Background
Dora was born in Honley, near Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1890.
Dora was born in Honley, near Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1890.
She was one of seven children born to James and Eliza Thewlis. At the time James was working locally as a weaver. Thewlis was sixteen when she joined the Women"s Social and Political Union in 1907.
She was arrested the same year, having been part of a planned break in into the Houses of Parliament.
She was patronised by the judge at her court appearance and labelled the "baby suffragette" by the press Their reply was she was her own person and they fully supported her.
The family were socialists. She emigrated to Australia before the start of the First World War and in 1918 married Jack Dowager
She died in 1976.