Juanita Maxwell Phillips
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23 June 1880
Juanita Maxwell Phillips | |
|---|---|
 A portrait of Juanita Maxwell Phillips by John Lavery | |
| Member of Honiton Borough Council | |
| In office 1920–1953 | |
| Mayor of Honiton | |
| In office 1920–24; 1925–26; 1936–39; 1945–46 | |
| Member of Devon County Council | |
| In office 1931–1965 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Juanita Maxwell Comber 23 June 1880 |
| Died | 14 November 1966 (aged 86) |
| Resting place | Awliscombe |
| Party | Independent |
| Occupation | Politician and activist |
Juanita Maxwell Phillips OBE (23 June 1880 – 14 November 1966) was a Chilean-born British politician and activist. She was the first woman to serve on Honiton Borough Council (now Honiton Town Council), as mayor of Honiton, and on Devon County Council.[1] As mayor of Honiton, she became the first woman mayor in the West Country.[2] She was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1950.[1]
Phillips was born in Valparaíso, Chile to Margarita Maxwell Comber and Thomas Comber, a British businessman in the mineral industry.[3][4] The family had moved back to the United Kingdom by the early 1890s.[3] She married Tom Phillips, a solicitor, in 1906.[3] During the First World War, she served in the War Office.[2]
Activism
Phillips was involved in the suffrage movement and other social movements for women's rights.[4] As a suffragist, she headed local chapters of the Women's Social and Political Union, sold a suffragist newspaper, participated in protests, and picketed outside the Exeter jail where Emmeline Pankhurst was held after an arrest in December 1913.[5]
Phillips was a member of numerous activist groups. Among other organizations, she belonged to the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (earlier called the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies); the Open Door Council, for which she was a member of the Executive Committee;[6] the National Council of Women, of which she helped to found the Devon chapter;[2][7] the Women's Institutes;[2] and the Six Point Group.[1] Like many members of the Six Point Group, she opposed new feminism.[6]