Victor Duval

Victor Diederichs Duval (1885–1945) was a British suffragist and political activist. He is best known for founding the Men’s Political Union for Women’s Enfranchisement (MPU) in 1910. He was imprisoned for suffrage-related activism and later returned to electoral politics as an unsuccessful Liberal parliamentary candidate in the 1920s.

Early life

Duval was the son of Emily Hayes and Ernest Charles Augustus Diederichs Duval, a German immigrant of potentially Jewish background. His mother and maternal aunt are both recorded as having been members of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. Duval came from a middle class family, all of whom supported votes for women. and was married to fellow suffrage campaigner Hugh Franklin.

Activism

Liberals

Before entering the suffrage movement, Duval served as secretary of the Clapham League of Young Liberals. When the Liberal government refused to recognise women's right to vote, Duval resigned the party in protest."

Arrests & Imprisonments

Duval was involved in militant suffrage activity before and after the MPU's foundation. Duval was arrested and imprisoned at least three times for women's suffrage. In July 1909, Duval was charged with “Aiding and abetting Marion Wallace Dunlop, in wilful and malicious damage to the stone work of St. Stephen’s Hall, House of Commons, by stamping it with an indelible rubber stamp, to the value of ten shillings.” The wedding took place at Savoy Chapel. Dame Christabel Pankhurst, Lady Constance Lytton, and the Pethick-Lawrences wore WSPU colours at the wedding. The couple had two daughters.

After 1918, Duval continued to campaign for equality and marriage reform. His military service later formed part of his post-war public identity: modern scholarship on interwar Liberal politics includes Duval among the party's ex-servicemen candidates of the 1920s. Modern scholarship has also identified him as the Liberal candidate for South West Norfolk in 1929.

Death and legacy

Duval died in 1945. He is chiefly remembered as the founder of the MPU and as one of the male supporters of women's suffrage sometimes described as the "suffragettes in trousers".