Eleanor Mary Acland

GRO Birth Index

• CROPPER, ELEANOR MARY Mother's maiden name HOLLAND
• GRO Reference: 1878 M Quarter in KENDAL Volume 10B Page 684

WIKI

Eleanor Acland

• born the daughter of Charles James Cropper and Hon. Edith Emily Holland in the Lake District.
• Educated at St Leonards School.
• On 31 August 1905 she married Francis Dyke Acland, the son of a prominent Liberal Party baronet.
• Sat as a Liberal MP.
• Three sons and one daughter.

• Her eldest son Richard Acland also sat as a Liberal MP
  
• Geoffrey Acland also stood as a Liberal candidate.
  
• Cuthbert Henry Dyke Acland, who was High Sheriff of Westmorland,
  
• Eleanor Edith Dyke Acland, who died in 1923 aged 10.
  

In 1926, when her husband succeeded to the family baronetcy, she became Lady Acland.

She was an author of novels. She wrote

• In the Straits of Hope (1904), a novel about artists in Chelsea,
• Dark Side Out (1921), a multi-generational family saga.
• She also wrote a memoir, Goodbye for the Present, published posthumously in 1935.

She was a passionate advocate of Votes for Women and was an active suffragist. In 1912 she organised local Women's Liberal Associations to pass resolutions in support of the 1912 Conciliation Bill. In 1913 she founded the Liberal Women's Suffrage Union.

In 1929 Lady Acland was elected President of the Women's Liberal Federation. She served a two-year term of office. In 1931 when Sir Herbert Samuel led the Liberal Party into the National Government, she supported him. She was one of the eight signatories to the 1931 Liberal Party Election Manifesto. She was Liberal candidate for the Exeter division of Devon at the 1931 General Election. In 1931 her intervention pushed the Labour candidate down to third place.