Julia Solly
| Julia Solly | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Julia Frances Muspratt 21 December 1862 Seaforth, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 1953 (aged 90–91) Wynberg, Cape Town, South Africa |
| Nationality | British/South African |
| Occupation | social activist, suffragist, pacifist |
| Years active | 1888-1940s |
| Spouse(s) | Hubert LeGay Solly |
Julia Solly (21 December 1862 – 1953) was a British suffragist, feminist and temperance activist. After her marriage, she moved to South Africa, where she became one of the most recognizable feminists in the Cape Colony. Advocating for suffrage, co-founded the Cape Branch of the Women's Enfranchisement League (WEL), the first organization in South Africa created to push for women's right to vote. Active as a pacifist, she was against both the Second Boer War and World War I, but believed that the Nazis must be stopped at all cost. She was also active in many social reform programs and was part of the purity movement. For her work on the National Council of Women, she was awarded the King George Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935.
Julia Frances Muspratt was born 21 December 1862 at Seaforth Hall, Seaforth, Lancashire, England. to Frances Jane (née Baines) and Edmund Knowles Muspratt. She attended the Cheltenham Ladies' College and she and her sister Nessie were some of the first female students at University College, Liverpool. Muspratt studied botany with professor Harvey Gibson and focused on the flora of South Africa. After graduating, she made a trip to the Americas with her father, traveling first to Canada to attend the British Association meeting in Montreal and then touring from the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States all the way back to New York City before heading home.
In the late 1880s, Muspratt joined the local Women's Liberal Federation (WLF) West Toxteth branch of which her sister Nessie Stewart-Brown was president, along with her mother, her aunt Ann Neal Muspratt (Mrs. Sheridan), her sister Stella Permewan and her sister-in-law Helena. On 15 June 1890, she married Hubert LeGay Solly (23 April, 1856–1 December, 1912) an English engineer who was working abroad due to health issues for the South African government on the railroads. That same year, the couple moved to De Aar, where Solly joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. By 1895 she was serving as superintendent of its suffrage unit. An ardent pacifist, she sent letters to her father during the Second Boer War, recounting atrocities of the conflict Soon after the war ended, her husband retired in 1904 because of his health problems and settled on his farm near Knor Hoek, Sir Lowry's Pass, Cape Colony. In 1907, Solly helped found Cape Branch of the Women's Enfranchisement League (WEL), the first organization in South Africa created to gain women the right to vote. She became a correspondent of Olive Schreiner and their letters mainly have to do with suffrage business. Schreiner was concerned about factionalism and exhorted Solly to put aside religious or racial differences and eliminate divisive elements, like one-time president, Irene Macfadyen (1907–1908), who was simultaneously a member of an anti-women’s suffrage group. Solly became one of the most recognizable figures in the Cape Colony's suffrage movement.
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