Postcard from 1907 reveals hidden address of Leicester suffragette

A suffragette is to be commemorated on International Women's Day with a blue plaque on the house where she lived.

The plaque will be placed on the former home of Alice Hawkins in Mantle Road, Leicester, on 8 March.

Many suffragettes, including Ms Hawkins, refused to provide their addresses to census officials, but a postcard owned by her descendants gave the address.

Her great-grandson Peter Barratt said it was a touching gesture.

Mr Barratt worked with city councillors and Ismail Dale of Heritage Schools to get the plaque.

Pupils from nearby primary and secondary schools will lead its unveiling.

The Hawkins family lived at the property in the early 1900s when Ms Hawkins was campaigning to secure the vote for women.

The postcard was sent to her by Leeds suffragette Mary Gawthorpe on 11 June 1907 and provided valuable information on where Ms Hawkins lived.

It allowed Mr Barratt and the councillors to confirm the address, with the records office identifying a location for the plaque.

Mr Barratt said: "To see a plaque unveiled on the very house where Alice and family, including our grandfather, lived over 100 years ago will be a very touching moment for myself and all her descendants who will be with me on the day."

The plaque not only commemorates Ms Hawkins, but many of the other local women who campaigned alongside her for equality at the ballot box.

Ms Hawkins worked as a machinist at the Equity Shoe factory in Leicester and realised working conditions and pay for women were inferior compared to those of her male colleagues.

She began campaigning for equality and joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).

After attending her first meeting in February 1907, she joined a march to the House of Commons and was jailed for the first of five times.

She was one of several women charged down by mounted police and sent to Holloway prison.

The suffragette campaign finally prompted the government to pass the 1918 Representation of the People Act, giving the vote to the first women - although not all women - in Britain.

Ms Hawkins died in 1946, aged 83, and was buried in a pauper's grave.

Fosse ward councillor Sue Waddington, who has been involved in the campaign, said: "I am very pleased that the plaque to celebrate Alice's life will be a permanent reminder of her life in Fosse ward and her struggles for votes for women."

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