Constance Lytton

Constance Lytton, the daughter of Robert, the first Earl of Lytton and Edith Villiers, was born in 1869. Lord Lytton was the Viceroy of India and Constance spent the first eleven years of her life in India. Educated by a series of governesses she had a very lonely childhood.

In 1892 she fell in love with a man with lower social status than the Lytton family. Lord Lytton had died the previous year, but her mother refused to grant permission for her to marry this man. For several years she hoped her mother would change her mind, but this did not happen and Constance refused to contemplate marrying anyone else.

Constance Lytton's sister Betty married Gerald Balfour, a keen supporter of the women's suffrage movement. So also were two of his sisters, Frances Balfour and Emily Lutyens. Constance found their ideas on women's political rights interesting but her preoccupation with her unhappy love affair and poor health stopped her joining the suffrage movement.

In 1908 Constance Lytton met Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Annie Kenney. She was so impressed with their views that she agreed to join the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). At first Constance concentrated on trying to use her political contacts to persuade the British government to grant imprisoned members of the WSPU political status. These efforts ended in failure.

In 1909 Constance Lytton took part in a demonstration at the House of Commons. Constance was arrested and imprisoned but when the authorities found out that she was the daughter of Lord Lytton, the former Viceroy of India, they ordered her release. As well as her social position, the British government were also aware of Constance Lytton's health problems, and they feared that if she went on hunger strike she would die and then the suffragettes would have a famous martyr.

Constance was angry that she should be given special treatment and decided to adopt a false identity. After another demonstration Constance was arrested but this time she gave her name as Jane Wharton, a London seamstress. Constance was sentenced to fourteen days and when she refused to eat, she was forced fed eight times. When the authorities discovered Jane Wharton's true identity she was immediately released.

In 1911 Constance was arrested for window-breaking but was released when it became clear that she was in danger of dying. Soon afterward Constance suffered a stroke which left her partly paralysed. Now unable to take an active role in the suffragette struggle, Constance concentrated on writing articles and pamphlets on women's rights. Constance also wrote a book on her experiences in the suffragette movement called Prisons and Prisoners.

When the WSPU ended their militant campaign in 1914, Constance Lytton gave her support to Marie Stopes and her campaign to establish birth-control clinics. Marie Stopes, like Constance Lytton, went to prison for her progressive ideas.

Lady Lytton totally disapproved of her daughter's membership of the WSPU. However, she gave Constance the assistance she needed to write her books and nursed Constance until her death in 1923.

Biographical Links

Frances Balfour
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

Source Database

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Further Reading

Constance Lytton, Prisons and Prisoners, Heinemann (1914)
Betty Balfour (ed.), Selected Letters of Constance Lytton, Heinemann (1925)
Emily Lutyens, Candles in the Sun, Rupert Hart-Davies (1957)
Marie Roberts (ed.), The Militants, Routledge (1995)
Marie Roberts (ed.), The Suffragettes, Routledge (1995)

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