Muriel Matters

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Muriel Matters
Born(1877-11-12)12 November 1877
Bowden, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia[1]
Died17 November 1969(1969-11-17) (aged 92)
Hastings, East Sussex, England[1]
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
Occupation(s)Educator, writer, suffragist
Spouse
William Arnold Porter
​
​
(m. 1914)​

Muriel Lilah Matters (12 November 1877 – 17 November 1969) was an Australian-born

elocutionist.[1] Based in Britain from 1905 until her death, Matters is best known for her work on behalf of the Women's Freedom League at the height of the militant struggle to enfranchise women in the United Kingdom.[2]

Early life

Muriel Matters was born in the inner city suburb of

cabinetmaker and later stockbroker.[citation needed
]

Matters spent the majority of her youth in South Australia. In 1894

the colony had gained attention for being the first self-governing territory to give women equal franchise on the same terms as it was granted to men, under legislation passed by the Kingston Government.[citation needed
]

During Matters' upbringing she was introduced to two 19th-century literary figures who proved influential in informing her political consciousness. These were the American poet Walt Whitman and the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, author of A Doll's House.[2] While attending elocution classes as a child, the works of both of these writers featured prominently.[citation needed]

Matters studied music at the

recitals, initially in Adelaide, but later in Sydney and Melbourne with the Robert Brough Company.[3]

At the time of the

London, England.[citation needed
]

Conversion to the suffrage cause

When Matters arrived in London she began doing recitals intermittently and eventually performed at the Bechstein Hall (now named

Prince Peter Kropotkin. Matters eventually performed at the home of Kropotkin and, after her recital, he challenged her to use her skills for something more useful stating that, "Art is not an end of life, but a means."[7] Matters agreed with his assessment and soon became involved with the Women's Freedom League (WFL) to further the cause of women. She would later write that her encounter with Kropotkin, "proved to be the lifetime in a moment lived – my entire mental outlook was changed."[7] WFL was led by Charlotte Despard and was set up to be more democratic than the Pankhursts led Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) suffragettes.[2] Matters accompanied Maud Arncliffe Sennet to an event where Milicent Fawcett was debating the support for women's militancy Arncliffe Sennett wrote in the press that Matters had not been forced into silence.[8]

Work with the Women's Freedom League

Caravan tour of 1908

In early May through to mid-October 1908, Matters was "Organiser in Charge" of the first "Votes for Women" caravan that toured the south east counties of England.

famine-ravaged Russia.[citation needed
]

Grille incident

The London Illustrated News illustration of the Grille incident - 7th November 1908

On the night of 28 October 1908, the WFL conducted a simultaneous protest at the British Houses of Parliament. It was to occur outside St Stephen's Entrance, the Old Prison Yard and in the House of Commons. The purpose of the protest was to raise attention to the struggle of women and remove the "grille", a piece of ironwork placed in the Ladies' Gallery that obscured their view of parliamentary proceedings.[10] Matters was at the heart of the protest at this symbol of women's oppression.[2] She and an associate, Helen Fox, both chained themselves to the grille of the Ladies' Gallery and Matters began loudly proclaiming the benefits of enfranchisement directly to the elected MPs.[citation needed]

Although not recorded in Hansard, the official minute of the House of Commons, Matters pronouncements were technically the first woman's speech ever in the British Parliament.[11]

Meanwhile,

Holloway Gaol.[13] Emily Duval was arrested in together with her teenage daughter Barbara. They had both been with Muriel Matters when she chained herself to the grill. Emily paid her fine and 17 year old Barbara Duval was released after she said that she would not get involved in any further protests until she was 21 (ie an adult).[14]

Airship flight

The Votes For Women Airship lifting off
Muriel Matters in the airship

On 16 February 1909,

dirigible airship (similar to a modern-day blimp in appearance) owned by Percival G. Spencer and intended to shower the King and the Houses of Parliament with WFL pamphlets.[15] However, due to adverse wind conditions and the rudimentary motor powering the airship, she never made it to the Palace of Westminster. Instead, Matters, beginning at Hendon airfields, hugged the outskirts of London flying over Wormwood Scrubs, Kensington, Tooting and finally landing in Coulsdon with the trip lasting an hour and a half in total.[16]

With the airship emblazoned with "Votes for Women" on one side and "Women's Freedom League" on the other, it rose to a height of 3,500 feet (1,100 m). Matters scattered 56 pounds (25 kg) of handbills promoting the WFL's cause and leading members of the league, Edith How-Martyn and Elsie Craig, pursued her by car.[17] Her flight made headlines around the world.[18]

1910: First lecture tour of Australia

Before sailing to Australia, Matters and fellow suffragette

Princess Theatre) and Sydney (King's Hall). Giving three talks in each city she advocated for prison reform, equal pay for equal work and for the vote to be granted to the women of Great Britain.[21] Accompanied by Violet Tillard on the tour, Matters presented the audience with illustrations related to the movement and donned a facsimile of her prison dress. From the newspaper reports surrounding her visit it is evident that she played to sizeable audiences and that her performances were littered with laughter and applause.[22]

At the conclusion of the lecture tour, Matters helped

Prime Minister Asquith
in Britain.

