"A Suffragette Invasion" in the Scottish Borders - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday's June theme is "Crowds" with this week's prompt a vintage photograph of a suffragette march.  I am taking a  look at local history and how the movement was active, not just in major cities,  but also in a rural corner of Scotland.  

 Take note of the choice of language to describe the women!

 

 

 

 A suffragette meeting, at Towerknowe, Hawick in the Scottish Borders, 1909.   Note - the number of men there.    

Photograph by permission of Scottish Borders  Museum & Gallery Service  from the Hawick Museum Collection.

 

 The early 20th century saw a dramatic change in the suffragette campaign  with a new militant form of protest.   By  1903 Emmeline Pankhurst, believed that years of moderate speeches  about women's suffrage had yielded no progress and,  with her daughters,     she founded the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU)  dedicated to "deeds, not words".   

 

In Emmeline Pankhurst, the WSPU had a charismatic leader, who inspired an almost fanatical devotion to the cause.  It also adopted a public identification  with its colours - Violet, Forest Green and White (symbolising Votes for Women), which they used as ribbons, sashes and badges on  their white dresses - an early example of what later became known as "developing  a brand" . 

Emmeline Pankhurst in Hawick 

In February 1909 "The Hawick News" had a headline which read "Suffragette Invasion" - the occasion the campaign for the Border Burghs election. Emmeline Pankhurst addressed a crowded meeting in  Hawick Town Hall on 27th February 1909.  A piper marched around the platform  and the audience sang the song "Votes for Women".

Rise, ye men of Border burghs.
Show yourself in your true colours

As you've done in days gone by

Stand by British Liberty

"Votes for Women" loudly defying

Stubborn foes you'll put to rout

Vote  and keep the Liberals out

"The Hawick Express" of February 26th 1909 reported that:

"The Suffragists are extremely busy in connection with the elections and have taken  a shop on the High Street as their headquarters,,,,,the window is smartly decorated with suffragette literature and pictures  and they are reported to be doing a roaring trade in the sale of "Votes for Women" badges".

Mrs Pankhurst returned to Hawick in August 1909 when she called on women to join a large demonstration in Edinburgh. 

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 In my village of Earlston, " the suffragette threat" was high on he concerns when Prime Minister Herbert Asquith made a visit in 1908. To the questioned  “Why Earlston?”  The answer was the Prime Minster had never spoken in in the  county  and his son-in-law Mr. Harold John Tennant was the local MP.   

 

This was a major event for the Scottish Borders  and newspapers were full of the preparations, with one particular aspect occupying their concerns, not only in local newspapers but in the press further afield – the threat of suffragette demonstrations.      

Preparations for the Visit

"The Jedburgh Advertiser”:  October 3rd described the plans  for the visit.  These included  the erection of a tent, measuring 220 feet by 60 feet  with seating accommodation for about 4000 people - this when the population  of Earlston in the 1911 census was only 1677!   (How many political meetings in the Borders attract that kind of number today?) Houses and shops were being painted  and decorated and made to look their best.  Five special trains to Earlston  were bringing passengers from further afield.

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  Preparations along Earlston High Street, 1908
  

The Language used to Describe the Suffragettes

The threat of demonstrations was a serious preoccupation for the organisers as evidenced by the press coverage,  which used such terms as "the dreaded suffragettes",   “pernicious feminine politicians”, “militant political women”   “displaying their usual offensive manners”, and "mischievously disposed females." 

Rumours abounded that suffragettes would  follow in motor cars the Prime Minister’s party to Earlston, with the  waving of flags and banners and shouts of their motto” Votes or Women”  and the approach of the picturesque procession to the various villages along the way being heralded by the ringing of bells.  In the event the Prime Minister arrived by train.

 Prime Minister Asquith arriving at Earlston Station, 1908

The strategy  of the event organisers was to  sit all ladies attending the event in a specially designated part of the marquee;  or as “The Sheffield Daily Telegraph” said  “Put the Ladies in a  Compound” –

Ladies would not be admitted to any other part of the building even if they possessed tickets for other parts.  “The purpose of this arrangement is evident”.  Names and addresses were also required ,  This precaution is specially intended to keep out any suffragettes who may attempt  to be present and carry out their policy in their  usual offensive manner.”

“The Daily Record” of 26^th Sept 1908 noted:

“The decision that they  must ail sit together has been arrived at, is  scarcely necessary to say, because of the probability of a suffragette disturbance. With the women in a bunch, it is believed  that any need for ejection will be the more easier accomplished than if the ladies were dotted all over the marquee”.

