Phyllis Alsager AYRTON [1884-1975]

Received by email:

> I have an interest in the Ayrton family and I believe I can identify
> the lady.
>
> I believe she is: Phyllis Alsager Ayrton (1884-1975).
>
> If so, Phyllis would actually have been 61 in 1945! She must have been
> a remarkable woman to survive the experience in her mature years, to
> give people the impression of being younger - not older - at the end
> of the incarceration and to have lived on to 1975!
>
> Phyllis was the daughter William Scrope Ayrton, a British consul who
> served in Taiwan/Formosa at the time of the Japanese annexation of the
> island. This verifiable detail may have given made the Japanese
> reasonably well-disposed had they been aware of the link.
>
> Her mother was a McClatchie, daughter of the Rev. McClatchie of the
> CMS at Shanghai. She was an 'old China hand'!
>
> Phyllis was a remarkable character in her own right. She was a
> suffragette as well as a suffragist: joining the WSPU. She campaigned
> for Christabel Pankhurst in the UK's first election with women, in
> 1918. She accompanied the 'General', Flora Drummond. She also met
> Lloyd-George and the Australian Premier in the same year, and has the
> photos to prove all of this!
>
> Presumably, the call 'Home' proved too strong, and some unfortunate
> timing ensured her stay was much longer and harder than she might
> possibly have imagined. A Chinese childhood, however, would have given
> her much better physical and spiritual resources to cope.
>
> She and her family are well-documented, so I hope this will help your
> researches.