Overview to Dorothy Thurtle

Dorothy Thurtle – 36 Temple Fortune Hill (approx. 1919-1930)

Born Dorothy (Dolly) Lansbury in 1890. She was the daughter of prominent Labour MP and one time leader, George Lansbury.

She was a member of the WFL. She was opposed to more militant suffrage campaigning (including to her brother who was imprisoned in support of the WSPU window smashing campaign).

Attended National American Woman Suffrage Convention in 1912.

She was a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) from 1906. She worked initially as a clerk, and accountant, soon becoming active in the National Union of Clerks, in particular campaigning for a minimum wage for female clerks.

In 1912, she married Ernest Thurtle who was later Labour MP for Shoreditch.

Both were very active in the Labour party in East London. They formed the Workers Birth Control Group in 1924. She was a long-term campaigner for female and maternal health, contraception and the legalisation of abortion. She was a member of the Birkett Committee on maternal mortality and abortion and issued a minority report proposing local authority birth control clinics and legalising abortion in some circumstances.

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