OPEN AIR MEETINGS

No matter what the weather, crowds gathered whenever suffragists and suffragettes held meetings in the open air. Standing on boxes or makeshift stages, they exhorted crowds to support their fight for votes for women. It took a great deal of courage for women to speak out in public at a time when most people believed a woman’s place was in the home, not in the public world of politics. Sometimes crowds were sympathetic but speakers often found themselves on the receiving end of rotten fruit, eggs and stones thrown by people in the crowd who disagreed with them.

Hastings seafront was a popular place for speakers, as was Wellington Square. In 1908 Christabel Pankhurst and two other suffragettes held an open-air evening meeting in Wellington Square. An angry crowd met them with “derisive laughter and cat calls” and pelted them with orange peel and eggs. Police arrived and dragged the suffragettes away, which angered the suffragettes.

“It is time that the women of England were given a voice… we demand the vote.”

Muriel Matters 1908

LOCAL FOCUS: Muriel Matters

In 1908 Muriel Matters, a member of the Women’s Freedom League (WLF) arrived in Hastings in a horse-drawn caravan to spread the word about votes for women. A well-known activist, Muriel Matters, with Lillian Hicks and Violet Tillard, held their first open-air meeting in Wellington Square. Next day they set up at the Fishmarket in Hastings Old Town. The weather was dreadful. When they took shelter, they were pelted with fish guts and heads. Muriel Matters eventually settled in Hastings. In 1924 she stood, unsuccessfully, as a Labour Party candidate. Hastings Borough Council offices are named after her.

Left: Suffrage meeting on Hastings beach. Right: Muriel Matters and other members of the WLF travelled in a horse-drawn caravan to Hastings in 1908 to spread the cause of women’s suffrage. 15