Votes for Women

What happened in Cumbria

One of the first women in Carlisle

to actively work for women’s suffrage was

Mary Smith, the daughter of a boot and

shoe maker, who dated her awareness of

the ‘helplessness of women in the great

battle of life’ to the 1860s. By the 1890s the

Countess of Carlisle was vocally supporting

suffrage, referring to ‘women and the

drudgery of existence’ in a letter to the

Carlisle Journal in 1891. She was to support

the non-militant Suffragists but

condemned the violence of the

Suffragettes. In Keswick Catherine Marshall

built up a strong local suffrage society. She

demonstrated what was to become best

practice by establishing a stall in Keswick

market to sell suffrage literature and raise

awareness. She became one of the leaders

of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage

Societies, and was a central figure at the

1910 Suffragists’ demonstration in London.

As a result of the failure in May 1913 of

the Women’s Suffrage Bill, a Suffragist

Pilgrimage to London was staged in June of

that year. This commenced in Carlisle with

contingents also marching from Lands End

and Newcastle. Detachments joined en

route and the pilgrimage climaxed with a

huge demonstration at the end of July.

Notice from

the Carlisle

Journal, 24th

March 1911

Not everyone supported women’s suffrage

Extract from the electoral roll of 1918,

showing the names of the first women entitled

to vote in a parliamentary election.

Cumbrian suffragists at the 1910 demonstration in London. Catherine Marshall is the central figure, under the NUWSS Carlisle banner.

The man in the middle is carrying a board protesting against the vote: he was one of several sandwich men sponsored by anti-suffragists.

Letter in the

Carlisle

Patriot, 20th

December

1871

© Cumbria Archive Centre, Carlisle