Though the origins of Parliament date back to the thirteenth century, even five centuries later MPs were elected by a very small percentage of the population – namely men who owned substantial property. Plus the system was notoriously corrupt and bribery was common. In the nineteenth century the calls for more far reaching suffrage became louder and more consolidated.
Although women’s suffrage was supported by many and various organisations, there were two which had it as its main focus. In 1867 the London National Society for Women's Suffrage formed. Millicent Fawcett became a member of its executive committee, aged just 19. Florence Balgarnie moved to London to become Secretary in 1885. Other regional women’s suffrage societies followed and these were brought together by Mrs Fawcett into the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (the NUWSS) in 1897. The NUWSS sought to achieve its aims by constitutional means, by lobbying politicians sympathetic to their aims, seeking to encourage the Liberal and Labour parties to adopt candidates supportive of women’s votes, and backing parliamentary bills to that end.
The Women’s Social and Political Union (the WSPU) was founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst at her home in Manchester. Its membership was women-only, and spurred on by the failure to make progress by constitutional means, the group turned to direct action, civil disobedience and a campaign of bombing, window-smashing and arson attacks on prominent buildings and at the homes of leading politicians.
In common with many towns around the country, people within Scarborough were debating the subject of suffrage before the turn of the twentieth century.
On Saturday, October 11th 1873, the York Herald reported on a meeting to discuss women’s suffrage the previous evening at Scarborough Town Hall. William Rowntree chaired and the meeting was addressed by Miss Rocker of Manchester and Mrs Lucas (sister of John Bright MP). Both ‘urged the claims of women to be relieved of electoral disabilities.’
In 1877, The York Herald carried a report on April 9th previewing a meeting at the Old Town Hall for the purpose of adopting a resolution to extend suffrage to female householders. Miss Becker [Secretary of the Manchester Society for Women’s Suffrage] was scheduled to speak and the meeting was supported by the mayor and a ‘long list of gentlemen of every shade of political opinion.’
So it was into fertile ground that Adela Pankhurst stepped in 1908. She was the youngest daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and Northern organiser for the WSPU. What brought her to Scarborough was the visit of Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary for the Liberal government. He was to speak to the Liberal Association at the Londesborough Theatre on Westborough. Although many Liberal MPs (including Walter Rea, the local one) were supportive of women’s suffrage, the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, was a known detractor. The meeting in Scarborough was an opportunity for the WSPU – with its slogan ‘Deeds Not Words’ – to amplify its message and make a media splash.
Which indeed it did. Adela’s very public gatherings and thwarted attempts to disrupt Sir Edward Grey’s meeting were reported in the national and regional press. It was also surely one of the prompts for the establishment of NUWSS and WSPU branches in the town (see ‘‛Votes for Women’: Adela Pankhurst and the Scarborough Campaign’ by Gillian Sleightholme, Transactions Number 41: 2008, Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society.)
Both the NUWSS and WSPU branches were active in Scarborough from 1908 onwards. The WSPU had a shop initially in Huntriss Row and then on St Nicholas Cliff, partly to make known its aims, partly to fundraise. Its members – the suffragettes – became known for direct action (particularly damage against property) and some were imprisoned for it. At least one local member, Dr Marion Mackenzie, was arrested for being part of a deputation to Westminster on Friday November 18 1910. In 1913, it seems some Scarborough suffragettes may have joined in with the ‘Pillar Box Outrages’ campaign, with red fluid thrown into a post box on Huntriss Row (The Suffragette, Friday 3 January 1913, page 177.)
Women over the age of 30 who were householders gained the vote by an Act of Parliament in 1918. A further law gave all women the vote in 1928.
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In 2024, the Civic Society installed a blue plaque to the Scarborough suffragettes, see photo below, and will also put one on 71 Westborough, near the birthplace of the leading suffragist, Florence Balgarnie.
Florence Balgarnie was born in Scarborough in 1856, the daughter of the popular Reverend Robert Balgarnie. While living in Scarborough, she became the secretary of the town’s University Extension Scheme, which provided accessible lectures to the community, and in 1883 won an election to the Scarborough School Board, the first woman to do so, serving for two years.
Her experience in organising and public speaking developed further as she moved to London to become the Secretary of the Central National Society for Women’s Suffrage, where she lectured and lobbied politicians to support women’s right to vote. She attended women’s rights conferences in Paris and Washington D.C. and became known as one of the best women speakers of her day.
She was involved in politics all her life. As a member of the Women’s Liberal Federation, she pushed her party to support women’s rights. In the East End of London, she helped organise working women’s trade unions, and with the British Women’s Temperance Association she campaigned against the alcohol trade. Of great importance to her, also, were her campaigns in Britain for the appointment of women factory inspectors and for female police matrons, where she influenced the Home Secretary to appoint women to be responsible for the welfare of women in police cells. As a journalist and lecturer, she shared her knowledge and experience of policing standards, alcohol laws, and women’s rights in the many countries she visited to persuade Britain to change its policies.
She was involved in international campaigning too. Inspired by Ida B Wells’ movement against the lynching of African Americans, she helped form the British Anti-Lynching Committee. Championing African-American rights made her unpopular in much of the British and American press. In 1903 she was the only European elected to the Indian National Congress in Madras, telling the delegates that ‘you may trust me to raise my voice on behalf of India’. At home, she was involved in the peace movement, and was an implacable opponent of the British Empire’s actions in the Boer War.
She died in Florence in 1928, aged 72, while travelling in Italy.
Scarborough writer, Kate Evans, at the unveiling of a Civic Society blue plaque on St Nicholas Cliff, 8th March 2024.
