Norah Elam - Political Activity

Political Activity

Mrs Dacre Fox was a prominent member of the Womens Social and Political Union and served as General Secretary. Between May and July 1914 she was imprisoned three times in Holloway Prison for 'acts of terrorism'; she received a WSPU hunger strike medal with three bars.

In 1918 she stood as an independent candidate in Richmond (Surrey) for election to the Parliament of the United Kingdom but was not elected. The same year Norah campaigned for the internment of enemy aliens in collaboration with the British Empire Union and the National Party. Norah Elam stated publicly in The Times that she was never a member of the Women's Freedom League (contrary to some reports).

Norah Elam claimed to be a founding member of the London and Provincial Anti-Vivisection Society (LPAVS). Documentary evidence of this has not been found, but it is known that she was a member from about the time of its inception circa 1900. In the 1930s she had published under the auspices of the LPAVS two pamphlets: "The MRC: What it is and How it Works" and "The Vitamin Survey". The pamphlets were widely distributed throughout the UK, including public libraries.

By the 1930s, Norah had separated from her husband, and was living with Edward Descou Dudley Vallance Elam whose surname she adopted. They lived in Sussex where they were active in the local Conservative Party however they defected to Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists soon after its creation in 1932 and Norah became prominent in the women's section. Norah was a frequent contributor to the Fascist press and in 1937 was put forward as a candidate for the British Union of Fascists for the Northampton constituency, but, because of the war, the election never took place. Mosley used Norah's suffragette past to counter the criticism that National Socialism was anti-feminist saying that her prospective candidacy "killed for all time the suggestion that National Socialism proposed putting British women back in the home". In 1940 Norah and Dudley Elam were arrested as Defence Regulation 18B detainees and Norah was interned in Holloway Prison with several other female fascists including Diana Mosley.