Parish priest

37

Widowed

St Peter's Vicarage, Coventry

WSPU

Complies

Percy E T Widdrington was born in Southampton in 1873. He was educated at Oxford, became a socialist, and was instrumental in starting the first Fabian Society at the university. Ordained in 1897, he went to work in the deprived district of St. Philips, Newcastle, where he remained for just over four years. He was prominent during that time in the Great Engineers Strike in Tyneside. Also in 1897, he married Enid Stacy a well respected socialist and touring suffrage lecturer and the two supported each each other in their reform work. The couple had a son Gerard in 1902. The family then moved to Calderbrook near Rochdale where sadly, in 1903, Edith died suddenly whilst working for the socialist cause in Littleborough near Rochdale - presumably of a heart attack - aged just 44 years old. Subsequently, Percy relocated to Halton near Lancaster where he spent three years as curate. He was well respected there by the working class community for his efforts to improve their lives and represent their interests, and started a fellowship in the village promoting the socialist and Christian message that spread into Lancaster. Always outspoken, Percy openly challenged the distinction between church and politics and was described as a socialist of deep rooted conviction as well as a man of personal charm and eloquence. He made a significant public impact when he moved to Coventry in 1906, having been appointed to the city's St Peter's Church. Percy quickly became a prominent figure in Coventry's women's suffrage movement, regularly speaking at suffrage meetings as well as hosting them, and publicly championing all aspects of the cause including suffragette militancy. For instance, he held a special welcome reception for local suffragette (see) Alice Lea at St Peter's vicarage after her release from one month in Holloway prison in 1908. In defence of her actions he said of the WSPU: ‘it was a society of extremists who were going to get what they wanted and were going to use strong means to get what they wanted… there were and had been 'heaps' of ladylike societies … but until the WSPU came along the women’s movement did not count in English political life’. He then roundly encouraged other Coventry women to follow Alice's example. Men could not formally join the WSPU but because of Percy's consistent support for it and facilitation of its members and meetings, we have denoted him as a WSPU campaigner. In April 1911, the census records Percy at St. Peter's vicarage with his son and a visitor Joseph Clayton. Clayton was an author, journalist and Christian socialist, whose wife was a member of the 'suffragette' society the Women's Freedom League (WFL). Clayton had been arrested for the cause in 1909 when taking part in a deputation to see the Prime Minister over the question of women's suffrage. In August 1911, Percy married his second wife and joint secretary of the WSPU Coventry branch, Miss Helen Dawson in Cornwall. The tabloid headlines read 'Socialist Vicar weds suffragette'!. Helen was originally from Calderbrook where Percy had previously worked, so it's likely the two met prior to his moving to Coventry. At the end of the War in 1918 of which Percy was openly critical, he relocated to Chelmsford, St Peter's church being taken over by his brother in law from his first marriage to Edith, the Rev. Paul Stacy. Percy was less in the public eye in later years and died in Lichfield in 1959. Researcher: Tara Morton. Coventry research funded by Warwick University.