Suffragette’s blue plaque revealed

The life and work of the Grantham suffragette and political campaigner Mary Ann Rawle is to be marked with a commemorative blue plaque at Westgate Hall in the heart of the town.

Money towards its cost is coming from Ward Member Grants by South Kesteven District Councillors Linda Wootten, Adam Stokes and Graham Jeal, following a move by Grantham Civic Society to gain recognition for the local activist.
2018 is the 100th anniversary of the suffragettes’ achievement of winning the vote for women.

Civic Society chairman Courtney Finn said: “The whole town can be proud of Mary Anne Rawle. It was only recently that we discovered this lady, who came to Grantham in 1910 and died in 1964.

“It is crucial to have things like blue plaques. We have set out to pay tribute to all the remarkable people who lived here or have passed through.

“The more information we can give to residents about the town and its significant residents, the more they will care for their local area and the better it will be treated. Heritage and history can really sell a place.”
The plaque will be installed at Westgate Hall when renovation work there is complete.

Chairman of the council’s Culture and Visitor Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cllr Wootten, who donated £150, said: “I am fortunate that I am a woman councillor able to represent the public just as well as any male, thanks to what took place in order for women to be allowed to vote. During suffragette celebration year, there’s no better time to install this plaque.”

Cllr Stokes, who earmarked £200, added: “This is something that’s important not only in Grantham but for the country as a whole and we hope people on our visitor trails will take time to see and understand what she did.”

Cllr Jeal, who contributed £200, said: “We have all learned a lot about Mary Ann Rawle during the process to bring another blue plaque to Grantham. She put herself through personal difficulty to secure something for everyone and in this centenary year we are all grateful for that.”

Mary Ann’s grandson Mick Rawle attended an unveiling last weekend and said: “I found out about my grandma in 2004 when I was surfing the internet and that was a big surprise to me. I am immensely proud to be able to say that she has done all this work for the town and in the suffragette movement.”

The Women’s Library at the London School of Economics has archives of Mary Ann Rawle’s papers relating to the women’s suffrage campaign. It includes correspondence, a prison diary from Holloway and a badge for bravery in prison, as well as family certificates and photographs.

They show how the mother-of-two moved to Grantham in 1910 and presided at a branch meeting of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies there in 1913.

She later stood as a Labour candidate in the Grantham municipal elections and was chair of her branch of the Women’s Co-operative Guild for 17 years.

Mary Ann Rawle was born in Lancashire in 1878 and after marrying and having two children, she became active in local politics and was a member of the Independent Labour Party.

She became a member of the Women’s Social & Political Union, and met Teresa Billington-Greig, Annie and Jessie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst at a rally in 1906. In the same year she was appointed a part-time organiser for the WSPU in Oldham, and in 1907 left the WSPU for the Women’s Freedom League. She attended the second Women’s Parliament, was arrested and sentenced to two weeks in Holloway Prison.