Photographer

37

Married

9 Boltro Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex

NUWSS

Complies

Photographer Douglas Miller (1874-1961) was a prominent member of the Mid Sussex progressive Congregationalist community, and secretary of the Haywards Heath Liberal and Radical Club. He, his wife Kate, and her sister Lillian Peerless, were among the ‘principal workers’ named in the Mid Sussex Times report of the celebration of the election to Parliament in January 1906 of Liberal suffragist (see) Charles Corbett. The Liberal and Radical Club did not always live up to its name. When, in March 1913, Douglas Miller proposed, in a Club debate conducted exclusively by men, that the Parliamentary franchise be extended to women and men on equal terms, ‘everyone voted against the motion except the mover’. A few months later the NUWSS Great Suffragist Pilgrimage, converging on London from starting points across the country, was Douglas Miller’s opportunity to contribute to the documentation of suffrage activity in this part of Sussex. On Monday 21 July 1913, Kate Miller, a committee member of the Haywards branch of the Cuckfield and Central Sussex Women’s Suffrage Society, joined Brighton and Hove, Worthing, Littlehampton and Seaford suffragists to set off up the Brighton Road, marching with them as far as Burgess Hill. Douglas Miller met them at Clayton where he took the first of a series of four photographs, showing the marchers sporting NUWSS sashes, haversacks and hat decorations, and carrying the drum used to accompany the singing of stirring suffrage songs. Could his wife Kate be the foreground figure on the left? Bringing up the rear is the horse-drawn covered van that carried the Pilgrims’ luggage and campaign literature to be distributed en route. The Pilgrims then paused for lunch and waiting for them were Cuckfield and Central Sussex members led by (see) Edith Bevan. Douglas Miller’s second photograph shows them all gathered in front of the van, its slogan NATIONAL UNION OF WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE SOCIETIES NON-PARTY NON-MILITANT, now visible. Among the cyclists is (see) Flora de Gaudrion Merrifield, of the Brighton and Hove Women’s Franchise Society. Two policemen are present: Police Superintendent Anscombe of Haywards Heath is taking over as escort from his Brighton colleague. The third photograph shows the meeting held later that afternoon at the Reformers’ Tree in Burgess Hill. From the lorry used as a platform, the crowd was addressed by Alys Russell and Rica Timpany of the NUWSS. Chairman was Thomas Meates at whose home the Pilgrims had just stopped for tea. They had now been joined by the Eastbourne contingent whose banner is propped against the tree. The last photograph was taken in Cuckfield High Street on the Tuesday morning after the Pilgrims’ overnight stop in the town and an 8am service in its Congregational Church. Edith Bevan is in front, immediately behind Superintendent Anscombe, looking back to check that all are ready to continue up the road to London. Specially named by the Mid Sussex Times among ‘the upwards of 70’ present are (see) Marie Corbett, (see) Louisa Martindale and Flora de Gaudrion Merrifield. ‘Many Cuckfield residents accompanied them for a short distance, despite the wet weather.’ Researched & contributed by independent writer and researcher Frances Stenlake. Sources: Mid Sussex Times Brighton Gazette (archive).