Career
Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1878 to John and Charlotte Doherty, she emigrated to England with her family and by 1891 was living in London. Norah married Charles Richard Dacre Fox in 1909. In 1918 she stood as an independent candidate in Richmond (Surrey) for election to the Parliament of the United Kingdom but was not elected.
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 Medical Research Council: What it is and How it Works" and "The Vitamin Survey". The pamphlets were widely distributed throughout the United Kingdom, including public libraries.
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. During this time, she encountered Wilfred Risdon, Director of Propaganda 1933-1934, who was later a colleague in the LPAVS. 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.
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.
She had one son, Evelyn (born 1922). Her granddaughter, Angela McPherson, described in a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary that she had no idea until 2002 of the role Elam played at the centre of the fascist movement. Angela knew that Elam had been a suffragette who claimed to have been close to the Pankhursts.
A sudden decision to search online for information about Norah Elam started to throw up information she had not been aware of.
A biography Mosley"s Old Suffragette has been written by Susan McPherson and Angela McPherson.