THE CAMPAIGN

FOR WOMEN’S
SUFFRAGE IN
SUFFOLK
A Suffolk Archives
education resource
INTRODUCTION Teacher’s slide

This PowerPoint and accompanying Word document explore

some key sources relating to the history of the women’s
suffrage campaign in Suffolk.
You can use it with your students to work with primary sources
to explore local links with the national campaign for votes for
women.
There is detailed information about each source in the Word
document, and this PowerPoint includes suggested activities to
spark curiosity and actively investigate the sources.
USING THE IMAGES IN THIS PACK Teacher’s slide

Images are supplied in this pack for use in learning activities. If

you wish to use them for any other purpose (e.g. to publish
them on a website), please get in touch with us on
archives@suffolk.gov.uk
ABOUT SUFFOLK ARCHIVES
The sources in this pack are from the
collections at Suffolk Archives.
Suffolk Archives collects, preserves, and
shares 900 years of Suffolk’s history. The
records we care for take up over 9 miles of
shelving, and include everything from official
documents to personal letters and diaries.
We do this across our three branches, in
Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, and Lowestoft.
You can find out more about us on our
website, www.suffolkarchives.co.uk

Some of our many miles of shelves!

ACTIVITY SUGGESTION – WHAT CAN YOU SEE IN 1 SECOND? Teacher’s slide

This activity will help get students looking more closely at archive images and can be used with any of the
images on the following slides. Choose which image you want to use and delete the others before
starting the activity.
Step 1 – explain you are going to show students an image for 1 second. They will need to take in as
much as they can in that time.
Step 2 – ask students to share what they saw. Make a list of all the things they saw somewhere that
everyone can see it (e.g. on a whiteboard).
Step 3 – put the image back on the screen and go through the list of what students saw in 1 second,
ticking off the different things they saw.
Step 4 – discuss what people missed in their first look.
Step 5 – ask ‘What questions do you want to ask?’ It will be possible to use clues in the image to work
out some of the answers. Other questions might need to be followed up by looking up information in other
sources.
WHAT CAN YOU SEE IN 1 SECOND?

• You are about to look at a picture

• Concentrate hard because you will only have 1 second to look
• Get ready to share anything that you saw with the rest of the class
• You will be amazed how much you can see in just 1 second!
 What questions
What did you What did you
do you have?
see? miss?
ACTIVITY SUGGESTION – PHOTO ENQUIRY Teacher’s slide

The following slides have been designed to guide your students through an investigating of the clues we
can find in three photographs of suffrage campaigners in Suffolk (there are details about each of these
photos in the accompanying Word document). For each photo, students will be asked:
• What is happening in this photo?
• Who are the people?
• Where was it taken?
• When does it date from?
• Why did this event happen?
• How can we tell?
The slides break down the clues we can spot in each photograph and then consider what further sources
we could look in to find out more.
You could work through all of these, or just pick one of them, or divide your class into groups to
investigate each photo and then report back.
FIRST IMAGE – WSPU AT THE BURY ST EDMUNDS BY- Teacher’s slide

ELECTION, 1907
What is happening in
this photo?
Who are the people?
Where was it taken?
When does it date
from?
Why did this event
happen?
How can we tell?
What is happening in
this photo?
A protest encouraging
people to vote against
the Liberal
government by the
WSPU

How do we know?
From the signs on
their table, and we
can recognise famous
Suffragettes
Who are the people?
WSPU members, and
onlookers. We can
recognise Emmeline
Pankhurst in the middle.

How do we know?
We can see five women
standing behind the stall
who look like they are
running it. Everyone else
behind them looks like
they are watching on.
Where was it taken?
In the town centre in
Bury St Edmunds.

How do we know?
The photograph is from
a collection of images of
Bury St Edmunds. They
are in front of a shop
called Turner & Co – we
can look this up in
historical street
directories and find out it
was on the Buttermarket.
When does it date from?
Probably between 1903
and 1910.

