PARADES & PROCESSIONS

Suffragists and suffragettes constantly looked for ways to publicise “the Cause” as the fight for the vote was often known. In the years leading up to the First World War, long-skirted women carrying eye-catching banners and placards processed through all the major towns, attracting lots of attention. Women embroidered slogans onto their banners, such as “Votes for Women”. Other slogans included “Deeds not Words”, the WSPU motto. Banners sometimes carried images of famous women in history and the names of different women’s suffrage societies. Hastings suffragists and suffragettes organised several marches and parades. In 1910 local WSPU activists organised a women’s suffrage parade to publicise an upcoming meeting at which Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Jane Clarke, younger sister of Emmeline Pankhurst were to speak. Carrying a green flag, Elsie Bowerman and her mother led the march, which set off from the Memorial in the town centre. Activists from Bexhill and Winchelsea joined the procession, carrying banners saying “No Surrender” and “Face to the Dawn”. The procession wound its way around town and along the seafront before returning to the town centre. According to the local press, there were some jeers but most passers by were respectful and some men raised their hats.

By 1905 women’s fight for the vote was big news and it stayed that way until World War One began in 1914. As more and more women threw themselves into the fight, in 1909 the Hastings and St Leonards Observer commented humorously on how “suffragitis” was spreading in the town:

‘It is said that the attention of the Medical

Officer of Health is being called to a new virulent disease that has recently taken root in Hastings, and is being shamelessly spread far and wide throughout the town by a band of energetic and enthusiastic ladies. “Suffragitis” is the name given to the new disease, and the ladies who are responsible for its propagation in Hastings are glorying in the fact that a very large number of people have shown themselves peculiarly susceptible to its attack.’

Left: Elsie Bowerman leads local suffragettes in procession. Above: Mrs Darent Harrison and Mary Clarke follow the procession in a carriage. Hastings Pictorial Advertiser, Sept 1910 21