Suffragists and Suffragettes - tantalising snippets

This week, there was a flurry of media interest in the story of Emily Wilding Davison, who famously died at the 1913 Derby, trampled under the King's horse. As someone with a keen interest in the historical campaign for women's votes, I was fascinated to notice that this anniversary has been marked, while others have gone by, fairly unnoticed. This seems a terrible shame, and rather a missed opportunity, although  possibly understandable; the Davison case has the right level of high drama for a 21st century audience, perhaps.

The Suffragettes of one hundred years ago were the more militant, inheritors of the mantle set down by the Suffragists of the 19th century. From around the time of the Great Reform Act of 1832, when the voting franchise was extended in greater numbers than ever before, the question of whether it should be extended to everyone - to women, to non-property owners, to the working classes - vexed government, as well as those attempting to change suffrage legislation in their favour. It was strongly felt that the right to vote was the key to the door of influence, of power over your own life, and of power to change other's lives; the holy grail of democracy. Several changes in legislation over the course of the second half of the century would bring the vote to all men, but women continued to be marginalised. When the campaign was re-ignited at the turn of the 20th century, it was increasingly felt that different tactics were required. Women's Suffrage Societies attracted the most members, whilst the more militant Women's Social and Political Union, set up by the Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Many who joined the WSPU would later become disillusioned with their violent 'Deeds Not Words' mantra, and join the suffrage societies instead. This was particularly true after Davison's death at the 1913 Derby.

The BSU Archive contains two small pieces of information which give fascinating insights into the cause of women's rights. The first, the biographical details of a nineteenth century lady of the manor, and the second, the recollections of a Domestic Science student of 1911.

Lady Anna Eliza, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, eloped with William Henry Powell Gore Langton in the mid nineteenth century. The affair caused a scandal at the time, but they appear to have been a determined couple; the elopement was discovered, the marriage was stopped, but then went ahead anyway. Lady Anna was a visionary in her own right. As a campaigner for Women’s Rights she was amongst the influential group who signed John Stuart Mill's petition to include women in the Representation of the People Bill of 1867. Her husband, as the somewhat radical Conservative MP for Somerset, signed it too. Lady Anna was President of the Bath branch of the National Society for Women's Suffrage, and later became President of the Bristol and West of England branch. She would continue to support a number of women’s causes throughout her life, including general and medical education and welfare. She worked with Bristol activist Mary Carpenter on a scheme to train women teachers in India, and left £1000 to Girton College, Cambridge in her will on her death in 1879.  

Domestic Science College students at the turn of the twentieth century wore a distinctive uniform with scarlet blouses, long black serge skirts and stiff white collars and cuffs.These uniform blouses apparently rendered the students very conspicuous, and it would seem that any perceived misdemeanour was reported quickly.  In 1911, the militant suffragette movement was at its height. Eagle House, at nearby Batheaston, served as a place of recuperation to those recovering from hunger strike and force feeding during prison sentences. It seems, from the written memoir of one student, that the famous suffragette Annie Kenney came to Bath, and there 

‘hurled a brick through the GPO window in order to arouse attention and interest - we students were all the in the seething crowd - but alas the scarlet blouses were noticed and again we were reported'

And this is all it says...before the next stage of research, we cannot be sure if this was indeed Annie Kenney who was, after all, staying at Eagle House to aid her recovery. But the story of Eagle House is a fascinating one, and of particular interest to Bath Spa University. 

Friends and colleagues well known to the university's history department have researched, written about and recorded details of Eagle House, and the commemorative project which happened there then, and how this was re-commemorated, one hundred years later, in 2011. The Blathwayt family welcomed the Suffragette women to their home, inviting them to plant a tree, and at the same time keeping a unique photographic record of the act. Canadian Historian Cynthia Hammond carried out the research and Dan Brown of 'Bath In Time' digitized the extraordinary collection of images. The arboretum no longer exists, having been lost during a housing development in Batheaston, so three new trees were planted, at Alice Park, Victoria Park, and by the lake at the Newton Park campus of the university, in 2011. You can find out more about all this on  

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/womens-history/suffragettetrees/
and 
http://www.cynthiahammond.com/suffragettes_in_bath.html
and
http://www.bathintime.co.uk/search/keywords/suffragette
  

Exhibition Catalogue, 2011