Iwould like to share the extraordinary story of how, based on a chance meeting some 15 years ago, my suffragette greatgrandmother was celebrated nationally in the centenary year of women first gaining the vote, 2018.
I am now 63, but as a young boy of seven or eight I would go to my grandfather’s house in the school holidays and hear him reminisce of his younger life. Grandad would tell me stories of his mother Alice and how he would often go on the suffragette marches with her in our home town of Leicester. How when holding their public meetings on a Sunday morning in the marketplace large crowds would gather and the women would be barracked by men and fights would break out by those with opposing views of women and the vote. First-hand accounts of women’s history in the making and Grandad was there.
These were very formative years for me and my mum would also tell stories of her granny Alice, remembering her as a very difficult and awkward woman to get along with who would never back down in a family argument. (And liked more than the odd glass of whisky in the evening!)