Tag: Suffragette

Alice Hawkins

(1863-1946)

In a nod to her prison days, the day I visit Alice she is ‘behind bars’; albeit Heras fencing as some renovation work is being done in the square.  At least that’s my substandard excuse for dodgy photo angles….

Born in 1863, Alice left school at thirteen and began working life as a shoe machinist.

From a young age, Alice saw the inequality of pay in factories drawn on gender lines.  She became involved in the trade union movement becoming president of the Leicester Independent Women’s Boot and Shoe Trade Union, fighting for fairer pay and working conditions but later became disillusioned as male rights as a family’s ‘breadwinner’ often overlooked that of women workers.

In 1907 Alice attended her first Women’s Social and Political Union meeting in London.  The Votes for Women march that followed led to Alice’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment.  In the following years she was to be arrested and jailed five times for her actions.  Shortly after Alice formed the Leicester branch speak at factory gates and in the city centre urging women of all classes and social backgrounds to support the cause.

The statue of Alice sits in Leicester Market Square at the site where she often gave her speeches The 2018 unveiling coincided with the centenary of initial voting rights for some women.

Emily Wilding Davison

(1872 – 1913)

Emily Wilding Davison was a suffragette whose efforts for women’s right to vote made her one of the most prominent figures in the movement.  Joining the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906 she became an officer and a chief steward during marches.  Three years later she gave up her job as a teacher and went to work full-time for the suffragette cause.  In this time, she was arrested nine times, went on hunger strike seven times and was force-fed on forty-nine occasions.  An ardent campaigner, her tactics included breaking windows, throwing stones, setting fire to post-boxes, planting bombs and hiding overnight in the Houses of Parliament – including on the night of the 1911 Census, making her address, ‘The House of Commons’ therefore affording the same voting rights as men.  She died after being hit by King George V’s horse at the 1913 Derby when she walked onto the track during the race.  Mystery still surrounds the circumstances.  She gave no prior explanation for what she planned to do at the Derby with historians noting she had bought a return train ticket.  Theories include the suggestion she was attempting to pin a suffragette flag to the king’s horse.

The statue in Epsom sets out the dates for emancipation:

1918 – property owning women over the age of 30
1928 – all women over the age of 21
1968 – all women over the age of 18

Both statues have her seated (and Ray Lonsdale’s depiction is a favourite of mine) but given her history it is hard to imagine her being that sedentary.  Still, the detail in both depictions are worthy of a visit.