women | The National Archives blog

A Royal bundle of joy

Friday 12 July 2013 | Rebecca Simpson | Records and research | 1 comment

With the birth of the royal baby expected soon, and the announcement from The Royal Mint that babies born on the same day would receive a ‘lucky’ silver penny, I was intrigued to see whether there were records showing examples of other commemorative gifts for royal births in history.

Looking through records here at The National Archives, I found a file from the Ministry of Food (MAF 99/627) relating to the commemorative food gift parcel given to mothers of babies born on 14 November 1948 – the same day as Prince Charles, HRH The Prince of Wales.

Contained within the file is correspondence from the Commonwealth Gift Centre, part of the Ministry of Food, to Buckingham Palace suggesting the idea of a food gift parcel for mothers of babies born on the same day as the royal prince. A reply was received from Buckingham Palace stating that ‘Her Royal Highness [Princess Elizabeth – now Queen Elizabeth II] thinks that this is an excellent idea and desires me to ask you to go ahead with it.’

Letter from Buckingham Palace re: Gift Food Parcels (reference: MAF 99/627)

The commemorative food gift parcels sent from the Commonwealth Gift Centre were done with the help of the Women’s Voluntary Services, who did the sending of the parcels, and the Central National Registration Office, who scrutinised the birth certificates and application forms of those that applied. Continue reading »

Emily Davison and the 1913 Epsom Derby

Tuesday 4 June 2013 | Briony Paxman and Clare Horrie | Records and research | Comment

Spectators at the 1913 Epsom Derby (catalogue ref: ZPER 34/142)

Today marks 100 years since one of the most famous events in the campaign for women’s suffrage in Britain. 4 June 1913 was the day of the Epsom Derby and at 15.10, just after the leading horses had rounded Tattenham Corner, Emily Wilding Davison, a militant suffragette, ran out from under the railings and into path of two trailing horses. Anmer, the King’s horse, struck Emily with his chest and pitched onto its head while the jockey, Herbert Jones, was thrown and rendered unconscious. The injuries Davison suffered would lead to her death four days later from a fractured skull.

As we have seen in recent television and newspaper coverage, debate has surrounded Davison’s actions since Derby Day 1913 ¹. Was Emily Davison making a suffrage protest, disrupting the race by attaching a flag in the suffragette colours to the King’s horse? Were her actions part of a wider suffragette demonstration at the Derby or did she act alone? Was she trying to commit suicide? Or, was she simply trying to cross the course in the mistaken belief that all the horses had passed? Intrigued by all these questions, I decided to take a look at a Metropolitan Police file at The National Archives (MEPO 2/1551) which contains police reports, witness statements and notes made in the hours and days following Davison’s actions.

An extract from Dr Vale-Jones' account, 4 June 1913 (catalogue ref: MEPO 2/1551)

Notes:

1. Channel 4 documentary Clare Balding’s Secrets of a Suffragette shown on Sunday 26 May 2013. ^

The Hunger Games

Tuesday 28 May 2013 | Rebecca Simpson | Records and research | 5 comments

The centenary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement

2013 is the centenary of some of the most prominent events that happened in the name of the women’s suffrage movement. One of the most famous took place on 4 June 1913, when Emily Wilding Davison supposedly threw herself in front of King George V’s horse at The Derby in protest at the lack of women’s rights (read the anniversary blog post for an overview of the debate around her true motives and actions). We have some amazing documents held here at The National Archives on Emily Wilding Davison, which were recently filmed for the Channel 4 documentary Clare Balding’s Secrets of a Suffragette shown on Sunday 26 May 2013.

Surveillance photographs of Suffragettes (catalogue ref: AR 1/528)

The story of Emily Wilding Davison, the first martyr in the name of women’s rights, will be preserved in history, but the suffragette movement was more than just the work of one woman. The many records held here at The National Archives are testament to the number of women that bravely fought for justice (a few of which are pictured right – catalogue ref: AR 1/528).

A game of cat and mouse

Another historic event in 1913 was the introduction of the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913, also known as the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’, owing to the way the government seemed to play with prisoners as a cat may with a captured mouse. The Act allowed temporary release, on licence, for suffragettes on hunger strike, until they were well enough to be rearrested and complete their sentence.

Eileen Casey, 1897. Image by kind permission of Sarah Laughton

Cyprus through a lens: A woman’s work …..

Thursday 21 March 2013 | Sally Hoult | Records and research | 2 comments

The latest batch of Colonial Office photographs from the Through a Lens series have been released on Flickr. These photos are from the Mediterranean series in CO 1069 and include pictures from Cyprus.

In 1952, both Greece and Turkey had just become members of NATO and the Greek Cypriot population were pressing for ENOSIS, which was becoming a serious international issue.

We hold a lot of records here at The National Archives regarding the political situation in Cyprus during the 1950s, but little about the social aspects of the island.

