Rachel Barrett, born on 12th November 1874 was a suffragette and newspaper editor from Carmarthen. Her childhood was spent in Llandeilo  and from, 1878 her mother Anne lived as a single parent after being widowed.

Rachel was educated at a boarding school in Stroud, along with her sister, and won a scholarship to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. She graduated in 1904 worked as a science teacher in Llangefni, Carmarthen and Penarth.

In 1906, after hearing Nellie Martel speak on women’s suffrage in Cardiff, Rachel left her teaching job to join the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Her interest in the movement had made it virtually impossible to continue at work as her employers disapproved of the publicity she was receiving. This reached a climax with reports of her being flour-bombed at a rally in Cardiff.

The following year Rachel helped organise Adela Pankhurst’s meetings in Cardiff and Barry and became a speaker herself (often speaking in Welsh to rally the women of Wales). She later moved to London and as the movement gained momentum, abandoned her plan to study economics and sociology at the London School of Economics. Rachel rallied the Bury St Edmunds by-election with Gladice Keevil, Emmeline Pankhurst and others and when Christabel Pankhurst fled to Paris, she became the joint organiser of the national WSPU campaign. Later she expressed regret at giving up her studies but explained, ‘It was a definite call and I obeyed’.

By June 1908, Rachel was was the chairperson of one of the platforms at the Hyde Park rally, which impacted on her health. After recovering at a sanatorium she moved closer to home, volunteering for Annie Kenney in Bristol before returning to Wales. In 1910 she led a group of women to talk to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, regarding the Liberal Party’s role in supporting the first Conciliation Bill. ‘The meeting lasted two and a half hours, and by its end she was convinced that Lloyd George had been insincere over his support for equal voting rights and believed him to be against women’s suffrage’.

In 1912, Rachel was made Assistant Editor of the newly formed newspaper The Suffragette and was arrested several times. In her autobiography she described becoming an editor as ‘an appalling task as I knew nothing whatever of journalism’. Furthermore, she lived with the constant risk of harsh repercussions as the WSPU grew ever more militant. She described how her phone calls to Christabel Pankhurst were monitored, and how she ‘could always hear the click of Scotland Yard listening in’.

Despite the risks and efforts to suppress it, Rachel kept The Suffragette in print for two years. In April 1913 the offices were raided by police, and staff were arrested on charges of ‘conspiring to damage property’. Rachel was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment at Holloway and immediately went on hunger strike.

Following her release she went into hiding at the home of sympathetic suffragists in London. However, after three weeks, she was re-arrested and went back on immediate hunger strike. This pattern repeated three times before Rachel finally fled to Edinburgh where she ultimately re-located the offices of The Suffragette, and was less risk of arrest.

While in Edinburgh, she assumed the pseudonym ‘Miss Ashworth’and continued to publish the paper until the outbreak of the First World War when suffragette activities were scaled back in solidarity with British troops.

When the Representation of the People Act was passed in 1918, Rachel continued the fight to ensure that all women received the right to vote. When this in which was finally achieved in 1928, she helped raise funds for commemorations and the erection of a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst near the Palace of Westminster. Her obituary stated that the statue ‘…stands as a permanent memorial to Rachel’s organising ability’.

During the 1920s and 30s, Rachel travelled across America with her partner, the Australian author I. A. R. Wylie. The couple had met at The Suffragette in 1913 when Wylie wrote an article. They also supported fellow writer Radclyffe Hall during the Well of Loneliness ban in 1928. The following year, Rachel was ‘appointed secretary of the Equal Political Rights Campaign Committee, an organisation that sought equality between men and women in all political spheres’.

Rachel Barrett died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 26 August 1953 in Faygate, Sussex. Ryland Wallace paid tribute to her in 2009, writing: ‘No individual worked harder than Rachel Barrett to promote the (suffragette) campaign in Wales’.

Roedd Rachel Barrett o Gaerfyrddin, a aned ar y 12^fed o Dachwedd 1874, yn swffragét ac yn olygydd papur newydd. Treuliodd ei phlentyndod yn Llandeilo ac o 1878, roedd ei mam Anne yn byw fel rhiant sengl ar ôl cael ei gadael yn wraig weddw.

Cafodd Rachel ei haddysg mewn ysgol breswyl yn Stroud, ynghyd â’i chwaer, ac enillodd ysgoloriaeth i Goleg Prifysgol Cymru, Aberystwyth. Graddiodd yn 1904 a gweithio wedyn fel athrawes wyddoniaeth yn Llangefni, Caerfyrddin a Phenarth.

Yn 1906, ar ôl clywed Nellie Martel yn siarad am bleidlais i fenywod yng Nghaerdydd, gadawodd Rachel ei swydd fel athrawes i ymuno ag Undeb Cymdeithasol a Gwleidyddol y Menywod (WSPU). Roedd ei diddordeb yn y mudiad wedi golygu ei bod yn amhosibl bron i barhau yn ei gwaith gan fod ei chyflogwyr yn anghytuno â’r cyhoeddusrwydd yr oedd yn ei dderbyn. Daeth hyn i’w benllanw gydag adroddiadau ei bod wedi cael ei hergydio â blawd mewn rali yng Nghaerdydd.

