Clara Codd

Clara Codd
Codd in 1910
Born	10 October 1876 Bishops Tawton
Died	3 April 1971 Heatherwood Hospital
Nationality	United Kingdom
Literary movement	Theosophist

Clara Codd or Clara Margaret Codd (10 October 1876 – 3 April 1971) was a British writer, suffragette and theosophist.

Codd was born in Bishops Tawton in 1876. She was taught by governesses and at the age of fifteen she became an atheist. After her father's death the family moved to Geneva where Codd worked as a governess, a costume model and she travelled to play the violin and piano. She was converted to Theosophy after hearing the first President of the Theosophical Society, Henry Steel Olcott, give a talk in Geneva.

In 1903 she was in the UK when she joined the Theosophical Society and in 1907 she also joined the militant Women's Social and Political Union.Aeta Lamb asked her to help organise a visit by Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney and the following year she was the elected secretary of the WSPU branch in Bath. Nearby was the home of Mary Blathwayt who was another suffragette. Her parents lived at Eagle House in Batheaston. Nearly all the prominent British suffragettes visited the house and Codd would stay over and sleep with Annie Kenney.

Codd was arrested in 1908 outside the House of Commons and sentenced to a month in prison. Christabel Pankhurst was keen to find her a job but Codd refused the offer. She appeared to drift away from the group.

She worked briefly as a teacher before she became more involved with the Theosophical Society. She then went to their headquarters in Adyar in India for two years. Codd never left this work as she lectured for the society around the world for the rest of her life.

Codd died in Heatherwood Hospital in 1971.

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