Teacher

33

Single

20 Mary Road, Stechford, Birmingham

WSPU

Evades

Cicely Neale (1879-1970) later Lucas, fulfilled a long-held ambition to become an educator of girls. Born in 1879 to the headmaster of Westwood Heath school in Warwickshire, her position as the only girl in a family of boys – “an unpaid skivvy” – made her only too aware of women’s position in society as a whole. By the age of 26 she was schoolmistress in a girls’ school in Birmingham. Cicely supplemented her income by teaching needlework to women at evening classes. It was here, in a class entitled “How to make a shirt for my husband”, that she first heard talk of the suffrage movement. In 1905, she joined the WSPU, attending and speaking at events held in Birmingham and London. In later life, she reflected: ‘If a crowd assembled accident, political, noted personage, royalty, roughs, etc., etc., I joined it and worked through to the opposite end and I knew my subject well. I possessed the schoolmistress' voice a carrying, rather than a shouting one, and a dominating tone, and was accustomed to being stared at, etc., etc. I could mount and descend from goods' wagons and my small height would save many a staggering blow. These were some activities I could do and did’. She was aware that she needed to protect her work in education, writing: ‘I was a state schoolmistress so no limelight and no absence from work! No press reports! No medical support reports for injuries inflicted or strained nerves!”. However, she collected the stones that were thrown at her, calling them her “jewels”. Some of these, along with her WSPU sash and satchel are now in the collection of the Warwick Museum. In 1911, she was living with her father in the house she had bought in Stechford, Birmingham. She appears to have evaded the 1911 census, as “Daughter is a suffragette” is written across the form after her father’s entry. Whether Cicely or her father wrote this gesture of defiance is unclear, but it is possible that he shared his daughter’s values. It is interesting to note that the census return for next-door’s house, later occupied by Cicely and her husband, is simply a blank form with one word written on it: “Suffragettes” – perhaps pointing to a group evasion? Cicely married Ernest Lucas in 1912. The couple taught in Paris, Cicely working in the new Berlitz language school until the threat of war forced her and their young daughter to undertake a difficult and dangerous journey back to her family in Westwood Heath. Cicely commenced supply teaching to support herself. When Ernest returned after the war, the couple settled in Claverdon, and Cicely became headmistress of a girls’ school in Solihull. In later life, Cicely became a local newspaper correspondent and a parish councillor, fiercely guarding rights of way in the parish. She also continued teaching children who needed extra support outside the classroom. Her mental faculties remained sharp, and she was active in public life up until her death in 1970 at the age of 91. Sources: Memoir of Cicely Lucas (unpublished); www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/cicely-lucas-early-life-an-interest-in-womens-suffrage; thanks to Andrew Starr (Cicely’s great-grandson) and historian Christine Cluley for their assistance. Contributed by Jill Kashi, Westwood Heath History Society.