Y flwyddyn ganlynol bu Rachel yn helpu i drefnu cyfarfodydd Adela Pankhurst yng Nghaerdydd a’r Barri a daeth yn siaradwr ei hun (yn aml yn siarad Cymraeg i ennyn cefnogaeth menywod Cymru). Yn ddiweddarach symudodd i Lundain ac wrth i’r mudiad fynd o nerth i nerth, rhoddodd y gorau i’w chynllun i astudio economeg a chymdeithaseg yn y London School of Economics. Bu Rachel yn ymgyrchu yn isetholiad Bury St Edmunds gyda Gladice Keevil, Emmeline Pankhurst ac eraill, ac ar ôl i Christabel Pankhurst ffoi i Baris, hi oedd cyd-drefnydd ymgyrch genedlaethol yr Undeb WSPU. Yn ddiweddarach roedd yn edifar ganddi ei bod wedi rhoi’r gorau i’w hastudiaethau ond eglurodd, ‘Galwad bendant oedd hyn i mi a rhaid oedd ufuddhau’.

Erbyn mis Mehefin 1908, Rachel oedd cadeirydd un o’r llwyfannau yn rali Hyde Park, oedd wedi cael effaith ar ei hiechyd. Ar ôl gwella mewn sanatoriwm symudodd yn nes adref, gan wirfoddoli i Annie Kenney ym Mryste cyn dychwelyd i Gymru. Yn 1910, arweiniodd grŵp o fenywod i siarad â Changhellor y Trysorlys, David Lloyd George, ynglŷn â rôl y Blaid Ryddfrydol yn cefnogi’r Bil Cymodi cyntaf. ‘Roedd y cyfarfod wedi para dwy awr a hanner, ac erbyn y diwedd roedd hi’n argyhoeddedig bod Lloyd George wedi bod yn annidwyll ynglŷn â’i gefnogaeth i hawliau pleidleisio cyfartal ac yn credu ei fod yn erbyn pleidlais i ferched.’

Yn 1912, cafodd Rachel ei phenodi’n Olygydd Cynorthwyol y papur newydd, The Swffragette, ac fe’i harestiwyd sawl gwaith. Yn ei hunangofiant, disgrifiodd dod yn olygydd fel ‘tasg ddychrynllyd gan na wyddwn i’r nesaf peth i ddim am newyddiaduraeth’. Hefyd roedd yn byw yn wastadol gyda’r risg o wynebu adwaith cas wrth i’r WSPU dyfu’n fwyfwy milwrol. Disgrifiodd sut y cafodd ei galwadau ffôn i Christabel Pankhurst eu monitro, a sut y ‘gallai hi glywed clic Scotland Yard yn gwrando ar eu sgyrsiau’. 

Er gwaethaf y risgiau a’r ymdrechion i atal cyhoeddi’r papur newydd, cadwodd Rachel y Suffragette mewn print am ddwy flynedd. Fis Ebrill 1913 cafodd y swyddfeydd eu hysbeilio gan yr heddlu, ac arestiwyd staff ar gyhuddiadau o ‘gynllwynio i ddifrodi eiddo’. Cafodd Rachel ei dedfrydu i naw mis o garchar yn Holloway ac aeth ar streic newyn ar unwaith.

Ar ôl iddi gael ei rhyddhau, aeth i fyw ar ffo yng nghartrefi merched oedd yn cydymdeimlo ag achos y swffragét yn Llundain. Fodd bynnag, ar ôl tair wythnos, cafodd ei harestio eilwaith ac aeth yn ôl ar streic newyn ar unwaith. Ailadroddwyd y patrwm hwn deirgwaith cyn i Rachel ffoi i Gaeredin yn y diwedd, lle adleolodd swyddfeydd y Suffragette maes o law, a lle’r oedd llai o risg o gael ei harestio. 

Tra oedd hi yng Nghaeredin, cymerodd y ffugenw ‘Miss Ashworth’, a pharhaodd i gyhoeddi’r papur tan i’r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf dorri pan gafodd gweithgareddau’r swffragetiaid eu cwtogi mewn undod â milwyr Prydain.

Pan basiwyd Deddf Cynrychiolaeth y Bobl yn 1918, parhaodd Rachel â’r frwydr i sicrhau bod pob merch yn cael yr hawl i bleidleisio. Pan lwyddwyd i gyflawni hynny yn 1928, bu’n helpu i godi arian ar gyfer coffau a chodi cerflun o Emmeline Pankhurst ger Palas San Steffan. Roedd ei theyrnged yn nodi bod y cerflun ‘… yn sefyll fel cofeb barhaol i allu trefnu Rachel’.

Yn ystod y 1920au a’r 30au, bu Rachel yn teithio ar draws America gyda’i phartner, yr awdur o Awstralia I.A.R. Wylie. Roedd y cwpwl wedi cyfarfod yn y Suffragette ym 1913 pan ysgrifennodd Wylie erthygl i’r papur. Bu’r ddau hefyd yn cefnogi cyd-awdur Radclyffe Hall yn ystod y gwaharddiad ar ei  lyfr Well of Loneliness yn 1928. Y flwyddyn ganlynol, cafodd Rachel ei ‘phenodi’n ysgrifennydd y Pwyllgor Ymgyrchu dros Hawliau Gwleidyddol Cyfartal, sef sefydliad oedd yn ceisio cydraddoldeb rhwng dynion a merched ym mhob maes gwleidyddol’.

Bu farw Rachel Barrett o waedlif yr ymennydd ar 26 Awst 1953 yn Faygate, Sussex. Talodd Ryland Wallace deyrnged iddi yn 2009, gan ysgrifennu: ‘Ni weithiodd unrhyw unigolyn yn galetach na Rachel Barrett i hyrwyddo’r ymgyrch (swffragét) yng Nghymru.