“When I searched for Rosaline\u2019s name I was amazed to find dozens of references to her in the Woman\u2019s Dreadnought<\/em>“<\/p><\/blockquote>Like Rosaline, Sylvia lived in the East End of London. \u201cSylvia was so appalled at the hardship and poverty of working-class women that she wanted to help improve their living conditions, as well as campaign for their voting rights,\u201d says Anne. Rosaline, according to the Dreadnought<\/em>, had also been very busy with the cause. \u201cShe was on this committee, she was organising that event, people had to write to her if they wanted to go on this march or this outing, and she was running a mother-and-baby clinic where the poor could get free milk for their babies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>Googling her relation\u2019s name, Anne was amazed to find a reference to an exhibition at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives. She decided to pay the archives a visit to see the exhibition and find out what records they held. \u201cThey had original copies of the Woman\u2019s Dreadnought<\/em> there, and I was able to look at some of the minutes of the meetings of Sylvia Pankhurst\u2019s committee \u2013 the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS),\u201d says Anne.\u00a0<\/p>\u201cThe minutes confirmed that Rosaline, having been an early recruit to the cause in 1913, joined Sylvia Pankhurst\u2019s committee in February 1914, and soon became joint secretary (effectively the organiser) of the Bromley-by-Bow branch, on top of her numerous other activities. Although Rosaline worked very hard on the committee, there are only very rare references to her making a comment. I got the impression that she was a doer rather than a talker. She was very much behind the scenes and that was one of the interesting things \u2013 that she didn\u2019t give speeches or lead marches or anything, she was always in the background doing the more boring stuff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
“She didn\u2019t give speeches or lead marches or anything, she was always in the background doing the more boring stuff”\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>
The exhibition held another surprise. \u201cJane McChrystal, a local historian, had chosen to research Rosaline as one of those committee people who work quietly behind the scenes, helping everything run smoothly. Rosaline\u2019s panel included a photograph, which I was very excited about because the only one I had of her was taken when she was well into middle age. There was a picture of her at the suffragettes\u2019 mother-and-baby clinic in Bromley-by-Bow.\u201d<\/p>
\u201cI arranged to meet Jane,\u201d says Anne. \u201cShe knew a lot about Rosaline\u2019s suffragette work and the movement, but she didn\u2019t know anything about her family history. While I knew all the family background, but I didn\u2019t know a great deal about her activity in the suffragettes. So we shared our research, which was great. Jane has written it up in a series of essays, and we still email each other.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to think that Rosaline was sitting on a committee with Sylvia Pankhurst, and that they obviously knew each other well and were in frequent communication.<\/p>Jane McChrystal (left) and Anne Padfield (right) outside 55 Fairfield Road, former home of Rosaline McCheyne. Source: UNP\/ Teri Pengalley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cTalking to Jane, I remembered Georgina telling me that her mother had been involved in some sort of rally in a park. It had been broken up by the police, although Rosaline wasn\u2019t injured. Jane instantly recognised this as the 1914 May Procession to Victoria Park, when Sylvia and many of her \u2018bodyguard\u2019 had been arrested, suffering shockingly rough treatment by the police. Mothers like Rosaline with young children \u2013 Georgina was seven at the time, and her brother Don was four \u2013 were not expected to march with Sylvia\u2019s bodyguard, since they could not afford to be imprisoned. Instead, Rosaline was in charge of the bail money.\u201d This was to be paid to free any suffragettes who were arrested during the rally.<\/p>
But in 1915, something happened to make Rosaline step back from the cause that had been so important to her. \u201cIt\u2019s a real mystery. One minute she was doing everything, and the next it says in the committee notes that Mrs McCheyne was going to be moving house so she couldn\u2019t continue any more,\u201d says Anne.\u00a0<\/p>
However, the McCheynes didn\u2019t move \u2013 in fact, they lived in their house in Fairfield Road for another 10 years. \u201cRosaline even went to a couple of committee meetings after she\u2019d resigned. I wondered whether she\u2019d suffered from burn-out \u2013 she\u2019d done far too much, and perhaps as one of life\u2019s volunteers she thought she\u2019d just have to step right back.\u201d<\/p>
\u201cThere were also definite signs of other volunteers falling out with each other,\u201d Anne reveals. \u201cThere was more pressure on committee members, too, as the movement changed pace.\u201d While Sylvia\u2019s organisation was becoming more aligned with the Socialist movement and the Labour Party, Anne discovered that Rosaline\u2019s husband Herbert was active within the local Conservative association. So perhaps there was a clash of politics at home as well.<\/p>
An announcement in the Dreadnought<\/em>, almost certainly written by Sylvia Pankhurst herself, reads: \u201cMrs McCheyne and Mrs Mantle have carried on in the most splendid way the work of our Bromley Office and Baby Clinic ever since they were started\u2026 All the ELFS members know Mrs McCheyne, for she was one of our first recruits in East London, and has always been one of our hardest workers\u2026 We all thank her and hope that we shall see her from time to time.\u201d<\/p>Do you have a family story to share with <\/em>Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine? Email us on wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk<\/a> for your chance to appear in print!<\/em><\/p>Anne is very proud to have such a principled woman in her tree. \u201cI wonder if she realised how important her work was, or how long-lasting it would be? I\u2019m just glad she got to vote.\u201d<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
By Published: Saturday, 06 April 2024 at 09:00 AM When suffragette Emily Wilding Davison stepped out in front of George V\u2019s horse at the Epsom Derby on 4 June 1913, she guaranteed her place in the history books alongside the likes of the Pankhursts, Sophia Duleep Singh and Millicent Fawcett. But what about the unsung […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":32455,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"7"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/old-newspapers-revealed-my-relative-was-a-working-class-suffragette-who-worked-with-sylvia-pankhurst.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/old-newspapers-revealed-my-relative-was-a-working-class-suffragette-who-worked-with-sylvia-pankhurst-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/old-newspapers-revealed-my-relative-was-a-working-class-suffragette-who-worked-with-sylvia-pankhurst-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/old-newspapers-revealed-my-relative-was-a-working-class-suffragette-who-worked-with-sylvia-pankhurst-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/old-newspapers-revealed-my-relative-was-a-working-class-suffragette-who-worked-with-sylvia-pankhurst-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/old-newspapers-revealed-my-relative-was-a-working-class-suffragette-who-worked-with-sylvia-pankhurst.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/04\/old-newspapers-revealed-my-relative-was-a-working-class-suffragette-who-worked-with-sylvia-pankhurst.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Saturday, 06 April 2024 at 09:00 AM When suffragette Emily Wilding Davison stepped out in front of George V\u2019s horse at the Epsom Derby on 4 June 1913, she guaranteed her place in the history books alongside the likes of the Pankhursts, Sophia Duleep Singh and Millicent Fawcett. But what about the unsung…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/32454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}