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| Cicely by Lena Connell 1910 |
Educated initially at a boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, a cousin of her father’s then paid for Cicely to continue her education at a school in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Germany, where she learnt German.
Cicely became a teacher and taught at a school in the West Midland. She then joined a touring theatrical company as an actress, taking the stage/pen name "Cicely Hamilton" out of consideration for her family.
In 1908, Cicely and fellow actress Bessie Hatton founded the Women Writers' Suffrage League, which attracted around 400 members. Among the members were Ivy Compton-Burnett, Sarah Grand, Violet Hunt, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Alice Meynell, Olive Schreiner, Evelyn Sharp, May Sinclair and Margaret L. Woods.
The League produced campaigning literature, written by May Sinclair amongst others, and also recruited many prominent male supporters.
"The March of the Women" – the Suffragette’s song - was composed by Ethel Smyth in 1910 with words written by Cicely.
During the First World War, Cicely joined a unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals and worked in France. She went on to join the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and after training took command of a postal unit in France.
Due to her acting experience, Cicely also joined a troupe entertaining the troops. The Women Writers Suffrage League helped establish a library at Endell Street Military Hospital, and helped organise recreation at the hospital, which was run and staffed entirely by women.
Cicely’s brother, Charles Raymond Hammill, who went to live in Australia, joined the Australian Army, AIF and was wounded in May 1917 at the Battle of Bullecourt. After recovering, he served under Monash with the 4th Battalion of the AIF during the advance on Hargicourt and was killed on 18th September 1918 – his 39th birthday.
After a career in journalism and writing playes, Cicely died in Chelsea, London, UK on 6th December 1952.
One of Cicely’s most famous plays is “Diana of Dobson’s” about women who worked in a department store.
Cicely had a poem published in five WW1 anthologies, of which this is one:
From “Lest we forget: A War Anthology” compiled by H.B. Elliott (Jarrold, London, 1915) with a Foreword by Baroness Orczy pp. 117 - 118
NOTE: Ethel Smyth composed the music for "The March of the Women" in 1910, as a unison song with optional piano accompaniment, with words by Cicely Hamilton. Ethel based the melody on a traditional tune she had heard in Abruzzo, Italy and dedicated the song to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). In January 1911, the WSPU's newspaper, “Votes for Women”, described the song as "at once a hymn and a call to battle". Ethel did not agree with the support Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel gave to the war effort in 1914, but nevertheless, she trained as a radiographer in Paris.
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| Ethel Smyth by John Singer Sargent |
"The March of the Women" was first performed on 21st January 1911, by the Suffrage Choir, at a ceremony held on Pall Mall in London, UK, to celebrate the release of some activists from prison.
Emmeline Pankhurst introduced the song as the WSPU's official anthem, replacing "The Women's Marseillaise", a setting of words by WSPU activist Florence Macaulay to the tune of La Marseillaise.
In 1922, Ethel became the first female composer to be appointed D.B.E. for services to music, becoming known as Dame Ethel Smyth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCtGkCg7trY
Sources:
Catherine W. Reilly.- “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 155
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2F8sljkVi9wC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=denzil+hammill&source=bl&ots=afztlu5eR8&sig=ACfU3U04jv1299FTSrjsUFYq8IqEGgO3cQ&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiT2c6Ms7z2AhVCZMAKHVg6CusQ6AF6BAgWEAM#v=onepage&q=denzil%20hammill&f=false
https://fantastic-writers-and-the-great-war.com/the-writers/cicely-hamilton/
“Lest we forget: A War Anthology” compiled by H.B. Elliott (Jarrold, London, 1915)
