The Suffragettes - Our Next Event

In May 1914, a short article in the Hull Daily Mail reported that, "When the working men at noon yesterday espied Suffragettes in Riby Square, they concluded the fun was beginning, but the idea was quickly falsified. The ladies are not of the Pankhurst militant type, but are under the banner of Mrs Henry Fawcett LL.D., and they appeal to the intellect, and not to smashing windows. Up to their arrival there had been very little appeal to Grimsby's intellect and so the militant... ladies deserve our thanks. Both Mrs East and Miss Ford, who spoke yesterday, are cultured orators."

 The Mrs Fawcett mentioned was Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847-1929), pictured, the widow of the former Liberal MP for Brighton, who was a writer, supporter of proportional representation, trade unionism and free trade principles and for many years the leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, the main suffragist organisation in the country. The NUWSS were the "law-abiding suffragists" who distanced themselves from the Pankhursts and the Women's Social and Political Union. 

 Millicent was made an honorary Doctor of Laws in English by the University of St Andrew's in 1899 and was made a Dame shortly before her death. Her name is still remembered through the Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women's rights.

FOCH's first event of the year takes place on Saturday 18th April at the Memorial Hall. The Suffragettes is the theme and our speaker is Katherine Connelly, author of "Sylvia Pankhurst: Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire."