Don’t forget Peterborough’s great women

We followed that up with a list of 10 other nominees from readers, with both lists including a total of 18 men and two women - Edith Cavell and Professor Daphne Jackson.

Now, in an attempt to showcase that Peterborough has had some great women in its history, Hazel Perry has written a blog piece on her website: https://tradeunionhistoryresearcher.wordpress.com/ which she has kindly allowed us to publish.

The unedited version is below.

RELATED: Are these the greatest ever Peterborians?

The greatest ever Peterborians - as selected by PT readers

There has been a recent debate in my local newspaper, The Peterborough Telegraph about ‘famous Peterborians.’ The debate has been around the inclusion of women, or more specifically, the fact that there has only been two women out of a list of twenty people.

Women’s history is something I feel very passionate about and since I have been researching local history, I have made a concerted effort to include women’s history.

Gladys Benstead

One of the women I have written about previously was a working class woman, Gladys Benstead. I wrote about her for another blog site which is linked in a previous post. She is one of the women that I would include on my list, the first woman to work as a railway clerk, outside of London and a negotiator for women’s wages in the National Union of Railwaymen in the 1920s.

It was very unusual for a woman to hold such a position in the trade union movement at that time and I think that is important. Important people don’t have to be so because they give grand gestures to the general public because of their wealth. They can be important through helping to inch forward matters such as women’s rights.

Katherine Clayton (Nee Hare), 1843 – 1933

My second candidate is a little different, in Katherine Clayton. Instead of writing a blog simply about her, I am going to reproduce parts of a talk that I did for Peterborough’s local archive service on the campaign for Women’s suffrage in Peterborough, which contains much of Katherine’s history and it also contains a little about Louise Creighton.

Katherine was born in Leicester. Her father was Thomas Hare, born in 1603 a Liberal reformer, a Barrister by trade. He held the position of ‘Inspector of charities’ and set out a proposal to use proportional representation to elect MPs to Parliament in 1859. This was a policy backed by economist John Stuart Mill and Henry Fawcett. Later, he became involved in the call for women’s suffrage, speaking at public meetings and joining campaign groups.

It was no wonder that with the influence of her father, Katherine herself, became involved in the campaign for women’s suffrage, joining the debating group, the Kensington Society who often discussed the matter and she signed petitions destined to Parliament in, starting in 1866.

In 1872, Katherine married Lewis Clayton, who would become the Bishop of Peterborough and the couple moved to Peterborough, where they bought up four children. Katherine continued her involvement in the campaign for votes for women through this time, signing a memorandum to sir Arthur Balfour in 1896, asking the Government to give time over to discussing the matter in Parliament.

She also attended local meetings for women’s suffrage with her daughter, Kitty and also attended an ‘at home’ meeting with Emmeline Pankhurst at the Fitzwilliam Rooms of the Angel Hotel on 11 February, 1911.

Katherine was also involved in campaigns around education and she was awarded an OBE for this. She was also made a ‘freeman’ of Peterborough for her services in social work. Another of Katherine’s local campaigns was raising money to replace the marble tomb of Katherine of Aragon at Peterborough Cathedral. Apparently, a former Bishop had broken up the former memorial to use for his conservatory.

Katherine campaigned by contracting other wealthy ladies with the same name and asking them to donate. The results are the beautiful tomb which you can see today.

Louise Creighton 1850 – 1936

Louise was the wife of Mandell Creighton, the Bishop of Peterborough. To be honest, she only spent a short time in Peterborough between 1891 and 1897 and moved between there, Cambridge and Oxford, however, she was a massive influence on Katherine Clayton.

A Victorian social reformer, Louise was influential in the Church and she set up the National Union of Working Women in 1881, which was later known as the National Council of Women. She became President in 1895, and Katherine Clayton was listed as having sat on the committee of the local branch in 1922. Louise also set up a Peterborough Branch of the Mother’s Union of which Katherine was Secretary.

Louise did not share Katherine’s view of women’s suffrage however, she spent her time rebuking calls for votes for women, at least until her Husband died in 1901. She declared her change of opinion at a National Council of Women conference in 1906, having not done so before for worry that it would look like she had not been able to have these opinions while her Husband was alive. However, she had changed her mind because she saw women becoming involved in politics and starting to make a difference. Louise went on to be influential in the Votes for Women campaign.

Although Louise Creighton spent little time in Peterborough, I believe she is an important figure to acknowledge in the Women’s history of the city. Katherine certainly deserves her place on the list for services to women and children. She must certainly have impressed someone to become a ‘Freeman’ and to be awarded an OBE.

Summary

There must be thousands of women that we know nothing about, but who we should. Sometimes they have been written out of history because they were illiterate and could not write down their own achievements , or they were ignored by historians or their contemporaries, it does not mean they did not exist. I have made it my mission to change attitudes but unfortunately I was not able to find photographs of Gladys or Katherine, but have included one of Louise and I hope you have enjoyed reading about this article.

If you want to know more about Peterborough’s women, please take a look at the references below. These contain details of other blog sites which you can look at, some of which contains some more candidates for important women from Peterborough.

References:

The Peterborough Advertiser, Saturday, 22 February, 1911, p. 2; The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey, Elizabeth Crawford, p. 73 The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1886 – 1928, Elizabeth Crawford; The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online); Historical Directory for Peterborough. 1922; WomenWhoShapedPBoro.wordpress.com/category/Katherine-Clayton; akennedysmith.com/2017/06/16/light-and-shade-louise-Creighton-1850-1936/.