Stella Newsome

Stella Winifred Newsome (28 July 1889 – 11 November 1969) was a British teacher and suffragette who was active in the Women's Freedom League. She wrote the WFL's history and she was the de facto archivist of the Suffragette Fellowship which was an organisation of those who had been involved in the 1905 to 1914 militant campaign for women to have the vote in Britain.

Life Newsome was born in Leicester. Her mother was Caroline Louisa Rice ad her father, George Newsome, was a grocer. She became a teacher. Her father died in 1909 and two years later she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Margaret West was the WSPU organiser it Leicester and Newsome would carry out vandalism of golf courses and letter boxes to gain attention for the suffragette's cause. Newsome became involved with this group after the Second World War and she became its secretary and the de facto archivist. The group's name changed to the Suffragette Fellowship and a magazine "Calling All Women" was published from 1947. Newsome wrote many obituaries for that publication. The Suffragette fellowship's membership was generally open only to those who had been imprisoned.

In 1957, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Women's Freedom League, Newsome published Women's Freedom League 1907–1957.

Death and legacy Newsome died accidentally in West Hampstead in 1969 shortly after the Suffragette Fellowship had celebrated her 80th birthday.