Marguerite Parsons

Marguerite Lena Parsons MBE ( Millo; 21 May 1890 – 29 September 1957), known as Daisy Parsons, was a British suffragette. She was part of a delegation to the Prime Minister in 1914. She later became a councillor and, in 1937, she was West Ham's first woman mayor.

Life Parsons was born in Poplar in London in 1890. Her father, Alfred Albert Millo, dealt in jewellery when he was well. Her mother, Elizabeth, worked as a charlady. She had five younger brothers and she left school early so that she could care for them. At fourteen she was a maid working for the local librarian. Parsons took piecework in a tobacco factory and she was surprised to find how little she earned compared to the men, who also had comfortable restroom for breaks, women only had toilets. and so she joined Sylvia Pankhurst's East London Federation of Suffragettes and became the secretary of the branch in South West Ham. In 1914, Sylvia Pankhurst went on hunger strike and refused to stop until the Prime minister received women so that they could present their case for the vote. Asquith agreed and Parsons was able to tell him of her problems, as she was one of the six women chosen including Jessie Payne, led by Mrs Julia Scurr.

During World War Two, Parsons organised children's evacuation locally and helped organise the Women's Voluntary Service. Her brother and a niece were killed in the Blitz.

There is a mural made as communal art at Hermit Road Park, a testament to how well she was regarded in this area.