The Shooting of Phyllis Perry (1903)

It was Monday 31st August 1903. It was late afternoon and Phyllis and Helen, two girls age 11 and 14, were playing on a swing in the small back garden of the three story red brick house terraced house in Nottingham, they called home. It was a pretty ordinary day, but things were about to

Beautiful Homes, Beautiful Work, and a Beautiful World: The Peterborough Women’s Land Army Rally, September 1918

A couple of photographs were given to me in the archives centre, by local historian Stephen Perry who tasked me with finding out what was happening in them. The photographs showed a very well attended parade in Peterborough City Centre and written across the bottom were the words, ‘women’s war workers rally’ and the date

Votes for Women! The campaign for women’s suffrage in Peterborough (3).

PART 3: The NUWSS and the Suffragist march. A branch of the non-militant NUWSS (National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies) was also formed in Peterborough. Miss. P. English of Orton Longueville, was the Secretary. Campaigning was busy. M. H. Renton, had been working in Peterborough, holding two drawing room meetings, one with the dean and

Votes for Women! The campaign for women’s suffrage in Peterborough (2).

PART 2: The WSPU in Peterborough. Annie Kenney (1) On Thursday 27 May, 1910 at the Grand Assembly Rooms on Wentworth Street, the first WSPU (est. 1903), meeting took place in Peterborough. Tickets for this meeting were obtained from Casters book shop.  The Chair was Dr, Glaisher, from Trinity College in Cambridge. He was supported

Women of Peterborough – Debate

Louise Creighton (Wikipedia) There has been a recent debate in my local newspaper, The Peterborough Telegraph about ‘famous Peterborians.’ The debate has been around the inclusion of women, or more specifically, the fact that there has only been two women out of a list of twenty people. Women’s history is something I feel very passionate

Lady Gladys Benstead

I have written an article on Lady Gladys Benstead, who was Mayor of Peterborough in 1955. She has caught my interest, because she came from a working class family who were played a major part in the local labour movement in the first few decades of the 1900s. I wrote the article for a collection