None

48

Single

29 Leam Terrace, Leamington

NUWSS

Complies

Mary Vellacott was Honorary Secretary of the Leamington and Warwick branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). She boarded with her mother Jane in rooms at Langton House, Leamington. However, when the census was taken on the 2nd of April 1911, Mary was absent from Langton House, visiting friends in Kent. Mary described herself on the census as living on ‘private means’ though she described herself elsewhere, as a writer.

Mary was committed to peaceful methods of campaigning for the vote, using traditional means such as petitions and lobbying politicians. She did not agree with the militant tactics used by members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst.

It seems likely that Mary became involved with suffrage politics following her experiences in the municipal elections in 1909. Some forty years earlier, women had been granted the right to vote in local elections, so long as they met residential criteria. The local press reported in September 1909, that Miss Vellacott had cast her vote in the elections, but had it queried (along with several men) by the election agents for Liberal and Conservative council members. They tried to have her vote invalidated because she did not meet residential qualifications. Mary countered, pointing out that she had lived at Langton House for nine years, had her own gas meter and paid extra to the Landlord for sole use of a sitting room. Mary won this battle for the vote. The agents challenge was dismissed and her vote allowed to stand.

Thereafter she threw herself into working for the suffrage cause. She attended numerous conferences and demonstrations across the Midlands as well as in Manchester and London. She also addressed meetings and wrote regularly to the local press.

In March 1911, as Honorary Secretary of the local branch, Mary addressed the Annual Meeting of the NUWSS at Leamington, where she remarked happily upon the four Women’s Suffrage Societies that now had branches in Leamington, and how well the Leamington and Warwick branch of the NUWSS was represented within the Midland Federation Committee.

In June 1911, Mary travelled down to London to take part in the Women’s Coronation Procession. The procession was organised by suffrage societies to rival the official Coronation procession of George V from which women were excluded. Approximately 40,000 women from around 30 women’s suffrage societies participated, and the procession was seven miles long.

Mary was also present at a meeting in Leamington’s ‘Winter Hall’ (now Leamington Public Library) in November 1911 when the Leamington and Warwick branch of the NUWSS joined forces with other suffrage societies including the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) to lobby MP Ernest Pollock in support of the second Conciliation bill.

Thanks to Leamington History Society researchers. For more on Mary Vellacott, see, Margaret Rushton: http://www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk/mary-louise-vellacott-suffragist/