ABSTRACT
On 12 October 1870 Elizabeth Garrett found a deputation of men awaiting her at her house. They were husbands and fathers of her dispensary patients, and they had come from the Marylebone Working Men’s Association to invite her to stand for election to the new London School Board. The Forster Education Act of 1870, which required public elementary schools with School Boards to administer them, admitted women for the first time both as electors and candidates. The choice of Marylebone families had fallen on a woman they knew and trusted, Elizabeth Garrett, and the men assured her she was certain to be elected. November 1870 was a month of meetings and campaigning, also for Elizabeth Garrett a month of continual association with her chairman. Elizabeth learnt to deal with hecklers, particularly supporters of denominational control in religious education. Once she let herself be tempted to answer indiscreetly, and Skelton Anderson did not spare her feelings.
