Adeline Bourne

Adeline Bourne, born Selina "Lena" Manson on 8 January 1873 in British India, was a British Anglo-Indian actress, suffragette, and charity worker who died on 8 February 1965. She received her early education at private schools in Eastbourne and Blackheath, though following expulsion from three schools she completed her studies under a governess. She later trained in drama under Sarah Thorne and adopted the stage name by which she became known professionally, subsequently joining Thorne's company before departing to tour America with Mrs Patrick Campbell. She also worked with J. E. Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker at the Court Theatre, and with Olga Nethersole.

Bourne's stage career brought her to Broadway between 1902 and 1913, where her credits included Caesar and Cleopatra, Mice and Men, Othello, The Light That Failed, and Hamlet. In the early twentieth century she became associated with avant-garde and feminist theatrical work, and was recognized for her portrayals of orientalist heroines. Among her notable roles were the title character in Oscar Wilde's Salome, which she interpreted as an emancipated virago and political princess; Antistia in John Masefield's The Tragedy of Pompey the Great; Ftatateeta and later Cleopatra in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra; and Gertrude in Hamlet.

Bourne's engagement with the women's suffrage movement developed alongside her acting career. She attended early meetings of the National Union of Women Suffrage Societies and, though initially cautious about militancy and its potential effect on her professional life, became a constitutional suffragist. In 1908 she co-founded the Actresses' Franchise League with Gertrude Elliott, Winifred Mayo, and Sime Seruya, serving as the organization's honorary secretary until resigning in 1912 when travel to America required her absence. While in England she regularly promoted AFL performances in the streets of the West End. In 1910 she participated in the Pageant of Great Women, taking the role of a Woman who appeals to Justice against the tyranny of Prejudice and calls upon witnesses including the Learned Women, the Artists, the Saintly Women, the Rulers, and the Warriors. She also established the New Players Society in 1911.

Her philanthropic work extended well beyond the suffrage cause. In 1915 she founded the British Women's Hospital, which raised £150,000 toward establishing the Royal Star and Garter Home for disabled soldiers. During the First World War she served abroad as an officer in Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps, organizing entertainment for soldiers on leave at the British Empire Leave Club in Cologne, an institution founded by Decima Moore. Between 1915 and 1963 Bourne raised more than £750,000 for various causes, including £37,500 for the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. In 1928 she served as Vice President of the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene's Josephine Butler Appeal Fund. Following the Second World War she created a women's employment organization to assist women in returning to civilian work, and in the mid-1950s she founded the Wayfarers' Trust, a nursing home and hospital for older people.

On her 90th birthday Bourne gave interviews to the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard recounting her experiences as a suffragette. She died in Thurston, Suffolk, and was buried in the village churchyard. A fire in 1965 destroyed her former home in Thurston; although her papers were rescued from the blaze, they were subsequently destroyed in 2013. In 2018, Helen Geake, a former Time Team presenter and Green Party candidate for Bury St Edmunds, located her grave and planted violet primroses there with local residents to mark International Women's Day.