English: Florence de Fonblanque was born in London in 1864, educated in Brussels and Brighton, daughter of Amelia and Gaudente Sparagnapare. Her father was a friend of Garibaldi and Mazzini. She played leading parts on the stage before her marriage to Robert de Fonblanque (Marquise de Julie’s, Comte de Fonblanque), a fellow actor.

She subscribed to the London Society for Women’s Suffrage in 1906-07, to the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1907 and was a member of the Women’s Freedom League in 1909. In 1912 she was a member of the New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage.

In 1912, she had the idea of the ‘Woman’s March’, planning to march from London to Edinburgh - but was advised by friends to make London the destination of the march, not its starting point.

Six women set out from Edinburgh on 12 October 1912 and reached London on 16 November, by which time they were accompanied by male suffragists such as Cecil Chapman. They had held as many as three meetings a day along the route. Arriving in London, a large meeting was held at Trafalgar Square at which Florence de Fonblanque presented a petition to a representative of the Prime Minister, Mr Asquith. The march achieved no significant political success, but it did gain press attention and gave an outlet for women who wanted to be active in suffrage movement but who could not condone militancy.