I’d never even heard of Frances Balfour before and was delighted to discover her in this thoroughly researched and entertaining biography. Fully immersed in the political life of her times (1858-1931) she was one of the highest-ranking members of the British aristocracy to take an active role in the suffrage movement. She married into the Balfour family and thus was connected to many of the movers and shakers of her era. This is a readable and accessible biography that brings her deservedly back into prominence.

Lady Frances Balfour

This book appears to be a doctoral thesis expanded into book form.
I read this on a Kindle and when I had got 75% through the book and started to despair, I found that the remaining 25% were references. There are 1559 in total. Lady Frances was obviously an avid writer of letters. There are so many that the references refer to a bundle of letters rather than an individual letter. Some are also references to newspaper articles. All of this might be of interest to other historians, but it somewhat bypasses the need of the general reader and irrelevant.
The author has obviously immersed herself in the politics of the period, but for someone not familiar with it, it can be a bit difficult to follow at times.

It was a bit tricky reading this on a Kindle, as it is much more difficult to check back on previous sections. Also there was a list of persons at the front of the book, consultation of which would have made it easier to remember who was who, and which is easier in a paper copy. I therefore recommend buying the book to read this.

Lady Frances, daughter of the 8th Duke of Argylll and his wife, the daughter of the Duke of Sutherland, was born in 1858 and had a difficult childhood. She was born with a deformed hip and had to spend long periods in bed with her leg strapped to a splint, attempting to straighten her hip joint. She was alone during these times as her parents and siblings were otherwise occupied. (Aren't we glad of advances in medicine). She was allowed to join the family for meals where she could participate in conversation. She apparently could read by age four and spent a lot of time reading while alone.
She was obviously extremely intelligent as she developed into a fine public speaker in her later life. There are a lot of references to this in the book. Unfortunately for us, she always spoke extempore, so there are no records of her speeches. She did do some talks on radio in the 1920s, but there do not appear to be any records of them either.
She was interested in politics and attended parliament in the Ladies Gallery. This was screened off from the floor of the house; presumably so that the poor MPs would not get distracted by seeing women watching them. This screen was removed in August 1917.
She became involved in women's issues even before she became involved in the suffragist movement. There is a distinction between suffragists - those who wanted to effect change within the political system of the day - and the suffragettes - who decided this would not work and went for a more violent approach. The suffragettes are the ones who are remembered, but it was more likely that the suffragists had more of an effect. They managed to get various bills discussed by the Commons, but when the Commons passed them, the House of Lords usually defeated them.
In the end, World War I engendered a change in attitudes. During the war, the suffragists worked at getting women into work, to replace the men who had become soldiers. For this purpose they ran various training courses, for example in welding. They also attempted to get equal pay for women at that point, but that was obviously a step too far for the policicians.
The House of Commons finally voted to give some women over the age of 30 the vote in 1917, followed by the House of Lords in early 1918. In November 1918 women were also allowed to be elected as MPs.

Frances married into the Balfour family and the book has a lot of information about the various male members of her family and of the Balfour family and their roles in government, e.g. governor in Sudan, various government ministers etc.
Many people may have heard of Balfour in the context of the Balfour Declaration, which is still causing problems today.

Frances was Scottish and very much attached to the Church of Scotland which, of course, was undergoing its own problems during that time. She was very interested in what was happening to the church, but since women were not allowed any say in church affairs at that time either, she could only influence matters indirectly by talking to her church friends.

This is a very interesting read, if you are a history buff. It is full of facts to the almost to much side. For myself if did not have enough personality to it.