Kathleen Courtney

Dame Kathleen D'Olier Courtney ((1878-03-01)1 March 1878– 7 December 1974(1974-12-07)) was a leader in the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom.

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 (nee Mann) at 1 York Terrace, Gillingham, Kent.

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.

She was a co-founder of the Women's International League for Peace, serving for a decade as the British section's Chairman. In 1928, she was named a member of the Executive Committee of the British League of Nations Union. In 1939 (the year WWII 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.