Esther G. Roper (1868–1938)

Esther Roper was born in Lancashire, England, the daughter of Edward Roper, a factory worker who became a missionary, and his wife Annie Roper. When her parents returned to their missionary work in Africa, Esther was at first raised by her maternal grandparents and then placed in a children's home. In 1886, she became one of the first women admitted to study for a degree at Owens College in Manchester. With fellow student Marion Ledward, she founded and edited Iris, a newsletter for female students. In 1891, Esther graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Latin, English Literature, and Political Economy. She helped establish the Manchester University Settlement to offer education and cultural opportunities to the local working poor. From 1893 to 1905, she worked as the paid secretary of the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage, where she's credited with re-energizing and broadening the scope of the organization’s work to actively seek the involvement of working class women. In 1897, the group became part of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. In 1896, Esther took a holiday in Italy, where she met and fell in love with Eva Gore-Booth, an Irish poet and aristocrat. The following year, the couple moved in together in a house in Manchester. Together Esther and Eva helped to organize groups of female flower-sellers, circus performers, barmaids and coal pit-brow workers into unions. In 1903, they helped to found the Lancashire and Cheshire Women's Textile and Other Workers Representation Committee, which organized the campaign of the first women's suffrage candidate to stand in a general election. In 1905, Esther became secretary of the National Industrial & Professional Women’s Suffrage Society. In 1913, they moved to London, where with Irene Clyde, they founded Urania, a privately circulated journal with pioneering views on gender and sexuality. They were prominent pacifists during World War I, helping to support the wives and children of imprisoned conscientious objectors. After the war, they worked for prison reform. Following Eva's death in 1926, Esther edited and wrote introductions for both The Poems of Eva Gore-Booth (1929) and The Prison Letters of Countess Markievicz (1934).