Cicely Corbett was born in 1885 in
Danehill, East Sussex, England to
Charles Corbett, a
Liberal Party politician and barrister, and
Marie Corbett, a suffragist. Cicely and her older sister,
Margery, were taught at home by their parents and another local woman. Both parents were outspoken supporters of women's rights, and at fifteen years old, Cicely formed a society with her sister and their friends called the Younger Suffragists. She began studying modern history at
Somerville College, Oxford, in 1904 and there she became involved in the Oxford branch of the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. She and Margery left the
Women's Liberal Federation due to their disappointment with the Liberal Party's commitment to women's suffrage and, with their mother, they established the Liberal Women's Suffrage Group. After leaving university, Corbett began working for
Clementina Black's organisation, the
Women's Industrial Council, which campaigned for improvements in wages and conditions for working women. She also organised conferences on behalf of the
National Anti-Sweating League to demand better working conditions in certain trades. She often organised speeches by exploited women workers and spoke out against
child labour. ==Personal life==