Marjery Bryce

Margaret Vincentia "Marjery" Bryce (18 June 1891 – 8 June 1973), usually credited as Marjorie Bryce, was a British suffragette and actress, who rode dressed as Joan of Arc in WSPU parades in support of votes for women.

Family Bryce was born at 35 Bryanston Square, Marylebone, to Irish-born parents John Annan Bryce, a politician of Ulster-Scots descent, and Violet L'Estrange, of Anglo-Irish descent.

She had two brothers and a sister three years younger, Rosalind, known as 'Tiny'.

Bryce remained single.

Role in Women's Suffrage movement

Bryce joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) parade at the age of nineteen was portraying 'the perfect woman' riding on a white horse dressed in full armour with a banner in the style of Joan of Arc, leading the forty thousand strong Women's Procession on 17 June 1911, before George V's Coronation. Her sister Rosalind "Tiny" Bryce was dressed as a page and led the horse's bridle.

The image of Saint Joan was seen to represent 'the militant women's ideal....in every act of hers they recognize the same spirit as that which strengthens them to risk their liberty and endure torture for the sake of freedom'. This was summed up a ' the loveliness of simplicity, purity, courage and militancy' which Bryce was acting in this parade and was an image used by WSPU as a symbol.

The Museum of London has the original copyright image of Bryce as Joan of Arc cited in many of the references above.

In other suffragette parades, Joan of Arc was also portrayed by Elsie Howey.

Acting career

Bryce played the London stage for example, in the role of Nina Zarechnaya in The Seagull (1919), appeared in The Cloud that Lifted (1932) after performing in Other Gates in the Grafton Theatre, London in 1931, and was the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland (in 1938 and again in 1947).

Her entry in 1939 The Spotlight theatrical casting directory describes her as a straight, comedy or character performer. appearing in BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950s) and appeared in a BBC series The Bell Family (1951).

Death Bryce died on 8 June 1973, at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, London.