Rose Emma Janau was born in Brixton in 1875. Her parents were both teachers and she received an extensive education, both in England and abroad. In 1896 she entered Royal Holloway College, studying modern languages. Although she passed the Oxford Final Honours Exam, she was not, as a woman, awarded a degree. In 1900 she married Thomas Lamartine Yates, a solicitor. In 1906, they moved to Dorset Hall in Wimbledon and Rose gave birth to their only child, Paul, in June 1908.
Soon after the birth of her son, Yates joined the newly founded Wimbledon branch of the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union). By January 1909 she was a member of the committee. Yet, at this time, she still publicly identified as a suffragist, fighting to win the vote without the need for violence.
On 24 February 1909, Yates took part in a peaceful deputation to Westminster, with the object of protesting the Prime Minister’s omission of Women’s Suffrage from the King’s Speech. The police acted with brutality to prevent them achieving their aim, and Yates, along with five others, was charged with ‘obstructing the police in the execution of their duty’. Tom represented his wife at her trial, where she declared:
I have a little son, eight months old, and his father and I decided, after calm consideration, that when that boy grew up he might ask, ‘What did you do, mother, in the days of the women’s agitation, to lay women’s grievances before the Prime Minister?’ and I should blush if I had to say I made no attempt to go to the Prime Minister.
Yates was sentenced to one month in Holloway Prison. During her imprisonment, comfort and inspiration may have come from the letter Tom had written on her birthday, the day before the ill-fated deputation, possibly in anticipation of its outcome:
My dearest, today is thy birthday, and what a momentous one. The present I give thee is not gold nor silver but the permission freely and gladly, to offer up thy liberty for the benefit of the downtrodden woman. Today is the decision – tomorrow the sacrifice whence can only come good tho’ it mean pain and suffering to thee. Years hence, our Paul – our boy – will be proud of his mother and her achievement. Be not afraid for strength and courage will come to thee in the hour of need. Tom
While she was in prison a verse appeared in Punch magazine, accusing Yates of neglecting her duty to her husband, baby and home:
And so this boy of yours, years hence perusing
Records of women wronged by man-made laws,
May ask, an eager flush his face suffusing,
‘What did you do to help the Women’s Cause?’
If, when this searching question has arisen,
You answer, ‘Nothing’ picture his surprise!
‘Twere better to endure the pains of prison
Than face the scorn in those reproving eyes.
Let it be his to hear the tale – and may be
It will not lose through being often told –
How you renounced your husband, home and baby,
When he (the last named) was but eight months old.
Such be your answer! Yet, O happy mother,
Is this the only question you foresee?
What will you say, suppose he asks another:-
‘Meanwhile, dear Parent, who looked after me?’
Yet, under the laws of the time, it was the baby’s father who was legally responsible for him, not the mother. Later in life Paul stated that since mothers had no legal rights in the upbringing of their children, his role in the campaign was to lend his mother to the cause.
After her release from Holloway Prison, Yates threw herself into WSPU activities, organising and speaking at meetings and lectures, running the Wimbledon WSPU shop, and opening her home to those seeking sanctuary. A talented and persuasive orator, she was often the main speaker at the weekly rallies on Wimbledon Common, which attracted crowds of thousands, and she also spoke at the WSPU’s Hyde Park rally in 1910.
From late 1908 until the outbreak of World War One, Wimbledon was a hotbed of suffrage activity, with many celebrated women speaking at meetings. One of those was Emily Wilding Davison, who had attended Royal Holloway with Yates, and who was fatally injured at the Epsom Derby in 1913. Yates visited her in hospital before she died and was the ‘first guard of honour’ accompanying the coffin on its journey from Epsom. Tom represented the interests of the Davison family at the inquest.
Yates continued her work as a campaigner and politician long after the vote was won for women. In 1918 she was elected to represent North Lambeth on the London County Council, where she campaigned for improved housing, equal pay and better health facilities. In her later years she worked with the League of Nations in the fight for global women’s rights. Her son Paul, once the centre of national concern, suffered no harm from lending his mother to the cause; he later became a world-renowned economist working for the UN, raised his own family, and lived to the age of 100.
By Kelly Jones, a U3A Shared Learning Project researcher for the Citizens Project.
Bibliography:
Gillian Hawtin (1993) Votes for Wimbledon Women. Wimbledon: the author
The John Innes Society (1994) Dorset Hall 1906-1935: A House, A Family, A Cause, Votes for Women! Merton: JIS
The Wimbledon Society (2008) Rose’s Story: The WSPU in Wimbledon 1908-1915. Wimbledon: Wimbledon Society Museum of Local History
Elizabeth Crawford (1999) ‘Yates, Rose Lamartine, Mrs’ in The Women’s Suffrage Movement, A Reference Guide, 1866-1928. London: UCL Press
Sheila Hanlon (2018) Rose Lamartine Yates: The Cycling UK Suffragette. Available at cyclinguk.org (Accessed: 3 March 2018)
Rose Lamartine Yates (2017) My Merton Issue 70 Summer 2017
