Pat gave suffragettes an early steer
In this 100th anniversary year of the winning of the Parliamentary vote for women, let us introduce you to Pat Holland - the driving force for the suffragettes in Shropshire in the early 20th century.
And we say driving force advisedly. Because Pat drove the car for the Votes For Women campaigners during the May 1908 Newport by-election, which was the first at which the suffragettes really got their act together, with various rallies across North Shropshire.
We can reveal her story thanks to Ruth Nicholls, who lives near Oldham, who got in touch after a recent feature we carried which mentioned the suffragettes' role at that by-election, which included outdoor meetings in Whitchurch at which the speakers were Gladice Keevil, Elsie Howey and one Miss Douglas-Smith.
The candidates were Beville Stanier, a Unionist - he won - and Francis Neilson, a Liberal.
Ruth emailed in to say: "I have been reading your articles about the suffragettes and in particular their involvement in the Beville Stanier by-election on May 14, 1908.
"My interest is because I have a photo of my great aunt, Martha Annie Holland, with Gladice Keevil who you wrote was a prominent speaker and supporter of Stanier.
"My photo shows my great aunt driving the car with Gladice sitting in the front next to her. Comparing this to your photo, taken during the by election, it strikes me the photos were taken on the same day as they have the same clothes on!"
Ruth has pointed to a possibility that was not immediately apparent in the photo we carried of the rally - that the crowd in Whitchurch is gathered around the car, which is hidden behind the throng. Martha Annie - known as Pat - is immediately to the left of the standing Gladice.
"I think maybe my great aunt is sitting on the car steering wheel and Gladice standing up on the seat in your picture!"
Ruth has been trying to identify the three other ladies who were in the back seat of the car. Perhaps two of them were Elsie Howey and Miss Douglas-Smith.
For Pat to have been driving a car - and whose car was it? - would no doubt have been notable in itself in those male-dominated days of early motoring.
As for Gladice Keevil, she was already a significant figure in the movement. In February 1908 she was one of those arrested with Emmeline Pankhurst for taking part in a demonstration outside the House of Commons. Keevil was found guilty and spent six weeks in Holloway Prison and on her release became Midlands organiser.
The big notice on the side of the car reads N.W.S.P.U., Votes For Women, Keep Liberal Out. The initials will have stood for National Women's Social and Political Union.
Ruth is hoping to find some sort of record of the members of the union in Shropshire.
"I have no details of my great aunt’s involvement, just this photo and the newspaper cutting. So far I haven’t found her name mentioned in any suffragette information on the internet or in books.
"Martha Annie Holland was born on April 21, 1873 and was the eldest daughter of Henry and Ann Holland. She had two brothers, one of whom was my grandfather, Henry Holland Jnr., who had a timber merchant business in Market Drayton from the early to the mid-20th century.
"My grandparents were well known in Market Drayton and lived at 41, Shropshire Street, a fabulous old house. Martha also had three sisters. She grew up on White Farm, Croxton, near Eccleshall, Staffordshire. She lived there until her father - my great-grandfather - died in 1918.
"She didn’t follow an occupation away from the farm. The family were successful farmers and lived a very comfortable life.
"Photos of the family show them to be beautifully dressed and enjoying many leisure activities such as croquet, tennis and holidays at the seaside including the Isle of Man.
"Martha never married and spent her later years living with her unmarried sister, Julia Ellen in Audlem. She died on January 9, 1965.
"My childhood memory of her was of a quiet little old lady whom my mum called Aunty Pat. Family tree research is so tricky for this and lots of other reasons!
"However she must have been quite a lady. She could drive and had her own car as shown in the picture.
"The fact that she knew Gladice Keevil suggests she was an active member of the local suffragettes' branch. I would like to establish if this was in Shropshire or Staffordshire."
