Florence Harrison Bell
Florence Nightingale Harrison Bell (8 October 1865 – September 1948) was a British socialist and suffragist activist. Life Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 8 October 1865 as Florence Tait. She was the illegitimate daughter of Isabella Tait. At her baptism on 17 December at St. Andrew Newcastle she was recorded as Florence Harrison, her father was recorded as Thomas Latham Harrison (gentleman). After that she adopted the name Florence Latham Harrison. Her father, a Newcastle bookmaker, died when Florence was age two. She and her mother lived briefly in Scotland and then returned to North East England when her mother Isabella married Thomas Hedley Thompson, an engine fitter, at Gateshead Register Office on 30 October 1878. From that time Florence lived with her mother and stepfather in Gateshead and Newcastle. She worked as a cook before studying at Armstrong College and becoming a teacher. At some time she adopted the name Florence Nightingale Harrison. Under that name in 1896, she married Joseph Nicholas Bell, general secretary of the National Amalgamated Union of Labour. She became active in the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and was the first woman to serve on its National Administrative Council (NAC). In 1898, she was replaced on