Lydia Ernestine Becker (1827–90)

Leading member of the women’s suffrage movement, botanist, and astronomer. Published Botany for novices (1864); awarded a Horticultural Society Gold Medal, 1865. Founder and president of the Manchester Ladies’ Literary Society, 1867. Secretary to the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage from 1867. Member of the Manchester School Board, 1870. Editor of and regular contributor to the Women’s Suffrage Journal from 1870. Secretary to the London central committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage from 1881.