Elsie Edith Bowerman (18 December 1889 – 18 October 1973) was a British lawyer, suffragette, political activist, and RMS Titanic survivor.

After spending some time in Paris, Elsie continued her education at Girton College, Cambridge, where she studied for the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos and received a class II in her final examinations in 1911.

Whilst at Girton she became a committed suffragette, taking part in informal activism such as giving out Votes for Women to others and organising suffrage events for her peers.

[3] Shortly after the 1910 general election, the suffragettes agreed to a truce from militancy in order to give The Conciliation Bill, a cross-party initiative to grant a limited form of women suffrage, the best chance of succeeding.

[5] Although initially reported as missing, both women were rescued in lifeboat 6, alongside Molly Brown and Frederick Fleet, the ship lookout who had originally spotted the iceberg.

The suffragette periodical, Votes for Women, celebrated their survival, stating that they were ‘very enthusiastic workers in the cause.’[6] After the Titanic disaster, they reached America and carried on with their plans to visit British Columbia, Klondyke and Alaska.

[citation needed] Elsie worked as an orderly in Serbia during 1916 and 1917, and on her way back to England witnessed the beginnings of the Russian Revolution in Petrograd in March 1917.

[2] She was the first woman barrister to appear at the Old Bailey, in a case in which she was part of a prosecuting team against Harry Pollitt, a prominent communist, for libel.