cook/gardener

35

Single

Batheaston Villa (Tollemache House), Bailbrook Lane, Somerset

WSPU

Evades

Aethel Tollemache, born in Rangoon, Burma, was the daughter of Reverend Clement Reginald Tollemache and Frances Josephine Simpson. Her great grandfather was nobleman Lord Huntingtower. Aethel, alongside her sister Grace, were friends and near neighbours with Mary Blathwayt, and similarly to Mary became active suffrage workers. In 1907, Aethel attended the WSPU meeting with Mary Blathwayt in Bristol, meeting leading WSPU figures Annie Kenney, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, and Christabel Pankhurst. In 1908, she was lent a copy of Helen Blackburn's 'Record of Women's Suffrage' by Mary Blathwayt. The same year, Aethel and Mary attended the Women's Parliament at Caxton Hall, with Aethel taking Lilias Ashworth Hallet's ticket. In 1911, Aethel took part in the suffragette boycott of the government census survey and evaded it with a group of protesting suffragettes in an empty house in Lansdowne Crescent, Bath. Alongside her sister, who was playing violin, Aethel played piano to entertain fellow suffragettes as they spent the night. Later that year, in November, Aethel was sentenced to 14 days imprisonment after breaking a window at the National Liberal Club. Despite vowing that "she disliked very much destroying property", there were further occasions of window-smashing from Aethel, such as in 1913, when Aethel mistakenly threw a stone and hammer at the window of Miss Bonser, neighbour of intended target Home Secretary, Mr McKenna. Aethel and Grace often protested cabinet minister meetings, including one in Trowbridge, in which they disguised themselves as "market women". Following Blathwayt's resignation in 1913, Aethel and Grace Tollemache took over her position as providers of hospitality to visiting WSPU speakers and Grace as Bath branch secretary. In 1914, the sisters were arrested in 1914 outside Buckingham Palace after taking part in the deputation to the King on the 22nd of May. Aethel received a harsher punishment than her sister and went on a hunger and thirst strike in Holloway prison. In July of the same year, with her sister, Aethel organised a garden party which Annie Williams spoke at. When war broke out the sisters committed to doing their part to support the war effort by ploughing their own field for crops. Aethel also revised her position, joining the socialist East London Federation of Suffragettes and becoming a pacifist. In 1917, Aethel was held for questioning in Leytonstone while canvassing for names for the Peace Memorial but released with a warning. In the 1930's the Tollemache's turned part of The Villa into a hostel for hikers. In 1934, they gave lunch to a group of Welsh hunger marchers, who were protesting unemployment. They also offered their home for Labour Party meetings and continued their musical pursuits in and around Bath. Aethel Tollemache passed away in 1955. Sources: J Liddington, Vanishing for the Vote (Manchester, 2014); E Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide (London 1999); Lucienne Boyce, "Madder than ever": The Tollemache Family of Batheaston. Contributed by Jack Thompson, Undergraduate history researcher, University of Warwick.