Edith Rigby

Edith Rigby (1872–1948) was an English suffragette. She founded a school in Preston called St. Peter's School, aimed at educating women and girls. Later she became a prominent activist, and was incarcerated seven times and committed several acts of arson. She was a contemporary of Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst.

Born Edith Rayner on St Luke's Day (18 October) in 1872 in Preston, Lancashire, she was one of seven children of Dr Alexander Clement Rayner and was educated at Penrhos College in North Wales. She married Dr Charles Rigby and lived with him in Winckley Square in Preston. From an early age she questioned the differences between working-class and middle-class women and after she was married she worked hard to improve the lives of women and girls working in local mills. In 1899, she founded St Peter's School, which allowed these women to meet and continue their education which otherwise would have stopped at the age of 11. At home, she was critical of her neighbours' treatment of their servants. The Rigbys had servants themselves, but allowed them certain unconventional freedoms such as being able to eat in the dining-room and not having to wear uniforms.

In 1907 she formed the Preston branch of the Women's Social and Political Union. Also in this year, she took part in a march to the Houses of Parliament in London with Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst. Fifty-seven women, including Rigby, were arrested and sentenced to a month in prison. During this time (and her subsequent sentences, seven in total) Rigby took part in hunger strikes and was subjected to force-feeding. Her activism included planting a pipe bomb in the Liverpool Corn Exchange on 5 July 1913 and although it was later stated in court that ‘no great damage had been done by the explosion’, Mrs. Rigby was found guilty and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour.

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