The life of pioneering women's rights campaigner

Emily Langton Massingberd inherited Gunby Hall

The life of a pioneering women's rights campaigner is being remembered at her family home in Lincolnshire.

Emily Langton Massingberd was one of the first ever woman in Britain to stand for election in 1889, losing the Lincolnshire County Council seat by just 20 votes.

She had inherited the Gunby estate, near Skegness meaning she was a landowner and so eligible to stand in local elections.

Not long after failing to win a council place, she moved down to London and set up one of the first ever female clubs called the Pioneer Club.

Her life story has been told as part of BBC Radio Lincolnshire's Secret Lincolnshire series available on BBC Sounds.

Laura McCarthy, who is a volunteer at the National Trust owned Gunby Hall, said she opened the club as she "felt that women really needed their space where they could discuss the topical events of the day".

"One of the interesting things about it was if you joined the club, you were given a number," Ms McCarthy said.

"She was number one and everybody was given a number, so nobody knew what rank or social status you were.

"Because she believed not only in equality between the sexes, but equality between the classes."

As well as women's rights, Ms Massingberd was a vegetarian, an anti-vivisectionist and did not drink alcohol.

Gunby Hall in Lincolnshire was the Massingberd family home

She died in 1897 aged 49.

Rachel Mariott, manager at Gunby Hall, said that Ms Massingberd "was a pioneer in women's rights before the suffragette movement, so quite before her time.

"But I think she's still really relevant today."

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