At the age of 12, Nancy decided to read Law at Newnham College, Cambridge. This ambition was realised in 1910, after she received her first LLB from the University of London. This first degree was completed in an acknowledgement of the fact that the University of Cambridge did not, then, award Law degrees (or indeed any degrees) to its female graduates … It is a tribute to her determination that in 1914 Nancy went down from Cambridge with a Double First in The Law Tripos: in Part I she was second between the male and female Lists, and fourth in Part II. The year 1948, when the University of Cambridge began awarding degrees to women graduates, finally saw Cambridge award her an MA (Cantab).
Tag: suffragettes
Strong Willed & Courageous … Margaret Schencke – A Woman of Fortitude
Margaret Schencke (Gretel in Germany, Margot in Britain) was born in 1888 in Zwickau in Saxony, Germany. She was the only child of her father’s second marriage, but she had several half-brothers and sisters from her father’s previous marriage. Margot…
Suffrajitsu – The Jiu Jitsu Teacher of the Woman’s War
In 1907 she was featured as the protagonist in a short film entitled Jiu-Jitsu Downs the Footpads, which was produced by the Pathé Film Company and by 1908 Edith and William were running the Golden Square School. In the 1911 census Edith and William were both listed as a ‘teacher of Jiujutsu, the Japanese art of self-defence’.
Suffragettes and Tea Rooms
Even as late as 1911 a woman’s presence still caused consternation in some places of public refreshment. Kate Frye, staying in a hotel in a small Norfolk market town while organizing suffrage meetings, notes in her diary:
22 March 1911 ‘Had my lunch [in the hotel dining room] in company with four motorists. It is funny the way men come in here and, seeing me, shoot out again and I hear whispered conversations outside on the landing with the waitress. Then they come in very subdued and make conversation one to another and try not to look at me. Awfully funny – they might never have seen a woman before – but I suppose it does seem a strange place to find one.’
Women’s History Month: March 15 1912. Christabel Pankhurst and the Lusitania’s portholes
Frenzied by media spin, some people were so exercised by the arson and window-smashing tactics of the Women’s Social and Political Union that they suspected militant suffragettes were lurking everywhere. News-seekers were as avid as reactionaries later seeking Reds under…
Still Makes My Blood Boil…
On June 4th 1913, it was derby day at Epsom racecourse. Suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison, ducked beneath the railings and onto the race track, just as King George’s horse Anmer approached Tattenham corner. She rushed towards the horse and was…
Women’s Social and Political Union in Ireland
In June 1914, the WSPU sent a letter, on headed notepaper with ‘Votes for Women’ emblazoned in purple at the top, to William Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, demanding that he take interest in their cause. They enclosed the above photograph. Their letter read:…