The suffragette's blew up letterboxes as part of their campaign to gain the right to vote. When researching into their letterbox blow ups I stumbled across Viscountess Rhondda who I instantly became in love with. Firstly her mother was a suffragette and 'prayed passionately that her daughter would become a feminist', I mean, with a mother like that surely her daughter would become a feminist! At the age of 25 she joined the WSPU in Newport as secretary and attended a lot of the WSPU meetings across South Wales. In 1913 she attempted to destroy a letterbox with a chemical bomb and was sent to prison for one month however she was released after 5 days due to going on a hunger strike.
After her father's death she attempted to take her fathers seat in the House of Lords (as she was an only child) citing the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919. She was supported by Lord Astor (Nancy Astor's husband) in her plight however never made it to the House of Lords and women were only admitted in 1958 (!) less than a month after her death. She was a pretty impressive woman, succeeding to her father as the chair of his company and then founding the feminist magazine Time and Tide.
Anyway onto the sewing.
Comments