Portrait of Ethel Smyth (1922) Magnet

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, (/smaɪθ/, to rhyme with Forsyth; 22 April 1858 – 8 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended to be marginalised as a ‘woman composer’, as though her work could not be accepted as mainstream, yet when she produced more delicate compositions, they were criticised for not measuring up to the standard of her male competitors. She was the first female composer to be granted a damehood.