LETTER: Waiting for the right to vote

The article of suffragettes was totally misleading. Should I be amazed that several important women should back it?

When I studied the Edwardian era I thought that those women who became suffragettes were lower middle class ladies who lunched. The photos of the period were misleading in that respect.

The Pankhurst family, mother and three daughters were constantly at loggerheads with each other and on occasions not speaking to each other.

The protest group which they set up was a source of income for themselves. Other groups followed. When the various groups got going they became urban guerrillas.

Westminster Abbey was bombed as was the Palace of Westminster. Government office windows were smashed and police trying to maintain some order were assaulted and injured. Many of the suffragettes’ actions were indeed criminal and many went, quite rightly to jail.

It is sad to realise that whilst they were creating mayhem at home, the men were dying on the battle fields of Europe to protect the liberty which these women were abusing.

It has been stated by many commentators that the suffragette movement delayed the granting of the vote to women for many years. Even then it was the ladies who lunch who got the vote. The lower orders had to wait a few more years.

Brian Coomber

Adur District Councillor for St Nicolas Ward,

Buckingham Road, Shoreham

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