THIS year marking the centenary of Parliament agreeing to voting rights for some women has shed light on the unsung work of many women as well as the suffrage campaign.
Previous Nostalgia articles have featured the role of women from Petersfield in the votes for women movement and, particularly, the influence of Bedales, the liberal school established at Steep at the end of the 19th century.
Amy Garret Badley, who was the wife of the school’s founder, John Haden Badley was one of the subjects of an evening talk at Petersfield Museum in February, Inspiring Women.
Following the success of that event, another has been organised this Friday and introduces four other women whose achievements match those of the first quartet.
The Bedales connection continues with two of the women in the second event, Helen Thomas and Kate Harvey.
Helen was the wife of poet Edward Thomas and lived with him and their three children at Steep, close to the school where she taught before she moved following his death in the First World War’s Battle of Arras in April, 1918. She wrote two autobiographical books about her relationship with her husband.
Kate Harvey was a profoundly deaf suffragist who barricaded her house against bailiffs after refusing to pay tax and was sentenced to Holloway Prison in 1913. Her daughter subsequently married Roger Powell, the elder son of Oswald Powell, who was the second master and helped John Badley establish Bedales.
Sisters Emily and Ethel Pickering were pioneers of a different sort by setting up their own photographic business in Lavant Street, Petersfield, at the end of the 19th century. They were also much involved in community affairs, particularly Petersfield Women’s Institute, an independent organisation encouraging women’s education and other interests.
The Young Women’s Christian Organisation (YWCA) became the focus of the life of Mildred Russell, the fourth subject of Friday’s talks. After working with Red Cross hospitals in the Petersfield area during the First World War, for which she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), she went on to be president of the YWCA from 1924-54, among other charitable works.