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Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke)

(1854-1943), Novelist and women's rights campaigner

Sitter in 3 portraits
Born in Ireland, Grand entered formal education when the family moved to Yorkshire when she was 14. She attended finishing school in Holland Park before entering an unhappy marriage to an army surgeon. In 1890 she left him and their son to pursue a writing career in London and anonymously published Ideala: a Study from Life at her own expense. It wasn't until she wrote The Heavenly Twins that she found success. Influenced by Josephine Butler's campaign against the Contagious Diseases Act, the novel explored men passing on syphilis to their families and the restricted lives of women. Published under the pseudonym Sarah Grand, it became a best seller. She published and lectured on women's suffrage and became president of the Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in Tunbridge Wells.

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Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke), by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn - NPG P1700(3c)

Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke)

by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn
albumen print, 1894
NPG P1700(3c)

Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke), by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn - NPG x36119

Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke)

by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn
albumen cabinet card, 1894
NPG x36119

Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke), by Walter Stoneman, for James Russell & Sons - NPG Ax39227

Sarah Grand (Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall, née Clarke)

by Walter Stoneman, for James Russell & Sons
bromide print, circa 1916
NPG Ax39227

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