When we think of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, the name Emmeline Pankhurst, and events like the protests at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London often come to mind.
Lesser known is the equally vital roles that Scotland’s daring campaigners played in the fight for the vote.
Find out about the diverse campaigning of five women’s suffrage activists who were born and/or active in Scotland.
Kier Hardie with suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst. They are addressing a women’s suffrage demonstration held in Trafalgar Square in London during 1910. © National Museum of Labour History. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
Sarah Siddons Mair
Sarah Siddons Mair stood out in Scotland’s capital for her work in women’s organisations. At only nineteen-years-old, Mair founded the Edinburgh Essay Society which quickly became the Ladies’ Edinburgh Debating Society.
At the time, women’s suffrage was an emerging issue. And when the society first debated a motion about it in 1866, the motion was defeated. However, Edinburgh’s women soon began to discuss suffrage more favourably.
Mair’s work extended beyond the society; in 1906 she became president of the Edinburgh National Society for Women’s Suffrage (ENSWS) – one of the first three suffrage societies to be established in the UK!
Later, she served as president of the Scottish Federation of Women’s Suffrage and chaired debates between suffragists and suffragettes about tactics.
In 2016, we installed a commemorative plaque at 29 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh, to honour Sarah Siddons Mair’s legacy. She was born in this house on 22 September 1846.
Suffragists pursued the vote through constitutional measures such as peaceful protests, petitions, and lobbying MPs to raise the issue in the House of Commons. Suffragettes used more militant tactics such as smashing windows, disrupting the postal service, and burning public buildings.
Louisa Stevenson
A frequent face at the monthly meetings of the Ladies’ Edinburgh Debating Society was Louisa Stevenson.
Having moved to Edinburgh from Glasgow, where she was born, Stevenson was an early suffragist. She was also one of the founding members of the ENSWS.
When a new government came to power in 1906, Stevenson represented the ENSWS as part of a deputation of women’s organisations that met with Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman. However, the government failed to deliver on women’s suffrage at this time and, sadly, Stevenson died ten years before the vote was first extended to some women in 1918.
Commemorative plaque for Louisa Stevenson, 1835-1908 and Christian Guthrie Wright, 1844-1907. Campaigners for women’s education and founders of Queen Margaret University.
Cicily Fairfield AKA Rebecca West
Edinburgh was also where author and journalist Rebecca West developed her writing skills whilst at school.
Although she is best known for her reports on the Nuremberg Trials, her other writings often had a feminist flair! West was only fifteen when she first engaged with the issue of women’s suffrage. She joined Edinburgh’s Votes for Women Club and her early novel, The Sentinel, revealed her support for the suffragettes.
By 1913, she began to incorporate women’s suffrage into her shorter works and published an essay on Emily Davidson. One of her best pieces was her 1933 biographical essay about Emmeline Pankhurst. The essay showcased West’s admiration of the leader even though she criticised the uncompromising nature of Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).
© The City of Edinburgh Museums and Galleries. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
Ethel Moorhead
Unlike Mair, Stevenson, and West, Ethel Moorhead (AKA Edith Johnston, Mary Humphreys, and Margaret Morrison!) had a reputation to be one of the most militant suffragettes in Scotland.
In this 1912 photograph Dundee suffragettes are shown “peacefully” promoting their cause. © Dundee Central Library. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
Moorhead arrived in Dundee in 1900 and between 1912 and 1913. She was arrested numerous times, under different aliases, for her protests across Scotland. In Stirling, she was arrested for smashing a glass case at the Wallace Monument. She was arrested for throwing cayenne pepper in a police constable’s eye in Fife. In Edinburgh, she was arrested for assault. In Aberdeen, she was arrested for breaking the window of a motor car; and in Glasgow, she was arrested for house breaking and attempted fire-raising.
Moorhead’s protests didn’t end with her arrests; in Fife, she smashed the windows of her police cell.
In Edinburgh, she submitted a Bill of Suspension to have her case reviewed; and in 1913, she went on a hunger strike which led to her early release from prison.
The Bill of Suspension is dated 27 December 1912. It was served on Charles Angus Macpherson, Procurator Fiscal, by Ethel Moorhead. In November 1912 Ethel Moorhead had been found guilty by the Judge of Police at the Edinburgh City Police Court. She had allegedly assaulted a Mr Peter Ross and threatening him with a whip. Ethel Moorhead appealed because she wished everyone to know the full facts of the case and she had not been allowed to put these to the court in November. © Edinburgh City Libraries (NC). Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
Her actions garnered much news coverage for the movement. She was even dubbed ‘The Leader of Scottish Suffragettes’!
Fanny Parker
Like Moorhead, Fanny Parker was also imprisoned on several occasions for her activism. Parker began her campaigning as a speaker for the Scottish Universities Women’s Suffrage Union. And in 1912, she became the organiser of the WSPU in the West of Scotland.
As a key figure in the movement, when a newspaper reported the burning of Farington Hall by suffragettes, they also reported Parker’s discontent with the measures taken by authorities to halt the movement.
A principle focus of suffragism in Scotland, Dundee was the first Scottish city to imprison suffragettes. Some of them subsequently went on hunger strike. Activity peaked in the decade preceding the First World War, but was largely suspended thereafter. In January 1918, the Women’s Suffrage Bill received royal assent, thus obviating the need for further action. © Dundee Central Library. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
In 1912, she joined a WSPU window-smashing raid, for which she was arrested. Whilst in prison, she went on a hunger strike and was force fed but the experience didn’t deter her, and she continued to campaign following her release.
In 1914, Parker and Moorhead even worked alongside each other to set fire to Robert Burn’s Cottage in Alloway!
Want to learn more?
Learn more about Scotland’s women’s suffrage campaigners by exploring our online exhibition. Discover which campaigners received a plaque as part of our Commemorative Plaque Scheme. Or read more about women’s history on our blog.
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