Roe was said to be Irish but she was born in 1885 and brought up by a well-off family in London. She was educated at Bedales, a progressive mixed-sex boarding school, before attending art college.
Suffragette activity
Roe later recalled that at the age of six she was interested in women's rights. She said that she met her first suffragette who was chalking "Votes for Women" on the pavement together with the details of a meeting when she was out shopping in London. She was impressed by Lucy Burns coming from America to fight for this cause, courting imprisonment. She was told that the suffragettes were "unwomanly" so she resisted joining the Women's Social and Political Union despite being impressed by the majestic figure of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel when she heard them speak in 1908. Later that year she heard Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence speak and, given that she was financially independent, she opted to join the campaign. Christobel was very close to Annie Kenney, who had joined the campaign in 1905. It has been claimed that Christobel transferred her affections to Grace Roe and that they may have been in a lesbian relationship. She was succeeded in 1910 as organiser of the Brixton branch of WSPU by Helen Craggs. Roe was sent to Ipswich and in about 40 days she had transformed the town, which had had only one WSPU member. She was based at 19 Silent Street and she invited other leading suffragettes like Marie Brackenbury and Mildred Mansel down to help. In October 1912, George Lansbury resigned his parliamentary seat to fight a by-election in his constituency of Bow and Bromley on the specific issue of women's suffrage. Roe was sent by the WSPU to lead his campaign. He lost to his Conservative opponent, who campaigned on the slogan "No Petticoat Government". Sylvia Pankhurst later crticised Roe's campaign but Labour MP Will Thorne figured that no constituency could ever be won on the single question of votes for women. Roe was chosen as the deputy to Annie Kenney so that she could take over if necessary and eventually Kenney was arrested and Roe took over her role. The WSPU awarded Roe a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' and a Holloway brooch. When war broke out in 1914, Roe was in prison; she was released as part of the deal struck by the WSPU with the government. The WSPU agreed to cease militant disruption and in exchange the government released all the suffragettes and paid for the WSPU to have a celebration in support of the war effort.
Roe was interviewed twice for the BBC concerning her role in the suffrage struggle. She was seen wearing her Holloway brooch in a reunion with Leonora Cohen, on the cover of Radio Times.