How do we know?
The WSPU was founded
in 1903 so it must be
after that. The fashions
look like they must date
from before 1910.
Why did this event
happen?
The WSPU are trying to
persuade people to vote
against the Liberal
Government. Perhaps
there was an election
happening at the time?

How do we know?
From their campaign
sign.
What other questions
remain?
When exactly was this?
Why did it happen in
Bury St Edmunds?
Was there an election
happening?
Why did the WSPU
campaign against the
Liberal government?
How could we find out
more?
SECOND IMAGE – CAMPAIGNERS IN LOWESTOFT, 1914 Teacher’s slide
What is happening in this photo?
Who are the people?
Where was it taken?
When does it date from?
Why did this event happen?
How can we tell?
What is happening in this photo?
A protest for women’s suffrage.

How do we know?
The people in the photo are
wearing sandwich boards with
slogans about votes for women
Who are the people?
Campaigners for women’s suffrage –
it looks like they are all women (one
man is looking on – is he part of the
group?). Some of them might be
teachers. They were likely members
of the NUWSS.

How do we know?
The women are wearing sandwich
boards with campaign slogans. Some
of the slogans mention teachers. One
of the banners mentions the NUWSS.
Where was it taken?
Somewhere in Lowestoft.

How do we know?
Lettering on the shop window behind
them says ‘Lowestoft Suffrage
Society’.
When does it date from?
Sometime between 1900 and 1914.

How do we know?
It must be before the First World War
because the NUWSS stopped
campaigning then. The women’s
clothing looks like it dates from the
very early 20th C.
Why did this event happen?
This is an attempt to gain public
attention for the cause of women’s
suffrage.

How do we know?
The campaigners are on the street.
Their sandwich boards are designed
to attract attention.
What other questions remain?

When exactly was this?

Why did it happen in Lowestoft?
What’s the connection with teachers?
How could we find out more?
DISS EXPRESS, 17TH APRIL 1914

“
One of the other sources we can
look at is newspapers. Newspaper
reports from the time tell us that N.U.T. at Lowestoft
the National Union of Teachers
(NUT) was having a conference in
The conference of the National Union of Teachers has taken place at
Lowestoft. Lowestoft this week… Two thousand delegates attended, representing
about ninety thousand members… Animated scenes marked the
The suffrage campaign particularly
discussion at the Conference on Wednesday of a resolution moved by
targeted teaching unions because
Miss Cleghorn, of Sheffield, favouring votes for women. An
they had so many women
members.
amendment was submitted urging that the question should not be
introduced as it was outside the scope of the Union’s work… Upon a
These women were earning show of hands the President announced that the proposition was
money and paying taxes, but had
defeated.
no vote.
THE VOTE, 17TH APRIL 1914

“
We find even more information in
suffrage newspapers such as The
Dr. Barbara Tchaykovsky, a London school doctor, moved the following Vote.
resolution:- This extract is about a meeting
“That this meeting of delegates of the N.U.T. and others desires to record its that the Women Teachers’
conviction that it is in the best interests of education that women be granted the Franchise Union held in Lowestoft
Parliamentary franchise.” during the NUT conference.
Dr. Tchaykovsky said she had acquired this conviction in her public capacity as
a school doctor. Teachers in their work are brought up against the social
conditions of the homes of the people. They get to know the things that children
lack – want of sleep, of clothes and of food – as well as an insight into the
labour problems of the day. The mothers of the children in their care consult
them on many matters, and women teachers know that a man can do worse
things to his wife without punishment than he can to a woman not his wife.
They know, too, that offences against property receive harder sentences than
those against little children. Women, she said, are tired of waiting for men to
remedy these laws.’
THIRD IMAGE – WSPU MEETING IN LOWESTOFT, 1914 Teacher’s slide
This photograph was taken using
a glass plate negative. These
create an image using a plate of
glass coated in light-sensitive
chemicals.

Over time those chemicals have

degraded and parts of the image
have started to almost float away.

What are the challenges of

working with a photograph in this
condition? Is there anything we
can do about it?
This is an edited version of the
image which has been digitally
restored on Photoshop.

