Norah Dacre Fox was a prominent member of the
Women's Social and Political Union and, by 1913, served as general secretary. Dacre Fox was an effective propagandist, delivering rousing speeches at the WSPU weekly meetings and writing many of
Christabel Pankhurst's speeches. In May 1914
Flora Drummond and Norah Dacre Fox besieged the homes of
Edward Carson and
Lord Lansdowne, both prominent
Ulster Unionist politicians who had been inciting militancy in Ulster against the
Home Rule Bill then going through Parliament. Drummond and Dacre Fox had both been issued with summonses to appear before magistrates for 'making inciting speeches' and encouraging women to militancy. Their response to journalists who interviewed them was that they thought they should take refuge with Carson and Lansdowne who had also been making speeches and encouraging militancy in Ireland, but who appeared to be safe from interference from the authorities for doing so. Both women appeared before a magistrate, were sentenced to imprisonment and taken to
Holloway Prison where they immediately commenced
hunger and thirst strikes and endured
force-feeding. In the
1918 United Kingdom general election she stood as an independent candidate in
Richmond (Surrey); she received 20% of the votes but was not elected. The same year she campaigned for the internment of
enemy aliens in collaboration with the
British Empire Union and the
National Party. During 1916 and 1917, Elam obtained work as supervisor of a typewriting pool at the
Medical Research Council (MRC), gaining information she was to use in articles published under the auspices of the LPAVS during 1934 and 1935. In March 1921, Elam advertised in
The Times and chaired a public meeting of LPAVS at the
Aeolian Hall in London to discuss 'The Dog's Bill' (a bill to prohibit the
vivisection of dogs) that was being debated in Parliament at that time. After her release, Norah and Dudley Elam escorted
Unity Mitford to see Diana and Oswald Mosley in Holloway on 18 March 1943. ==Family==