Frances Parker

Frances Mary "Fanny" Parker (24 December 1875 – 19 January 1924) was a New Zealand-born suffragette who became prominent in the militant wing of the Scottish women's suffrage movement and was repeatedly imprisoned for her actions. Early life Born in Little Roderick, Kurow, Otago, New Zealand, she was one of five children of Harry Rainy Parker and his wife, Frances Emily Jane Kitchener. Her family lived at the Waihao Downs Homestead from 1870 to 1895, when they moved to Little Roderick. Little Roderick is a division of Station Peak on the north side of the Waitaki River, Waimate District (not in Kurow, as reported elsewhere). Parker came from a well off background and was a niece of Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. Kitchener came to New Zealand to advise the New Zealand Government on defence in 1910; in February Kitchener went to Rotorua with his sister Mrs Parker (Frances' mother) and Mr Harry Parker. Her mother died in London in 1925, and believed that her brother was still alive and a prisoner in Germany. In New Zealand, women were granted the franchise on 19 September 1893 and voted for the first time in the election held on 28 November 1893. Parker left New Zealand in 1896 to study at Newnham College, Cambridge. Her tuition there was paid for by her uncle. She received a degree in 1899, and subsequently spent several years working as a teacher in New Zealand.