Abridged by G. Jarvis
Miss Nina Boyle* in Pontycymmer.
Two meetings were held at the Hippodrome, Pontycymmer on Sunday 5th March, 1915, when the Suffrage leader, Miss Nina Boyle, was the speaker.
At the evening meeting Miss Boyle spoke about the Women’s Suffrage Movement from an historical point of view, and traced its growth since 1775.
“People”, she said, were “probably asking why women were ‘going about’ agitating political changes when all parties had agreed to a truce during the war.” Her answer to that was, “the Women’s Suffrage Movement was of no party” and thus, they “felt that they had to carry on this work and especially on behalf of working class women, who were the first and among the greatest sufferer’s from this war.”
The speaker referred to the various movements now in existence, of food centres where supplies could be bought at cost prices, and the places where women were taught to make clothes for their children.
There were now places established to deal with the needs of women’s illnesses, now that regular hospitals were being mainly used for our wounded soldiers. All these things had come about by persistent lobbying by the Women’s Suffragette Movement.
A collection was made at the meetings in aid of the Women’s Hospital.
Taken from a Gazette report of 1915.
*Miss Antonina Boyle. (1865-1943) was an accomplished author and journalist. She was the co-founder of the Women’s Police Service in 1914. And left the Suffragette Movement in 1916, to become a nurse, and saw active service in Salonika, Greece. Miss Boyle was the first woman to be nominated to stand for election to the House of Commons in 1918.