THE PILGRIMS MARCH

Portsmouth to London

On Thursday, July 17th, 1913, we find ourselves in Portsmouth on the South Coast of England, stepping back in time to over a century ago. Forty-year-old Harriet Blessley has set off from the home she shared with her brother Frederick, at 2 Southsea Terrace, wearing a sash, a cockade on her hat and pushing her bike. She was “conspicuously” making her way to the Town Hall square to join her fellow pilgrims on the Suffrage march to London.

Supporters of the Suffrage movement from across England and Wales were gathering together to undertake a march by road to Hyde Park in London united in their demand for equal voting rights for women. The pilgrims wore the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) colours of red, white and green, sashes, badges and with raffia cockles on their hats. They were to carry colourful flags and banners depicting their towns or group identities such as the Women’s Labour League, the Women’s Freedom League and the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage.

There were six main marching routes that led to London; the Kentish pilgrims’ way, the Great North, Watling Street, West Country, Bournemouth and Portsmouth Road. By 26th July 1913, an impressive gathering of 50,000 suffragists and their supporters had journeyed to London’s Hyde Park, where they participated in a large rally featuring 78 speakers, including their leader Millicent Fawcett. At 6pm they voted at each of the 19 platforms and passed the motion

“That this meeting demands a Government measure for the enfranchisement of women”

We know about Harriet Blessley’s involvement in this historic event as her daughter generously deposited her written account of the Pilgrimage, along with several photographs, to the Portsmouth History Centre. This valuable collection serves as the foundation for this project and exhibition. Please see Edition No.2 of this newspaper series to read the entire transcript of Harriet’s diary.

If you’re interested in learning more about the march take a look at Hearts And Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote 2018 by Jane Robinson

SUFFRAGE

Suffragists or Suffragettes?

SIR, - You quite properly head the report of the Women’s Suffrage Pilgrimage, “Suffragist March on London,” but presently you improperly and erroneously write of the ladies taking part in the Pilgrimage as Suffragettes; and you write of their sashes - red, white and green - the suffragette colours.

Now, the Suffragette colours are green, white, and purple; the badge of the Women’s Social and Political Union. The word “Suffragette,” was invented to connote such female advocates of Votes for Women as adopt (what are called) militant methods - ie, members of the WSPU, or of the Women’s Freedom League a body smaller even that the WSPU.

The man in the street thinks that every woman asking for votes for her sex has in her pocket a hammer wherewith to break his windows : He confuses the law-abiding Suffragist with the “militant” Suffragette. And you newspaper writers with your slovenly syntax encourage this confusion. - I am, yours, 

LEWIS THOMPSON

1st August 1913 - The Common Cause

The word suffrage means; the right to vote in political elections. People who were campaigning for equal suffrage were called Suffragists. 

In 1906, Charles Hand, a reporter for the Daily Mail, coined the term “Suffragette” to refer to women associated with the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). This term was derived from the word “suffragist” and was intended to belittle those women fighting for the right to vote. By framing it in this way, it implied a sense of diminutiveness, mocking those advocates for enfranchisement by suggesting they were small, cute, or inferior. The women, however, took the word and transformed its meaning, reinforcing the term ‘get’ as in to “get” the vote, and proudly naming their own newspaper “The Suffragette.”

“We have all heard of the girl who asked what was the difference between a Suffragist and a Suffragette, as she pronounced it, and the answer made to her that the “Suffragist jist wants the vote, while the Suffragette means to get it.”

1st May 1914 - The Suffragette

The media’s portrayal of the Suffrage movement from the early 1900s, and even in contemporary discussions, largely reflects a perspective, such as Charles Hand’s, that tends to frame Suffragettes as disorderly. We connect the colours purple, white, and green with acts of vandalism, window smashing, arson targeting postboxes, and the planting of explosives. Women were forcibly arrested in the streets, chaining themselves to railings and facing imprisonment for their actions, enduring violent force-feeding in the process. We honour Emily Wilding Davison as a true heroine of the movement, who tragically lost her life beneath the King’s horse.

At the helm of the Suffragette movement was the Pankhurst family with Emmeline as the leader of the militant WSPU which was established in 1903 with up to 5000 members. This is the narrative often portrayed in the media and adapted into films. Yet, there were numerous other organisations contributing to the fight for the right to vote.

Portsmouth had its own share of Suffragettes; the most notorious of whom was Charlotte Marsh. She came to the city in the summer of 1910 to run the election campaign. She notably boycotted the national census of 1911. 

The Women’s Freedom League had asked women to boycott the census as “if they were to be treated as citizens then they would not take part in the census”. Sarah Whetton of 64 Devonshire Avenue, Southsea, and the organising secretary of the Portsmouth branch held a meeting at 6 Clarence View, to make final arrangements. 

In The Vote, on 1st January 1911, it was recorded that “A room has been secured in which the evaders can spend the night, and one of our members has promised to lend a motor car.” 

On the 10th February 1911 the Portsmouth Evening News reported that “On April 2nd Women Suffragists would have a special business to perform. It was the work of passive resistance actively carried out. That they were going to refuse information in regard to the census. Instead they proposed to write across their census papers,

“No votes for women, no information from women.”

If they were not citizens they were not going to be counted like a lot of cattle.”

On the night of the census Charlotte Marsh made herself absent, with the enumerator noting on the form - “This person spent the night at St. James’ Hall, Landport and returned to 4 Pelham Road the next day (absolutely refused to fill up paper)”

Women from across the suffrage movement who did not want to break the law also took part by marking the form in some way. One of the organisers of the NUWSS Great Pilgrimage to London, Miss Alice Jones, was living with her father at 170 Bath Road, Southsea. Her occupation was listed as “Suffragist” which is notably written in a different ink and handwriting to the rest of the form which had likely been filled in by the “Head of the household” her Father, with Alice adding her objections after.

Norah and Margaret O’Shea from Cosham completed the form but added “We have filled in this paper under protest because Women cannot vote for Members of Parliament.”