Dorothy Foster Abraham

Dorothy Foster Abraham was arrested on March 4th 1912.

​Born in 1866, she was the daughter, of Alfred Clay Abraham a prominent chemist in Liverpool, and Lucy Ellison Clay, herself an activist for women’s right to vote. Dorothy was educated at boarding school and then went on to study at Liverpool University and King’s College, London.

An early member of the WSPU, whose early meetings her mother hosted in her drawing room, Dorothy was active in both London and Liverpool. In March 1912, the WSPU ceased giving prior warning to the authorities of their intended actions and launched a surprise attack. Over hundred women were given hammers and directed to designated sites, hiding their weapons in their muffs. At 5.45 pm, the women started to smash windows in Oxford Street, Regent Street and other well-known addresses. Amongst the shops targeted were Liberty’s, Marshall & Snelgrove, Burberry and Harrods near where Dorothy was arrested.

Sent to Holloway Prison on remand, Dorothy was charged with malicious damage to a window at the Aerated Bread Company valued at £15 and two windows the property of Charles Stuart valued at £50. The Aerated Bread Company began in 1861 to operate tea rooms known colloquially as the ABC tearooms. These venues which eventually opened all over London, only second in popularity to Lyons tea houses, were aimed at women. The rooms were seen as spaces acceptable to frequent as a solo woman and provided a rare commodity - women's toilets. In 1899, the Congress of the International Council for Women recommended the rooms to the women delegates.  

Given the reputation of the ABC tearooms, it is questionable whether Dorothy selected their premises as a target and this might explain why she was released due to insufficient evidence to secure a conviction.

When war broke out Dorothy, and her mother joined the Home Service Corp which succeeded the Liverpool WSPU; a group formed to enable women to put themselves forward for war work. Dorothy who had studied at Agriculture College worked on several farms. Ultimately settling on a farm her father bought for her.

In 1923 Dorothy married Thomas Place. During World War II she served as an air raid warden.

She died in 1976 leaving four children.

ABC Tearooms