Background
Her father, a Master Baker,was a Catholic but converted to the Church of Scotland and was a conservative trade unionist.
Her father, a Master Baker,was a Catholic but converted to the Church of Scotland and was a conservative trade unionist.
Born Helen Jack, at 175 Cumberland Street in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Helen"s parents were Helen L Kyle and William Crawfurd. Her family moved to Ipswich while she was young, and she later went to school in London and Ipswich beford moving back to Glasgow as a teenager. Alexander died aged 85 at 17 Sutherland Street in Partick, Glasgow.
He died on 2nd February 1952and Helen died at Mahson Cottage, Kilbride Avenue, Dunoon, Argyll, aged 76.
Crawfurd first became active in the women"s suffrage movement around 1900, then in 1910 she switched her support to the more radical Women"s Social and Political Union (WSPU) of the Pankhursts. In 1912, she smashed the windows of Jack Pease, Minister for Education, and received a one month prison sentence.
The following year, she was twice arrested in Glasgow when Emmeline Pankhurst was speaking, received another month in prison, and went on a five-day hunger strike. Following one more arrest, she left the WSPU in protest at its support of World War I and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP).
During the war, Crawfurd was involved with the Red Clydeside movement, including rent strikes in 1915, and became secretary of the Women"s Peace Crusade.
When this policy was defeated, she joined the new CPGB, within which she served on the Central Committee, and was involved with various journalistic projects. She also became secretary of Workers" International Relief. Crawfurd stood for the CPGB in Bothwell at the 1929 United Kingdom general election and Aberdeen North in 1931, but did not come close to election.
During the 1930s, Crawfurd was prominent in the Friends of the Soviet Union.
She retired during World World War II but was elected to Dunoon Town Council shortly after the war, retiring in 1947 due to poor health.
In 1944 Helen remarried, to widower George Anderson, Blacksmith and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).