Death of Clara Collet

Clara Collet, pioneer of women’s statistics and friend of the novelist George Gissing, died on this day at the age of eighty-seven having led a remarkable career in the years leading up to women gaining the vote.

Clara was born in 1860 to a middle-class family. Her father made his living as a singing teacher, but also worked as editor to the Diplomatic Review, a non-profit-making but intellectually stimulating venture. Through this he had made the acquaintance of Karl Marx who, as an impoverished and relatively unknown writer, was only too keen to contribute the odd article to Collet’s journal. As a result of this relationship one of Clara’s first friends was Eleanor Marx, Karl’s daughter, with whom she helped organise a theatre club which Marx himself often attended.