Women's Suffrage in Haslemere 1908 - 1913

With increased interest in this subject for 2018, I thought it was useful to outline what I think are the main facts on the suffrage movement in Haslemere.

In 1908 a NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffrage Society) society was formed at Haslemere.  The first secretary was Mrs Marshall of Tweenways, Hindhead.  In 1910 Miss Rees of ‘By the Way’, Hindhead took over as secretary.  “For the January 1910 election campaign the society opened a shop at The Gables, Haslemere.” (Crawford, Elizabeth, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey, Routledge, 15 April 2013).  Mrs G.F. Watts of Compton Pottery was the president of the Guildford NUWSS.

The Haslemere Museum holds a photograph of the NUWSS marching down the High Street, the main banner announcing “NUWSS Non-Militant Portsmouth Road”, behind this might be the banner  made by the St Edmundsbury Weavers announcing “Weaving Fair and Weaving Free, England’s Web of Destiny’ as mentioned in my previous post.

NUWSS march, Haslemere High Street c.1908
reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum

The 1911 census shows that Godfrey and Ethel Blount no longer lived at Foundry Cottage, where they were living in 1901, but had moved to St Cross, Weydown Road.  Foundry Cottage, Foundry Lane, in the middle of the Haslemere Peasant Industries, had as the head of the household an Ethel Leeds (aged 46), widow, living on private means.  She is recorded as living their with one of her daughters, Mary Faith Leeds (23) an artist (miniature). 

The signature for the census entry is of interest, as Ethel has a written suffrage protest in the signature: “protest” and “voteless taxpayer”.  Ethel Leeds was the widow of Reverend William Howard Leeds (grandson of Sir George William Leeds, 1^st Baronet).  Her daughter Mary Faith Leeds married Vice-Admiral Sir John Anthony Vere Morse in 1917.

Foundry Cottage, Foundry Lane, Haslemere
1911 census extract

In 1913 it was reported in various newspapers about a bomb in Haslemere:

“A BOMB ON A RAILWAY BRIDGE

At Haslemere Railway Station on Saturday evening a small box containing a clock-work arrangement and gunpowder, with fuse and electric battery, was found on the footbridge.  It has a “Votes for women” label.”(The Yorkshire Post, 21 July 1913)

It has been more recently reported that there was further protest on this bomb in a note addressed to member of the Haslemere Urban District Council “Have we your sympathy?  If not, beware!”.  (Webb, Simon, The Suffrage Bombers, Pen & Sword, 2014) The bomb did not create any damage “a porter at Haslemere Station in Surrey found a box on the stairs leading from one of the platforms.  He had the presence of mind to plunge the box into a pail of water, which was fortunate, because it was, of course, a time bomb.” (ibid.)