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Lady Jessie Rose-Innes (née Dods Pringle, 1 November 1860 – 4 June 1943) was a South African nurse, social campaigner and suffragist of British descent. She married Sir James Rose-Innes, who became Chief Justice of South Africa.

Life

Rose-Innes was born in 1860 at Glen Lynden and was raised in the Bedford area of the Eastern Cape. Her parents were the Scottish 1820 settler William Dods Pringle and his wife Harriet Pringle née Hockly.

She trained as a nurse and during the South African War was a member of the Good Hope Red Cross Committee. She was also co-founder and president of the Victoria Nurses Institute and was active in the Pretoria Benevolent Society, Pretoria Women's Cooperative and the Young Men's Christian Association.

She married Liberal politician and judge James Rose-Innes on 18 October 1881. They had known each other since childhood, when the Rose-Innes family had holidayed at the Pringle family farm. They had one daughter, Dorothy Rose-Innes, who was born in 1884, married the German field marshal Count Helmuth von Moltke of Kreisau 1905, and was active in the Christian Science movement.

Rose-Innes was also a close friend of the writer, suffragist and activist Olive Schreiner and they exchanged letters throughout their lives.

Rose-Innes became active in campaigning for women's suffrage in South Africa and was a member of the Women's Enfranchisement League. In 1914 she was elected chair of the Cape Town branch of the National Council for Women. The suffrage campaign in South Africa was complex and was shaped by race, class and the nation's struggle against apartheid. White South African women were eager to get the vote, and some were willing to conform to South Africa's segregation policies to do so. Rose-Innes acknowledged the potential race qualification of women's enfranchisement in 1926, saying that "we know in our hearts we shall not get all that we ask, but we are very anxious for that half loaf. The other may come." The Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 granted the vote to white women only.

Rose-Innes died in 1943. She was buried in the Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town.

References

1. ^ Lewsen, Phyllis (25 May 2006) . "Innes, Sir James Rose- (1855–1942), politician and judge in South Africa". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35830. Retrieved 24 November 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ^ "Jessie Dods Pringle b. 1 Nov 1860 Lynedoch farm, Bedford District, Eastern Cape, South Africa d. 4 Jun 1943 Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa". British 1820 Settlers to South Africa. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
3. ^ "Olive Schreiner Letters Online". www.oliveschreiner.org. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
4. Historia. Vol. 49–50. 2004 – via Historical Association of South Africa.
5. Wills, Walter H.; Barrett, R. J. (1884). The Anglo-African Who's who and Biographical Sketch-book. George Routledge & Sons, Limited. p. 79.
6. Gabaccia, Donna R.; Maynes, Mary Jo (19 February 2013). Gender History Across Epistemologies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-50822-0.
7. Balfour, Michael; Frisby, Julian (8 August 2021). Helmuth von Moltke: A Leader Against Hitler. Plunkett Lake Press.
8. "Women of History: Countess Dorothy von Moltke". Mary Baker Eddy Library. 15 December 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
9. Stanley, Liz (18 March 2014). Imperialism, Labour and the New Woman: Olive Schreiner's Social Theory. Routledge. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-134-28170-1.
10. Dimock, Elizabeth (24 December 2021). Women and Empire 1750-1939: Volume III: Africa. Routledge. p. lxxxi. ISBN 978-1-000-56060-2.
11. "A Comprehensive History of Women's Suffrage in South Africa - WeChronicle". We Chronicle. 16 June 2023. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
12. Fernandes, Monica G. (30 November 2015). "The transnational factor: The beginnings of South Africa's women's movement". New Contree. 73: 18. doi:10.4102/nc.v73i0.172. ISSN 2959-510X.
13. Walker, Cherryl (1979). The Women's Suffrage Movement in South Africa. Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town. ISBN 978-0-7992-0287-8.
14. Scully, Pamela (2000). "White maternity and black infancy The rhetoric of race in the South African women's suffrage movement, 1895-1930". In Fletcher, Ian Christopher; Mayhall, Laura E. Nym; Levine, Philippa (eds.). Women's Suffrage in the British Empire: Citizenship, Nation, and Race. Routledge. pp. 68–84. ISBN 978-0-203-71463-8.

• 1860 births
• 1943 deaths
• South African women's rights activists
• South African nurses
• South African suffragists
• 20th-century South African women
• People from Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality
• South African people of Scottish descent