Although accounts of the suffrage campaign often focus on major cities, such as London and Manchester, it was a national movement. All three of the most prominent societies: the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), and the Women’s Freedom League (WFL) had branches across the country. Gravesend and Gillingham in Kent witnessed a wave of militant suffragette action. These activities were reported in the local newspapers, as shown here by the research of Liz Howe, using articles in the collection of James Elford, Gravesend Historical Society.
Accused of trying to bomb a church and abused in the street by a crowd of hundreds, a group of courageous women in Gravesend rallied and continued to campaign after a package believed to be a bomb was planted in St Peter’s and St. Paul’s Church in East Milton Road.
An article entitled ‘A Suffragette Scare’ appeared in the Gravesend and Dartford Reporter on 17 June 1913. It stated: ‘The placid quietude of Milton was rudely disturbed last Saturday by an alarming incident such as is finding its counterpart throughout the country during this time of Suffragette activity… being no less than finding a supposed bomb in Milton Parish church.’ The alarm was sounded by the church caretaker when he thought he heard a ‘ticking noise coming from a mysterious package’.
The same incident was reported in Gravesend and Northfleet Standard. An expert condemned the suffragettes and praised the quick action of the police: ‘Since the small section of the community known as the suffragettes have found no place too sacred and no person too innocent in seeking to destroy property and life, an examination was made with the discretion that is the better part of valour, by Sergeants Holt and Bare.’ It turned out that the device did not pose a threat and was destroyed by a police officer with a shotgun in a nearby field.
In October 1910, members of the Women’s Freedom League were attacked at a gathering outside Gravesend Clock Tower, Harmer Street. The Gravesend and Dartford Reporter noted: ‘It is doubtful whether any political event ever attracted such a hostile crowd as blocked the roads about the Jubilee clock, incensed by the recent acts of violence on the part of the militants.’ About 1000 people were in attendance, and the campaigning women soon became targets. The newspaper reported: ‘Orange peel and other missiles were thrown in abundance and now and again the discharge of fireworks among the crowd added to the general excitement.’ The crowd became so threatening that a woman attempting to sell a suffrage publication had to be rushed by the police to a nearby house for her own safety.
However, a letter published in the same paper shows that not everyone was against the suffragettes: ‘We have our own opinions on the merits of the case which these ladies urge, but their sex alone entitles them to courtesy, and we certainly think they should be allowed fair play.’ Another letter, from E. Coles, was published in The Standard: ‘As one who attended at the Clock Tower on Monday evening to hear the Suffragette speakers, I feel that my congratulations must go out to the gallant little band of Suffragettes which was responsible for such a tremendous gathering. This is an achievement they might well be proud of.’
The Gravesend and Dartford Reporter reported on a meeting of the Women’s Freedom League that was held at Edwin Street in Gravesend in 1910 where Mrs Cunningham gave a speech on women’s suffrage. She defended the militant tactics of the suffragettes, stating that: ‘revolution against tyrants was obedience to God… There never had been any reform or grievance redressed without revolt and, in this cause, it was one of the essential points in order to gain their ends’. Mrs Cunningham told those in attendance that militant tactics were necessary to place pressure on the government. She believed that: ‘When the women were honoured and treated as partners of the men, then the nation was going to prosper’. The chair of the meeting, Jessie Boorman, asked those present if they would like to join the Women’s Freedom League. They must agree with militant action and agree with no parliamentary member.
Suffragettes were also active in Gillingham, where they protested the 1911 census; signs in the town proclaimed: ‘If women don’t count neither shall they be counted’. Ways to protest included refusing to fill in the form, spoiling it, or staying away from home on the night of the census. One woman hid in her shed in a fur coat. Unfortunately, she was discovered.
Laura Ainsworth, who was the WSPU’s organiser for North Kent hired a hall called ‘The Dancing Academy Jezreels Tower’ on census night, 2 April 1911. Ainsworth and forty other women from the Medway towns spent the night dancing, singing and playing cards. Local residents called the police because of the noise, who warned them and called the census enumerator. They refused to fill in the forms left by the enumerator.
The suffrage campaign achieved its aims when women achieved partial suffrage in 1918, and on the same terms as men in 1928. However, it is interesting to speculate that the Gravesend campaigners also made a local impact. In 1914, what is now Mayfield Grammar School split away from being a mixed school and was founded as a girls’ grammar school. A proven link may not exist between the school and the campaigning women, but the school chose lilac and green, the colours of the Women’s Social and Political Union, suggesting some sort of ‘homage’ to the cause.
By Liz Howe, a U3A Shared Learning Project researcher for the Citizens Project
