Luscombe, Eileen Gaye (2020) Calling all Women: History, Memory and Legacy in the Work of the Suffragette Fellowship. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This thesis analyses the history of the Suffragette Fellowship, a group of militant Suffragettes active in British Votes for Women campaign from 1905-1914. After the death of leader Emmeline Pankhurst in 1928, a group of these militant campaigners were concerned about the potential loss of control of their histories. Their group, the Suffragette Fellowship, thus became memory activists engaged in shaping the cultural legacy of suffrage histories. The study is based on archival research of primary historical documents including newsletters, journals, private and official correspondence, government reports and newspaper archives. It scrutinises the inner workings of the Fellowship showing that it became a vibrant network of enduring feminist friendship circles spanning England and Australia. This research offers a broad historical map of the memory work of the Fellowship by exploring events and personalities that informed and shaped the collective breadth of activities executed by Fellowship leaders on behalf of colleagues, who sought to position themselves as primary protagonists in militant suffrage history. The research makes a substantial contribution to studies of memory, feminism, and suffrage histories through an analysis of the determined efforts of former Suffragettes and supporters to erect statues and monuments to honour militant suffrage leaders while navigating the problematic politics of commemoration. The study also highlights the ongoing collaborations between the Fellowship and feminist organisations that endured over four decades of collective memory work. The thesis examines the creation of the ‘Suffragette Spirit’, an ethos forged out of militant activists’ memories of the fight amid the bonds of shared trauma, that demanded unquestionable loyalty both to each other and the venerated leaders of the Suffrage cause. By focusing on the memory work of the Fellowship, this research analyses the adaptive re-use of artifacts that were collected and curated by the Fellowship. These artifacts and relics are now the material evidence of the militant suffrage campaign collectively housed within a vast and uniquely feminist archive known as The Suffragette Fellowship Collection.

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