The Coronation on 2 June 1953 gave the Empire a wonderful opportunity to enjoy themselves, and the women of Cyprus were certainly no exception. The formal celebrations for this happy event lasted for a week, but while the men were doing what men in uniform do best -

Governor inspecting the police (catalogue reference: CO 1069/702)

- the photographs I was particularly drawn to show what the women liked to get involved with. These photographs I’ve chosen show a fun, lighter side of life enjoyed by them all.

Women’s rights: Keeping up appearances or winning the war?

Friday 8 March 2013 | Rebecca Simpson | Records and research | 2 comments

Happy International Women’s Day! We have an amazing array of records relating to women’s history here at The National Archives and so what better way to celebrate than to showcase some of our records? There are documents which played a huge part in the establishment of women’s’ rights through to our more puzzling and bizarre records on women’s appearance.

Prompted by the recent debate in the media following Hilary Mantel’s comments on the Duchess of Cambridge, I was particularly interested to see how the image of women, not just female royals, has developed over the course of recent history.

A matter of class?

The National Archives holds a prison record on Lady Constance Lytton (catalogue reference: HO 144/1054/187986), one of the many suffragettes imprisoned whilst campaigning for Votes for Women. Continue reading »

Echoes

Monday 28 May 2012 | Jenni Orme | Records and research | Comment

I’ve previously blogged about a 20^th century poetic find in our collection – here’s another I came across recently from the late 18^th century, coincidentally ‘echoing’ quite a similar theme…

An interesting email was passed to me a few weeks ago enquiring about searching for evidence of oral culture of those enslaved during the transatlantic trade. I expected to find very little using a simple search, as the preservation of such culture would be rare, at least without in-depth research, particularly amongst the records of the companies and governments involved in the trade for profit. However, a chance try of “slave AND song” in Discovery returned a result which sparked my interest to take a closer look.

The box that arrived is typical of uncatalogued material, bundles of papers housed together with little further information available.

HCA 30/381

With some very careful handling and the help of a colleague who passed further than “Je suis…” at school, we leafed through the papers. They belonged to one ‘Francois Lavignolle’, listed on Discovery as an administrator on a Haitian plantation, whose papers were intercepted and filed with the High Court of Admiralty paperwork.

There, amongst the accounts papers, was a little folded booklet of songs and rhymes. Continue reading »

Poster Idol

Monday 23 April 2012 | Jenni Orme | Records and research | Comment

Happy St. George’s Day!

St. George is an elusive figure in our records, but he does pop up in a place calling for national pride and strength – the National War Savings Committee posters.

He appears with the slogan ‘Lend to defend the right to be free’, encouraging households to invest in national savings certificates during the Second World War:

"Lend to defend the right to be free": St. George and the Dragon. 1940

Girls on file…

Friday 30 March 2012 | Jenni Orme | Records and research | 1 comment

March is Women’s History Month. Just in time, I’d like to share a file I was introduced to last year by our Education department.

The suffrage movement is a common theme when talking about achievements of women in the past, and we certainly hold a wealth of information here, from the force feeding of women on hunger strike, to 1911 census forms when women refused to provide their details to a government they had no say in electing. Although there are so many achievements of women to choose from, this wealth means there is always something more to talk about!

This file, MEPO 3/203, came to my attention while carrying out some research with colleagues on the last Maharajah of the Punjab, Duleep Singh and his family in preparation for last year’s Diversity Week.

However, it wasn’t a member of the Duleep Singh family that caught my eye during our research.

Image source: http://historysheroes.e2bn.org/hero/achievements/3521

Princess Sophia selling 'The Suffragette' (Image source: http://historysheroes.e2bn.org/)

We looked at a file relating to the Maharajah’s daughter, Princess Sophia Duleep Singh and her involvement with the Suffragettes. This particular file contains police reports on ‘Black Friday’, 18 November 1910, when Suffragettes clashed violently with police in response to the apparent stalling of the Bill in Parliament which would have granted suffrage to women of the upper classes. One particular statement, given by disabled protestor Miss May Billinghust, describes the brutality and humiliation the protestors reported:

Burn after reading?

Tuesday 14 February 2012 | Jenni Orme | Records and research | 7 comments

Welcome to day 2 of the blog! I have landed myself this illustrious spot thanks to Valentine’s Day and having stumbled upon something suitably soppy in the records. This unusual find is the perfect beginning to my blog, as the sheer variety of amazing things that are brought to the surface every day here could keep me talking forever!

Blog

Posts tagged 'women'

A Royal bundle of joy

Emily Davison and the 1913 Epsom Derby

Cyprus through a lens: A woman’s work …..

Women’s rights: Keeping up appearances or winning the war?

A matter of class?

Echoes

Poster Idol

Girls on file…

Burn after reading?

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