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Edith Splatt (3 January 1873 – 3 June 1945) was a British dressmaker, journalist and later an Exeter councillor. She led a tram protest and campaigned for better housing. She was a
Edith Splatt (3 January 1873 – 3 June 1945) was a British dressmaker, journalist and later an Exeter councillor. She led a tram protest and campaigned for better housing. She was a suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
in the Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and ...
(WSPU) and a committee member of the less militant National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was ren ...
(NUWSS).
Life
Splatt was born in 1873 when her family were living in a large farm near the Devon village of Kenton. Her father died in the 1890s and the family sold up and moved away. She, her mother, and her hat-making younger sister were living in Exeter in 1901 when Edith was a dressmaker. She had been a dressmaker then for at least ten years and she would create made to measure dresses for fashion conscious clients In 1909 she was creating a column titled "Womanland" for Exeter'sExpress and Echo
The ''Express & Echo'' is a paid-for newspaper for Exeter and the surrounding area.
History
The ''Express & Echo'' was established in 1904 as the result of a merger between the ''Western Echo'' and the ''Devon Evening Express'', which was foun ...
. "Womanland" dealt with various topics including suffrage protests. Splatt is thought to be the anonymous author who wrote an account of a suffrage protest the year before in Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
. In 1911 it is presumed that she was living with her mother at 33 Herschell Road in Exeter but she does not appear on the national census that year. Many suffragettes refused to complete census forms as a protest because they did not have a vote.
She is recorded in 1915 as having mounted a one-women campaign, two or three years previously, to enable women to purchase reduced-price workman’s tickets when travelling on Exeter trams.
In 1915 she was a journalist creating serialised stories for the local paper; and by 1921 is referred to as 'a well-known local journalist'.
She became one of the first women (alongside Mrs W. Browne) to be elected to Exeter council, for Belmont Ward in November 1921, and held a seat on the council until her death in 1945. She and fellow councillor Florence Browne served on committees concerning welfare and this has been criticised for allowing themselves to be "pigeon holed".
Death and legacy
Splatt died at Herschel Street inExeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
, in 1945. A blue plaque was put up on her house in Exeter recording her service to the city.
References
Further reading
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Splatt, Edith 1873 births 1945 deaths Writers from Exeter Councillors in Devon Suffragettes English journalists Politicians from Exeter