None given

60

Married

Knightscroft, Rustington, West Sussex

NUWSS

Complies

Lady Maud Parry appears on the 1911 Census at the Gloucestershire family home of her husband, composer Sir Hubert Parry. The couple’s own home was Knightscroft, Rustington, near Littlehampton, close to the home of Agnes and Rhoda Garrett, sister, and cousin respectively of Millicent Garrett Fawcett. In December 1909, Maud chaired a Gloucester Women’s Suffrage Society meeting; speakers included her husband, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, and Alys Russell. In 1910 she became President of the new Littlehampton Women’s Suffrage Society, and, in 1911, of the Brighton and Hove Women’s Franchise Society (BHWFS). In 1911, Maud chaired two meetings in support of the Conciliation Bill then before Parliament: in May at St James Hall, Worthing, where speakers included Lady Betty Balfour, Marie Corbett, and Israel Zangwill, and in September at Rustington House. In February 1912, the Parrys were ‘among the distinguished men and women’ on the platform at the Albert Hall mass meeting addressed by Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Lloyd George. Tiny by comparison but described as ‘breaking new ground’ was the meeting Maud chaired at Arundel in June, addressed by Alys Russell, Sir Harry Johnston of nearby Poling, and Cicely Corbett. Maud was on the platform at a BHWFS demonstration in November 1912 attended by representatives of the 49 branches of the Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire Federation, and from the National Union of Women Workers, the Trades Council, the Women’s Local Government Association, the Independent Labour Party, and the British Women’s Temperance Association. In 1912, she was among over 400 signatories of a letter to the Press, MPs, and the committee representing the West End businesses vandalised by militant suffragettes, deploring such lawless action, but urging the committee to pursue the redressing of the militants’ grievances rather than demand punitive legislation. Meanwhile, her husband joined GB Shaw, George Lansbury, Lord Lytton, Granville-Barker, Sir Arthur Pinero, Israel Zangwill, and other well-known men, in contributing to the Pall Mall Magazine their arguments in favour of women’s suffrage. On 19 July 1913 Maud led the Littlehampton contingent of Suffrage Pilgrims from Littlehampton Station to Rustington. Here they were joined by Sir Hubert Parry, before ‘entraining’ to Brighton where the Parrys were to head the procession of over 100 Pilgrims northwards on the Monday morning. In October 1913 Maud, Alys Russell and Florence de Fonblanque, participated in meetings held during a Suffrage march from Cosham to a Church Congress in Southampton. In November, these three women spoke at a meeting in Littlehampton chaired by Sir Harry Johnston. In February 1914 Maud was on the platform at a Lewes Women’s Suffrage Society meeting; in April she spoke at a BHWFS meeting; and in June she chaired a suffrage meeting hosted by Miss Holland at 1a Holland Walk, South Kensington. At the outbreak of War, the Parrys, helped by Alys Russell, held a meeting at Knightscroft to discuss how women could help the war effort. Towards the end of the War, Sir Hubert Parry’s setting of William Blake’s Jerusalem was to become the celebratory ‘voters’ hymn’. Sources: Common Cause, Bognor Regis Observer, Brighton Gazette, Littlehampton Gazette, Sussex Advertiser, Sussex Express, West Sussex Gazette. Contributed by Frances Stenlake, independent writer and researcher.