Dame Ethel Mary Smyth was an English composer and leader of the women's suffrage movement.

The March of the Women was written in 1911 and premiered by a chorus of Suffragettes at a fundraising rally at the Albert Hall in London on March 23, 1911, almost one hundred years ago to this day. The tune became the battle cry of the suffrage movement. The most famous, though least public performance occurred in Holloway prison in London in 1912: over 100 suffragists, including Mrs. Pankhurst and Ethel Smyth, who had smashed windows of suffrage opponents' homes in well-coordinated simultaneous incidents all over London, were arrested, tried, and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. One day, her conductor friend, Sir Thomas Beecham visited Smyth in the prison only to see the prisoners taking their outdoor exercise marching and singing, "The March of the Women." Ethel Smyth could be seen at a window overlooking the prison yard conducting them vigorously waving her toothbrush.

Wittenberg Singers director by Dr. Adam Jonathan Con

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