Selina Cooper

Selina Jane Cooper (née Coombe; 4 December 1864 – 11 November 1946)

Trade union and political activities Cooper, Ray Strachey, Edith Palliser and EM Gardner. Four suffragists during the Mid Devon bi-election 1907/1908 Cooper became active in trade union activities and took practical courses in laundry, hygiene and first aid and became a member of the Barnoldswick St John's Ambulance Committee in 1895. She was an early member of the Nelson Social Democratic Federation (SDF), and later founded a branch of the party in Brierfield. She joined the Women's Co-operative Guild in 1897 and the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage in 1900.

During the First World War Cooper developed the first ever Maternity Centre in Nelson, Lancashire. She was later elected to the town council and went on to become a local magistrate. She resigned from the Labour Party in the 1930s due to her belief that the party did not take a strong enough line against fascism. In 2015, she was the subject of a play by the Function Factory theatre in Nelson titled "Hard-Faced Woman".