Agnes de Silva

Agnes de Silva (1876-1969) was a Ceylonese suffragist and one of the leading figures in the movement for women's political rights in colonial Ceylon, present-day Sri Lanka. She helped found the Ceylon Women's Union in 1904 and later the Women's Franchise Union in 1927, campaigning through public meetings, petitions and lobbying of colonial authorities for the extension of the vote to women under the Donoughmore constitutional reforms. Her efforts contributed to Ceylon becoming, in 1931, one of the first Asian territories to grant women the right to vote on equal terms with men, and she remained active afterward in causes including women's education and social reform.