She had no choice but to open it. She carried it into the sitting room and sat down.
Without thinking any further, she tore it open and removed the letter. ‘Dear Mrs Barwise. You are receiving this letter as a person convicted of crimes committed in the name of suffragism. Owing to the suspension of militant tactics by the WSPU, among several other organisations, the Home Office is granting amnesty to all suffrage prisoners. This amnesty will take immediate effect.’
Grace set the letter to one side, unsure of the implications. There was some relief, she supposed, at being freed from her crimes, but they were crimes that she had committed because of her beliefs; beliefs which she still vehemently held. She was angry, that was how she felt. War had come, a patronising pardon had been granted but nothing had changed. Universal suffrage was as far away today as it had been the day that she joined the WSPU.
She stood up, suddenly filled with energy, and marched to the bottom of the stairs. ‘Minnie!’ she called. ‘Minnie! We’re going out! Come down here and get your shoes on.’
Minnie, her two-year-old daughter, appeared at the top of the stairs with a sulky frown on her face. ‘Where we going?’
‘To the station,’ Grace replied. ‘Come on.’
Minnie beamed widely. ‘On a train!’
‘Well no, not quite. We’re going to see the stationmaster. At least two of the guards have gone off to fight in the last few days and they’ll be in need of some help.’
Minnie looked at Grace, bewildered.
‘We’ll show them that we’re as good as they are,’ Grace said to herself. ‘Better, even.’
She took Minnie by the hand and led her outside into the hot late-summer sunshine.
‘Deeds not words,’ she said to Minnie with a wry smile.
Historical Information
Much of the source material, records and archives, and indeed some of the people featured in this short story are real. All of the records that Morton uses in his research are genuine, but with (mostly) fictitious content.
Minnie Turner was a well-known member of the Brighton WSPU. She lived at Sea View, 13-14 Victoria Road in Brighton, a house which was used by suffragettes recovering from stints in prison and also as holiday accommodation. In the 1911 census, she gave very little information about herself and the enumerator was forced to write ‘Miss Turner and probably 11 others. Further information refused’ on her entry. She was a militant suffragette and was sent to prison for four months for throwing a brick through a window at the Home Office. The information that Morton finds on her at The Keep is all real, with the exception of the letter confirming the destruction of Linden Grove.
As happened in many towns and cities, women were arrested for making speeches which incited violence. Arrests were also made in Brighton and elsewhere when pillar boxes full of post were targeted by the suffragettes. Protestations at Downing Street occurred on several occasions, including on 22nd February 1911. I have reproduced, almost word for word, the accounts of both the police and suffragettes in this story. The newspaper report is recounted virtually verbatim from an incident which took place there on 22nd November 1910, when Miss Henrietta Williams was arrested for hitting the Prime Minister and smashing a window in his car, as he tried to escape.
Grace’s petition to the Governor of Holloway at not being placed in the first division was an amalgamation of several such documents held at The National Archives, most notably that of Sarah Carwin who had been arrested for causing damage to property and obstructing police.
The report by the Governor of Holloway, Mr James Scott on the conditions of the prison cells is also based on fact. Scott wrote the report following the complaints of several suffragettes about the conditions of the cells. H.M. Inspector of Factories investigated the claims, finding that ‘It is probable that any sense of oppression or discomfort felt in these cells is of psychological origin…’
From 1909 many suffragette prisoners began to go on hunger strike, leading the authorities to force-feed them. The records of such incidents as presented in this story are sadly true and documented at The National Archives. In April 1913 the Government introduced ‘The Cat and Mouse Act’, whereby women, who became dangerously ill through hunger-strike, were released from prison then rearrested when sufficiently recovered. The women of the WSPU, who served prison sentences, received a portcullis brooch as a recognition of their action.
The reports of the anti-suffrage movement in Brighton are also based in fact. The 25th November 1911 edition of The Brighton Herald reported that Mrs Humphrey Ward had delivered a speech to the Brighton Branch of the National League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage. It was held in the Brighton Pavilion and chaired by Sir Theodore Angier. Most of Mrs Francis Wild’s speech in this story can be attributed to Mrs Humphrey Ward.
The Militant Suffragette file held at The Keep and the women (with the exception of Grace Emmerson) mentioned in the document are all real.
Linden Grove is a fictitious location, but one which I based on a house in Hastings, called Levetleigh. It was owned by the local MP, Arthur du Cros, a man who was against women’s suffrage. On 15th April 1913 the house was burnt down and, although nobody was arrested for the arson attack, material found at the property led the police to point the finger of blame at local suffragettes.
Until the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 was enacted, women would, upon marriage, become one person with their husband under the law. Any property owned by the woman automatically passed to her husband. One such case, which inspired this storyline, was that of the large country estate, Knole in Sevenoaks, Kent. The house had been in
