I visited an exhibition at Westbury Manor Museum to learn more about the campaign for women’s suffrage a century ago.
The exhibition was set up by a volunteer local history researcher at Westbury Manor Museum. The local researcher approached the museum earlier in the year to ask if the centenary was being commemorated, offering to undertake research and subsequently setting up an exhibition on Fareham’s role in the campaign for women’s suffrage.
She discovered unexpected local angles, with:
- Fareham-born MP Sir William Randal Cremer being firmly against suffrage;
- Fareham-born Mark Melford a Suffragist poet, and his militant Suffragette daughter Jackeydawra also involved in the movement and;
- Fareham-born George Yarker de Laybourne working as a 'bouncer' at meetings in London for Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the Suffragette movement.
During my visit, I was shown around the exhibition by the local researcher and talked about the role of local men and women in the build up to partial women’s suffrage in 1918.
With 2018 being the centenary, it’s great that we have many women taking active roles in local and national politics in our area. This is also an opportunity to look at how we can do more and encourage more women to come forward and become our representatives. I would like to thank everyone involved for coordinating the exhibition and talking me through some fascinating aspects of our local history.
The coordinator of the exhibition said "It was great talking to Suella about the significance of Women's Suffrage Centenary for democracy today and how important it is that everyone uses their democratic right to vote in elections, especially younger people. The Suffragettes and Suffragists who fought for the voting rights we take for granted today, risked their jobs, families and sometimes their lives for what they believed in, and to this day we all benefit. ‘Celebrating their achievements is also a time for reflection to encourage more diverse voices to be represented in the political landscape, considering only 35% of Fareham councillors are women.
"It would be great if there was a celebratory event in Fareham on 14 December 2018, don’t just celebrate when a male parliament decided to ‘give’ women the vote, we should celebrate when women actually voted, on 14 December 1918, that is the key celebration in this centenary year of suffrage."