Swansea Suffragettes


In this first article, we are going back to the 6th February 1918, and the Representation of the People Act, 1918. The Act refers to the electoral system and was the first to include all men, in addition for the first time it included some women. This Act, superseded the Representation of the People Act, 1884,  which allowed only men who were paying an annual rent of £10 (£1120 today) or owning land valued at £10 to vote. This was a grand total of over 5,500,000 men.



Two terms of the Representation of the People Act, 1918, were:



All men over 21 gained the vote in the constituency where they were resident.

Women over 30 received the vote, if they were either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register, a property owner, or a graduate voting in a University constituency.



By this time the electorate had tripled from 7.7 million in 1912 to 21.4 and 43% of women voted for the first time in 1918. Also introduced for the first time was the annual electoral register. Constituencies’ boundaries were changed, as in the case of Swansea. The Swansea MP at this time was Sir Alfred Mond, the managing director of Mond Nickel Company in Clydach, where during the Second World War, the fine sintered nickel mesh, was manufactured, an element that was used in the atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima.



This article is about how women finally got the vote in 1918 so let’s start off by looking at the suffragette movement. It was nationally active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and advocated the right for the vote for women in public elections. Its members belonged to the Women’s Social and Political Union, established in 1903 in Manchester, with ‘Deeds Not Words’, as their motto. The party was led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. They are best known for their hunger strikes, breaking windows in prominent buildings, and the night time arson of unoccupied buildings and churches.



During 1906 the group started a series of demonstrations and lobbying of Parliament and for the first time the term suffragettes was penned – in the Daily Mail. Probably one of the most famous suffragettes was Emily Davison who died after being hit by King George V's horse Anmer at the Epsom Derby 1913 when she walked onto the track during the race. If anyone is interested in political debates of the time, concerning the suffragettes, they are listed on the Hansard archive.



Moving our attention to Swansea, there are four notable pioneering ladies, who were involved in the Suffrage Movement.



Firstly, Amy Dillwyn (left), the novelist, businesswoman and social benefactor, was one of the earliest members of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, although a staunch member, she rejected the militant actions. She has a blue plaque in her honour, located at her West Cross home, Ty Glyn.



Secondly, Emily Frost Phipps (right) also has a blue plaque situated at Orchard Street, honouring her for being the headmistress of the Swansea Municipal Secondary Girls School, feminist, and inspirational campaigner. It was during an anti-suffrage meeting in Swansea that Phipps joined the Women’s Freedom League in 1908 but unlike Amy Dillwyn, Phipps, and her lifelong friend Clara Neal were both militant suffragettes. If you were to look for Phipps’ entry on the 1911 census, you will have trouble, as she and other members of the group boycotted the census, and stayed overnight in a cave on the Gower Peninsula.



The 1918 General Election was the first in which women could both vote in parliamentary elections and stand as candidates, and Emily Phipps was one of the 17 women who took the opportunity to stand, becoming Independent Progressive candidate for the Chelsea constituency. All the women candidates were heavily defeated, but she retained her deposit in a straight contest (with a low turnout) with the sitting Conservative MP, Sir Samuel Hoare.



Thirdly, Winifred Coombe Tennant (left). She was an interesting lady, and the official art buyer for the Glynn Vivian. Tennant was also a Liberal politician, philanthropist and spiritualist; however, I am looking at the suffragette side. Tennant was a resident of Neath where she was the president of the Neath Women’s Suffrage Society. It was during the 1922 General Elections that Tennant stood for the Forest of Dean but sadly like Phipps, was defeated to James Wignall.

Finally, closer to home in Sketty, a Mrs Mary Macleod Cleeve, who drew attention to herself during October 1910, when she refused to pay her carriage licence, on the basis that women should not be considered for paying taxes until they had the vote. The cart was put up for sale outside the Bush Hotel, the Women’s Freedom League also held a meeting at the same time, where 300 people were in attendance. The Bush Hotel had only recently been built in 1909.



Do you have any suffragettes in your family who were active during these changing years?



Copyright – The Bay Magazine – February 2018

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