Elsie Bowerman (1889-1973)

Elsie Bowerman
Circa 1910
Born	18 December 1889
Died	18 October 1973
Parents	William Bowerman (-1894) (father) Edith Bowerman Chibnall (1864-1953) (mother)

Early Life

Elsie Edith Bowerman was born on 18 December 1889 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the only daughter of William Bowerman and Edith Martha Barber. Her father, a prosperous businessman and former Hastings councillor, died when she was five.

The 1891 census records the Bowerman family living at 145 London Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, supported by rental property income accumulated by her father.

Bowerman was educated at Wycombe Abbey, beginning in 1901 as the youngest boarder at the school. She excelled academically, later spending time in Paris before entering Girton College, Cambridge in 1908 to study Medieval and Modern Languages, completing her Tripos in 1911.

Suffrage Activism

Bowerman became a committed member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) while at Girton. She organised suffrage events, distributed *Votes for Women*, and even hosted Emmeline Pankhurst during a Cambridge visit.

Her mother, Edith, was also active in the movement and participated in the violent Black Friday demonstration of 1910.

In 1914, Bowerman became the Eastbourne district organiser for the WSPU.

Titanic Survivor

On 10 April 1912, Bowerman and her mother boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton as first-class passengers (ticket 113505, cabin E-33). They were rescued in Lifeboat 6 after the sinking.

After arriving in America, they continued their planned journey across the United States, travelling to British Columbia, the Klondike, and Alaska.

World War I and Russian Revolution

In September 1916, Bowerman joined a Scottish Women’s Hospitals unit serving Serbian and Russian armies in Romania. She witnessed the retreat to the Russian frontier and later the Russian Revolution firsthand in Petrograd (St Petersburg) in March 1917, recording events in her diary.

Returning to Britain in 1917, she undertook speaking tours and worked with the Pankhursts on wartime mobilisation campaigns.

Legal Career

Bowerman pursued legal studies after the war, earning an MA and being called to the Bar in 1924. She practised on the South Eastern Circuit until 1938.

She became the first woman barrister to appear at the Old Bailey, and authored *The Law of Child Protection*.

Her most notable case involved assisting in the prosecution of communist activist Harry Pollitt for libel.

World War II and United Nations Work

During WWII, Bowerman joined the Women’s Voluntary Services, later working for the Ministry of Information and the BBC Overseas Service.

In 1947, she travelled to the United States to help establish the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Later Life and Residences

Bowerman returned to St Leonards-on-Sea in the 1950s to be near her elderly mother. After her mother’s death, she retired to a countryside home near Hailsham.

She died on 18 October 1973 in Hailsham, East Sussex.

A blue plaque commemorates her residence at 23 Silchester Road.

Legacy

Bowerman is remembered as a pioneering woman in law, a committed suffragette, and one of the most accomplished survivors of the Titanic disaster. Her papers—including diaries, photographs, and correspondence—are held at The Women’s Library, London School of Economics.