament for Cork. She also served the Vigilance Association for the Defence of Personal Rights and for the Amendment of the Law in points wherein it is Injurious to Women. The same year on 24 November she married an accountant, John Shearer, in Bradford, Yorkshire, and she may well have served on the executive committee of the Married Women's Property Committee. but she was later disqualified. She had identified that she needed to be a rate-payer and to enable this she had her home placed in her name. However the authorities refused her payment for rates which meant that she failed to qualify.