Dame Kathleen D."Olier Courtney was a leader in the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom.
Background
Kathleen D."Olier Courtney was born the youngest of five daughters and the fifth of seven children of Lieutenant (later Major) David Charles Courtney (1845-1909) of the Royal Engineers (a native of Milltown, County Dublin, Ireland), and his wife, Alice Margaret (née Mann) at 1 York Terrace, Gillingham, Kent.
Career
She was educated at private schools and at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. A suffragist and Honorary Secretary of the National Union of Women"s Suffrage Societies. Upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she abandoned her active campaigning for women"s suffrage and devoted her life to studying international politics and trying to build bridges towards international cooperation.
In 1939 (the year World World War II would begin) she was elected Vice-Chairman.
From 1949 to 1951 she served as Chairman. She died, unmarried, in 1974, at her home in London, aged 96.
Membership
In 1928, she was named a member of the Executive Committee of the British League of Nations Union.