Dorset’s First Woman Voter.

Thanks to an administrative blunder, Eleanor Dixon of Holton, near Wareham became the first woman in Dorset to vote in a Parliamentary election.

When she voted in the 1910 East Dorset election, she was nearly 20 years ahead of the time. For it was not until 1928 that all women over the age of 21 were granted the right to vote - irrespective of property rights. Eleanor must have voted for the Conservative candidate, Colonel John Sanctuary Nicholson as the Liberal/Radical Agent raised an objection against her vote. After stating he had checked relevant legislation, the Presiding Officer allowed her vote.

Eleanor Dixon was not the first woman to vote in a British Parliamentary election because of an administrative error. Lily Maxwell did so in 1867 in a Manchester by-election when her name was erroneously placed on the registered list of voters. Lily was a shopkeeper born in Scotland around 1800.

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