How does this image compare to

the unedited version?
This photograph was also
taken in Lowestoft in April 1914
during the NUT conference.

What is happening in this photo?

Who are the people?
Where was it taken?
When does it date from?
Why did this event happen?
How can we tell?
What is happening in this photo?
It looks like a meeting of some
kind with people speaking to an
audience.

How do we know?
We can see a group of women on
a stage, and we can just about
make out the backs of people’s
heads in the audience.
Who are the people?
Members of the National
Women’s Social and Political
Union. The woman standing is
Annie Kenney. The woman sitting
to the right of the table is Flora
Drummond. Both were senior
members of the WSPU.

How do we know?
There is a large WSPU banner
behind the group on stage.
Zooming in to the photo, we can
see names scratched into the
image.
THE TRIAL OF HILDA BURKETT AND FLORENCE TUNKS Teacher’s slide

The newspaper extracts on the following slides will give your

students a ring-side seat at the trial of Hilda Burkett and
Florence Tunks, who had been accused of burning down the
Bath Hotel in Felixstowe.

You could use all of the extracts or just a few of them. Your
whole class could look at all of the extracts, or small groups
could look at one or two extracts then share what they have
found out.

Each extract is accompanied by questions – you could use

these as part of a discussion or as part of a written exercise.

You could show your class this PowerPoint, or print out the
slides.
ARSON AT THE BATH HOTEL – WHO DID IT AND WHY?

In April 1914, the Bath Hotel in

Felixstowe was deliberately
burned down.
Who set the fire and why?
How could we find out more?
EXTRACT 1

What is this document?

When does it date from?
What does it seem to be about?
What can we see in the photograph?
Are there any words or phrases we need
to find out more about?
EXTRACT 2

Who was on trial? How old were they?

What had they been accused of?
How does the newspaper describe the
behaviour of the accused?
Who was in the public gallery?
What impression does the extract give of the
scene in the courtroom?
EXTRACT 3

What did the prisoners do as they arrived in the courtroom? What did they
do as proceedings started?
How did the prisoners plead, guilty or not guilty?
Why do you think they entered the plea that they did?
Did Hilda Burkett think the women would get a fair trial? Why might she
have thought the way she did?
EXTRACT 4

What was the value of the damage done by

the fires?
What did Hilda Burkett think about being tried
by an all-male jury?
EXTRACT 5

What is the evidence that was provided against the prisoners?

EXTRACT 6

What does Hilda say about her previous

experiences in prison?
How does Hilda justify their actions in
destroying property?
Do you think the journalist was sympathetic
to Hilda’s arguments?
EXTRACT 7

What instructions did the judge give to the

jury? Why do you think he did this?
How long did the jury take to reach a verdict?
What were the other charges against Hilda
Burkett? What explanation did she give for
one of them?
EXTRACT 8

Why did Hilda Burkett tell the judge to put on

his black cap?
What did Hilda say she would do in prison?
EXTRACT 9

Did the judge find the defendants guilty or not

guilty?
What did Hilda Burkett say about the verdict?
Do you agree with her?
How did the judge say he felt about presiding
over the trial?
What were their sentences? How did the
women react to them?
EXTRACT 10

Who are the two people the defendants

mention in this extract?
Who are these people, and why are the
defendants bringing them up?
Do you need to find out more about either of
these people to understand why Hilda and
Florence brought them up?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

• Hilda and Florence believed they would not get a fair trial. Do you agree with them?
• Do you think Hilda and Florence were guilty? Why/why not?
• If they were guilty, do you think what they did was justified?
• What other thoughts/questions do you have?
WHAT DID YOU THINK?

We would love to hear what you thought of this resource, and if you have any suggestions for
improvements. You can drop us a line on archives@suffolk.gov.uk

More education resources from Suffolk Archives are available at

www.suffolkarchives.co.uk/education

This resource has been produced as part of a wider project to transform Suffolk Archives, with
funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.