Ada Nield Chew

[1] Her only sister had epilepsy, and Nield left school aged 11 to help her mother take care of the house, look after the family and to support her through her constant childbearing.

[2] Nield's childhood experiences shaped her views that, in order for women to lead individual lives and gain economic independence,[3] housework and childcare should become professionalised.

[6] Her letters had attracted the attention of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), who offered her employment if her identity as the Crewe Factory Girl was discovered.

[10] Chew became a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and worked for this body as an organiser from 1911 to 1914.

The main focus of her work was in winning support for the cause through contacts in the labour movement, but she also wrote for Freewoman, the Englishwoman and the NUWSS paper Common Cause.

[5] During the First World War, Chew adopted a pacifist stance and was active in the Manchester branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and other anti-war organisations.

[11] This was subsequently adapted by Alan Plater for the television drama 'The Clarion Van', first broadcast 5 July 1983 as an episode of the Granada series Women.

[13] Ada Nield Chew's name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.

Nield spoke to visitors attracted to the Clarion Vans that started to tour in 1896