CORPS STRENGTH

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY HONOURS TOWN’S QUI VIVE CORPS

International Women’s Day was celebrated on Wednesday 8 March. In Horsham, women waved placards reading ‘Secure your vote!’ as they honoured the work of the town’s Qui Vive Corps, who met and campaigned for women’s right to vote at No.60 West Street, a unit now used as part of Cotswold Outdoor.

March’s event was organised by the Horsham Labour Party, with support from the Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), and Amnesty.

Time to clean the gutters?

As we didn’t know much about the Qui Vive Corps in the vast, spiralling ivory towers of AAH headquarters, we asked our friend and local historian Jeremy Knight for his help...

Marching On Town

The Qui Vive Corps depot opened on the second floor of 60 West Street in 1913. The suffragette movement was gathering force by this time (Emily Wilding-Davison threw herself under the King’s horse during the Derby on 4 June 1913) but it wouldn’t be until 1918 that women were allowed to vote, and even then it was only women over 30 who met certain conditions.

Originally called the Marchers’ Qui Vive Corps, the organisation was founded in 1912 by Mrs Florence De Fonblanque, following on from the Woman’s March in 1912. The march, from Edinburgh to London, saw six women complete it and at least two became founding members of the Corps. The only notice that still exists about the Corps is a flyer in the collection of Horsham Museum.

The aim was to provide an umbrella-type organisation that all women suffrage groups could join. At a moment’s notice, the women could be ‘mobilised’, offering its services impartially whenever women were required to achieve a specific purpose. Although not military, it was organised on military lines.

According to Elizabeth Crawford’s 1999 book The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928, this was partly to show the men that the women of England were capable of organisation, discipline and comradeship, though they did swear not to enter into any militant action whilst wearing the uniform of brown with green cockade and badge.

Reading material about the group read: ‘Feeling that the present crisis in the Cause of the Emancipation of Women demands every effort that can be made, the Marchers’ Qui Vive Corps have opened the above premises as a centre of activity for propaganda in the Suffrage Cause. The shop will be open to visitors on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 10.30am and more frequently when arrangements can be made for doing so. One room has been set apart for small meetings, debates, discussions etc, of which due notice will be given.’

‘A Speakers’ Class is also shortly to be formed, and it is hoped that all interested in this work will make these opportunities known among friends, and give this enterprise every support. On Saturday afternoons the Corps will rally at the Depot and a march will be made on some outlying district, where a meeting will be held. Longer marches will be made periodically on Brighton, Shoreham, Worthing, Hastings, Eastbourne and to the West of England, as circumstances permit.’

‘A stock of literature will be kept on sale at the shop, including all the weekly publications of the several Suffrage Societies, and tea will be provided at moderate charges. Fancy articles, jam, cakes, sweets etc for sale at the shop will be gratefully accepted, and proceeds to the up-keep of the depot. Members of all suffrage societies are invited to join the Corps; but while engaged on active service for the Qui Vive must pledge themselves to be non-militant. All women who love their race and would preserve the honour of their Empire, come and learn the truth of Women and Sweated Labour, Women and the White Slave Traffic, Women under the Law, and the Wasted Lives of Children. All visitors and enquirers cordially welcomed at the Depot.’

CRISES? WHAT CRISES?

So, what were the ‘crises’ mentioned at the start of the poster? Although there had been some movement by 1908 on granting women the vote, the Liberals, who were broadly pro-suffrage, were led by Herbert Henry Asquith, who hated the thought of it, whilst the Tories were led by Arthur Balfour and then Andrew Bonar Law, who were mildly in favour, but whose followers opposed the idea. This led to political stalemate.

In the 1910 General Election, there were three suffrage candidates but they only received 696 votes in total, though a 280,000 petition was signed supporting it.

By March 1912, things had spiralled out of control with attacks on private property and a rampage in Knightsbridge. The following February, Christabel Pankhurst, one of the key pro-suffrage organisers, and her followers smashed the orchid house at Kew, set railway

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carriages alight and bombed the house of David Lloyd George, the Chancellor. Two months later, the Government would pass the bill that allowed hunger-strikers to be released on health grounds only to be re-arrested if they didn’t pledge future ‘good behaviour.’

Literary Club

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On 12 September 1914, The West Sussex County Times carried a letter by L. J Churchman, saying that the committee of the Horsham Suffrage Society and the Women’s Social and The Horsham Women’s Social and Literary Club have met, considered and endorsed the suggestion given by Miss Kensett to preserve and bottle fruit that would then be distributed to those that needed it in the winter months. Everyone was doing their bit during the war.

At the AGM of the Literary Society, held in May the following year, it was reported that ‘the club had had its vitality quickened and had turned its attention to fundraising with whist drives and entertainment while making some 700lbs of jam to distribute among the needy of Horsham.’ The Suffrage Society offered its rooms at 60 West Street as a depot to collect and receive fruit, jars and sugar.

By now though, many women were playing a much more active role, entering the workforce in the war, and the suffragettes had scaled down. By 1918, the first woman had been elected as a Member of Parliament. It wasn’t until the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 though that women had the same voting rights as men.

WORDS: Jeremy Knight (Editing by AAH Magazine)

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