Franklin was born in London in 1866 to Henrietta and Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling.

[3] In 1912 she helped her in-laws Laura and Leonard Franklin form the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage which was open to both male and female members.

Other members included Edith Ayrton, Hugh Franklin, her sister Lily Montagu and Inez Bensusan.

[5] However Henrietta achieved wider acceptance and became President of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in 1916.

[3] Her 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.