Nellie Alma Martel

Postcard with photographic portrait of Nellie Alma Martel (c.1855-1940), official Organiser of the Women’s Social and Political Union. This was one of a serious of official postcards issued by the WSPU depicting Organisers with the aim of raising the profile of senior officials and leaders.

Nellie Alma Martel emigrated to Australia as a young adult and became an active campaigner for female suffrage. On her return to England in 1904 due to her husband's illness, Nellie became involved in the campaign for female suffrage in the UK and, in 1905, became one of the earliest supporters the Women's Social and Political Union. By 1907 Nellie was an official organiser for the WSPU assisting with WSPU campaigning at both the Jarrow and Newton Abbott by-elections. On 18th June 1908 Nellie chaired a platform at the WSPU rally in Hyde Park but later that year she began to distance herself from the militant campaign. In 1910 her ties with the WSPU formally ended when she subscribed to the New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage.