From Warwick University to the Isle of Wight: My ‘Votes for Women’ Journey
- Mapping Women's Suffrage
- Oct 16
- 7 min read
Becca Aspden
This introductory blog outlines my main research on women’s suffrage on the Isle of Wight for the Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS) run by the University of Warwick over summer break and supervised by Dr Tara Morton. My goal for this project was to combine my passion for understand the history of my local area and interest in women’s suffrage. In the end my research journey also included women in Bristol and London all of whom are now shared on the Mapping Women’s Suffrage project map and about whom a series of mini blogs will follow here in the coming weeks.
The Isle of Wight followed the national trend by seeing a revival in the long running fight for female suffrage in the early twentieth century because of the headline grabbing activities of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) suffragettes. It developed a vibrant suffrage movement that was closely connected to the Island's elite political and social networks. The Isle of Wight also reflected the national trend because it was predominantly suffragist (i.e. dominated by law abiding societies and members) with multiple branches of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and Church League for Women’s Suffrage (CLWS) on the Island - although the WSPU did campaign and try to get momentum going on the Island too. Through my summer work on the URSS project, I was able to uncover and map a few of the individuals who played a pivotal role in the Island movement.
For example, Margaret Cooke moved to the Island after the death of her husband in 1903. She was active in the suffrage movement before relocating, being a member of the NUWSS executive board and publishing her own book entitled 'Women's Suffrage'. The most exciting part of researching Margaret was discovering where she lived. Bellecroft house was owned by her parents, and she was recorded as visiting there in 1901 during a census period. The Grade II listed building is on Staplers Road, one of the main roads leading to Newport from East side of the Island. I have driven past it often, and it has always caught my eye because it stands out from the buildings surrounding it. Knowing now that it is a rich heritage site for suffrage activity, such as holding the first general meeting for the Newport NUWSS branch there, has changed a usually mundane drive into a much more fascinating one.
Margaret was the president of Newport Women's Liberal Association (NWLA) and would speak at Liberal meetings across the Island. Her political activity continued right until the end of her life, and Margaret was responsible for setting up the Newport Branch of the NUWSS just weeks before her passing. While President of the NLWA Margaret spoke at a meeting alongside Lady Eva Baring, who was the wife of the Liberal MP for the Island during 1905-11. Both women vocalised their beliefs were suffragist - they were in favour of votes for women - but condemned the militant tactics which would later include arson and bombings pursued by the suffragettes.
Eva became president of the Cowes Women's Liberal Association while living at Nubia house, a now demolished stately home in Cowes. She would chair multiple well-attended meetings on women's suffrage across the Island as well as in Portsmouth. These meeting would take place under both the banner of the Liberal Association and the NUWSS. Eva was awarded an M.B.E. in 1919 for her work as the commandant of Northwood Auxiliary Hospital during World War I.
It wasn't just the Liberal association or women that facilitated the suffrage movement on the Isle of Wight. John Marsh, a Solicitor and long-term member (later President) of the Shanklin Conservative Association, was also the Chairman of the Shanklin CLWS branch.
John moved to the Island in 1879, working within Shanklin council and other local government positions for the rest of his life. In local meetings, he spoke about his belief in female suffrage from the very beginning of his local political work. He was not isolated in his beliefs. At home, his daughter Margaret was the Honorary Secretary of the Shanklin CLWS branch and perhaps having a daughter and thinking of her future encouraged him to support the movement.
John spoke at a plethora of meetings across the Island, even apologising to a crowd at a Sandown Town Hall because he was sure they all already knew what he thought of women's suffrage! John also travelled to the Houses of Parliament in 1912 with a group of other Island suffrage campaigners to question the then MP for the Island, Douglas Hall, on including votes for women in forthcoming legislation.
Another campaigner who travelled with John was Viscountess Eleanor Gort. Eleanor lived at East Cowes Castle (now demolished) which was a Christmas gift from her father-in-law. Eleanor opened her home on the Island for suffrage meetings, and in her marriage announcement to her second husband, the couple's pro-suffrage views were specifically highlighted.