T"The Southern Reporter  noted that the local motto of suffragettes was “Ask Asquith with All Your Might"

The Prime Minister’s Visit

 

The busy scene at Earlston Market Square,  on the day of Prime Minister Asquith's  Visits. 1908 

When Mr Asquith stood to speak "He got  a warm greeting.  Many of the people rose to their feet and waved hats and handkerchiefs and cheered with great cordiality".

 A Suffragette Interruption 

However Mr Asquith had only said a few words when,  at his  remark  "My primary purpose in coming here this afternoon is.........," a woman startled her neighbours by exclaiming " “Give votes to women!". 

“The interrupter was a young woman of graceful figure and pleasant features, and, having borne her testimony, she smiled and waited. She had not to wait long before she was attended to. One of the stewards quickly realised the situation. Ah., ha, here you are, are you", he seemed to say, and he made his way to the fair suffragette. She was  calm and unresisting, but with her sailor hat somewhat awry , and they a little excited and very energetic, but not severe. As far as one could judge the suffragette had no confederates beside her, for the ladies in whose all she stood appeared most surprised of all when the  demand for their civil emancipation came from their midst, and there not a flutter among them  while the furbelows that had been ruffled were re-arranged. Of course they were cruel men who shouted  "Put her out". She didn't care - she had done what she could.

The Jedburgh reporter (above) clearly found this incident far more interesting than  Mr Asquih's speech whcih he descibed as "Impassioned with no striking phrases."

“The Huntly Express” (an Aberdeenshire paper)  referred to “the stylishly-dressed young suffragette, who  within a few seconds was in the arms of a stalwart Gala steward, and was borne out amid the laughter of the audience. She appeared to be the only one of her kind who had succeeded in effecting an entrance, and the Prime Minister proceeded without further interruption”.

The “Votes for Women”, publication in London not surprisingly gave a different slant on the incident:

“In  spite of the most elaborate precautions to exclude any but ardent supporters, a woman found her way into Mr. Asquith's meeting at Earlston, and at an early stage in the proceedings protested that he ought to give votes to qualified women. She was, of course, ejected after considerable uproar, being followed by a large crowd, who were evidently more interested in the Suffragettes than in the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, a man who interrupted the speaker several times was left in undisturbed possession of his seat.”

But on a brief Saturday afternoon in October 1908

Earlston was on the national stage politically.

But the Asquith incident was not the end of suffragette activity in the village. 

"The Berwickshire News": 10th August 1909 printed the following report:

"SUFFRAGETTES—On Friday week three ladies of the Suffragette “persuasion” visited Earlston, and at the dinner hour of the factory workers addressed an open air meeting in the open space at Rhymer’s Mill. There was large attendance of the factory' workers and others who listened to the speeches of the ladies with attention. Two of them spoke of the advantages that would accrue to the country if the franchise were extended to women, who at present laboured under wrong and injustice in being denied it."

 

Women workers at Simpson & Fairbairn Mill, Earlston - early 1900's

 

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1913 saw more militant activity - this time in Kelso, when: 

"A couple of women, presumably suffragettes, had been caught red handed in an attempt to destroy by fire the new stand which had been erected in the paddock at the Racecourse.......The fire was subdued before any damage could be done and the suffragettes arrested......In the walk down to Kelso Police Station, the Ladies beguiled the time by giving lusty voice  to the suffragette song " March On."

The women  were conveyed to Jedburgh and apprehended before the  Sheriff.   A big crowd collected in the vicinity of  the court room to catch a glimpse of the daring but mischievously disposed females." 

 

The protesters  were committed to prison and taken by train to Edinburgh,  They  were found guilty as charged and sentenced to nine months imprisonment in Calton Jail, Edinburgh.  However they were liberated within a week having gone on hunger strike.  The terms of their temporary release  stated that they must return after a stipulated number of days - an instance of the infamous "cat and mouse"  policy.

 

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Postscript

But it was the role of women in the First World War, undertaking men's work  that did as much as anything to show their ability and commitment to their country. 

 

So in November 1918 the Representation of the People Act  gave the vote to some women i.e. those over the age of 30,  who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5, and graduates of British universities.   It was to be a further ten years in 1928, before women gained the vote on the same basis as men.

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Adapted from a post first published on my blog in March 2013 

 

With grateful thanks to local historian Gordon Macdonald

for his research  on this topic in his work

" Universal Suffrage - A Borders Perspective"

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs

 

 

 

Click HERE  to see how other bloggers have enjoyed the crowds.  

 

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