We are discovering fascinating facts - sometimes not what we expect - Florence Clegg. my great-Grandmother, the possible suffragette may, or may not, have been active at the time.
Some suffragettes boycotted the census and Florence's name was on the 1911 census when Emmeline Pankhurst's campaigning was at its height. She campaigned in Rochdale and Manchester and a lot of mill girls supported her. As Florence was a teacher she may have taught mill girls who were sympathisers. However, we discovered Florence definitely had colleagues at Whitelands College in London - the first teacher training college in the UK - who were likely to be active. Their drawings in Florence's beautiful book from 1901 show symbols of the suffragettes - lilies and women dressed in purple robes.
Florence moved from Rochdale to London - an Edwardian Sloane Ranger! Whitelands College was just off the Kings Road - like my Grandmother, my Aunt and myself who all gravitated to London from Rochdale - how strange that these patterns of behaviour develop without us really knowing why...
This whole process is very strange - I find myself awake at night wondering about all these people I am connected with but do not know...it's as if a whole line of ancestors are standing in a queue waiting for me to ask them questions! And after a fantastic spiritual healing session recently (my Grandmother Olive Butterworth was a real fan of this too!) l am wondering if this experience could get even more spooky....
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