These four were among many who attended, organised, and encouraged the Island suffrage movement. When researching for the project, I relied heavily on newspaper clippings as there were no official Island women’s suffrage records that I could find – yet at any rate! Consequently, my research was limited and only highlights the leaders of the Island suffrage movement, who were mostly middle-upper-class socialites following the national trend of those most well known in suffrage leadership. Nonetheless, every record of a meeting in local newspapers notes the sizeable attendance of ‘ordinary’ locals, if only the most notable in Island society were mentioned by name. Meetings were held in Ryde, Newport, Shanklin and elsewhere on the Island. This means there is plenty of opportunity to research further and find out more about the lives and activities of these yet unidentified women and men and the demographics of who participated in the Island's movement outside the leadership.
Another Challenge of the aristocratic nature of women's suffrage leadership on the Isle of Wight is the fluid nature of the Island’s population. The Isle of Wight grew into the tourist destination it has now become in the Victorian period, with Queen Victoria building her summer home, Osbourne House, in East Cowes. It was her travels between her other homes, palaces, and Osbourne House in the summer, that created the foundation for the transitional nature of the Island's population which remains in place today.
Most of the individuals living in the Isle of Wight had a second home usually in London, following the trend of not staying on the Island permanently. Some even had more than two homes in other areas of the country. By having a house in London, they were closer to the heart of royal and political society and the centre of the suffrage movement. For Eva Baring and her family, a connection to London was crucial for Godfrey's work in parliament. However, Nubia House in Cowes was the family home. The movement between homes meant that Eva and Eleanor Gort were both recorded on the census in their London homes rather than on their ‘home’ on the Island.
However, the decision was made to plot them at their Island addresses to highlight the amount and importance of their work there during other times of the year as it was at these Island homes that they seemed to have much more political agency, getting openly involved in public suffrage campaigning, and impacting directly on their local community through meetings and talks where they were very well known.
Reports about these high society individuals in local newspapers gives insight through attendance of their meetings that there was a growing and significant movement on the Island. At a leadership level, local suffrage relied on social connections with the aristocracy and the political elite through associations with political parties and MPs on the Island. That the Island’s suffrage movement remained almost entirely suffragist reflects the more conservative political associations its suffrage leaders had with Liberal and Conservative party clubs on the Island they also participated in.
The Island suffrage movement’s fundamental links with London, connected it to the heart of the aristocratic and political establishment as well as to the location at the ‘storm centre’ of suffrage movement. Individuals like Margaret Cooke developed their political and suffrage beliefs in London but used them to great effect to build the Island movement. Women’s travelling back and forth between London and the Island undoubtedly led to an important exchange of ideas in the fight for female suffrage. I could not explore fully explore these interconnections during the short time frame of my project, but it is and was a vital part of political life on the Island, past and present, which has yet to be fully investigated.
My research highlights an important part of Island history which has been neglected. Hence, I presented it to a group of local History A-Level students at Lift Ryde Sixth Form and received lots of feedback from the students. They all commented that they had no idea about this part of Island history and had always assumed that the women’s suffrage or ‘Votes for Women’ movement didn’t exist on the Island. Through my work on Mapping Women’s Suffrage as part of the URSS project I was able to show them that women were politically active for the vote on the Island and that its place history goes beyond the usual tourist sites of Osbourne House and Carisbrooke Castle, but into the homes of women on the Island, and that has truly been the most rewarding part.
I am proud that through my work for this project, this information is now on the map and accessible to so many more people on the Island (and beyond) who can explore this moment in history and the key individuals who contributed who have been hidden away until now.
About the Author
Becca Aspden is an undergraduate Warwick history student and URSS researcher. Originally from the Isle of Wight, she has a strong passion for local history and heritage. She has written multiple exhibition pieces for the IW Steam Railway as a conservation volunteer. She became interested in women's suffrage through her degree and is continuing her research on the Island's suffrage movement and other local history projects
Bibliography
Adair, John Eric, The Royal Palaces of Britain (London: Random House Value Publishing, 1981).
Crawford, Elizabeth, The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928. (London, UCL Press, 1999)
Donovan, Stephen, & Matthew Rubery, Secret Commissions: An Anthology of Victorian Investigative Journalism (US: Peterborough, Ontario, Broadview Press, 2012).
Liddington, Jill, Vanishing for the Vote: Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the Census (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014)
Mosley, Charles, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage: Clan Chiefs, Scottish Feudal Barons (Stokesley, Burke’s Peerage & Gentry, 2003)
Beauclerk, Peter, Burke’s Landed Gentry of Great Britain (London: Routledge, 2001).
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