Work in East London

Within a year of Matters' return from her country of origin, she became involved with the "Mothers Arms" project in

Montessori method, although she was not qualified at this point, in addition to feeding and clothing them. During 1913 Matters ensured that the male dominated National Federation of Mineworkers came to support women's suffrage.[2]

Work in Scotland

During 1913, Matters spent much time campaigning for the suffrage cause in Scotland. For example, in January, she spoke in the Livingstone Hall in Edinburgh on the subject of the Reform Bill.

Cat and Mouse Act .[26]

Matters was presented with a most unusual souvenir after a meeting in Perth, Tayside in May: amongst the missiles thrown at her was a hambone, and this was later inscribed 'N.U.W.S.S., Perth 20-6-13' and presented to her.[27] Dr Elsie Inglis presided over a meeting when Matters was the speaker in Edinburgh in November 1913.[28] In December, Matters spoke in Nairn on the subject of 'women in social and political evolution'.[29] Matters made a number of other appearances in Scotland in the first six months of 1914; for instance in Musselburgh in June where she dealt 'most effectively' with the subject of women's suffrage.[30]

Marriage

In September 1913, Matters became engaged to marry William Arnold Porter, a divorced Bostonian dentist, at the fourth time of asking. In those days it was controversial to marry a divorcee, and rumour was he had left his wife for her.[31][32] The couple married on 15 October 1914. She subsequently became known as Muriel Matters-Porter and she later attained American citizenship through the marriage. The couple did not have children.[citation needed]

Objection to the First World War

In June 1915, one year after the outbreak of

war bonds, her arguments were in conflict with a society engaged in total war. The address was later reproduced in the form of a pamphlet by the anti-war Peace Committee of the Society of Friends
(Quakers) and sold for a small fee. Her brother, Charles Adams Matters, died at Lone Pine in August 1915.

Montessori method

In 1916, Matters spent a year in Barcelona attending the Italian educator

Montessori method.[35]

1922: Second lecture tour of Australia

In 1922, Matters undertook a second lecture tour of Australia but this time her primary concern was to advocate Montessori's ideas to the educators of her native country. Giving lectures in Perth, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, her tour was closely followed by the Australian press.[35]

Candidate for Hastings

Returning to the UK, Matters was selected to run as the

Lord Eustace Percy. She ran on a largely socialist platform advocating a fairer distribution of wealth, work for the unemployed and furthering the equality of the sexes.[37] During the election, Muriel's younger brother, Leonard Matters, joined her on the campaign. Leonard's experience as a writer and journalist would have been invaluable in negotiating the hostile Hastings press (Leonard himself would later become the Member for Lambeth in 1929).[38]
Despite the Matters’ best efforts, Lord Eustace Percy was returned with an increased majority of 9,135 which echoed the Conservative gains across the country.

Hastings remained a safe Conservative seat and was not claimed by a Labour Party candidate until 1997.[39]

Later life and death

Speaking in 1928 to voters

In the years after the election, Matters settled in Hastings with her husband. It was 1928, when a fifty-one-year-old Matters finally achieved what she and other women of Great Britain were seeking - equal suffrage for women compared to men (partial suffrage had been granted to women in 1918). In her later years, Matters often wrote letters to the editor of newspapers, frequented the local library and was heavily involved in the Hastings community. Controversial to the end, she was locally reported as seen "skinny dipping" at Pelham Beach.[2]

Widowed in 1949, Matters died 21 years later on 17 November 1969, aged 92, at the St Leonards on Sea nursing home.[40] Her ashes were scattered in the Hastings Cemetery.

Recognition

Matters was not given the same recognition in Australia as in the UK, where she was interviewed by the

#MeToo movement.[41] In 2021, the Speaker of the House of Assembly and South Australian Minister for Education instituted the Muriel Matters Award, for South Australian secondary school students who show self-initiative and commitment to making a difference in the community.[42] In 2022, a maquette was presented by the Muriel Matters Society to the Hastings Borough Council, where council offices have been named "Muriel Matters House". A blue plaque
has been placed on her home at 7 Pelham Crescent, Hastings.


See also

References

  1. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Awcock, Hannah (8 March 2018). "Turbulent Londoners: Muriel Matters, 1877-1969". Turbulent London. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  3. ^ a b The Critic, 9 August 1905, p. 7.
  4. ^ "Public Notices", The Advertiser, 8 June 1901, p, 2.
  5. ^ "Miss Muriel Matters Recital", The Advertiser, 30 August 1902, p. 8.
  6. ^ "Bechstein Hall – Miss Muriel Matters", The Times, 9 March 1907.
  7. ^ a b Mrs. Leonard W. Matters 1913, Australasians Who Count in London and Who Counts in Western Australia, Jas. Truscott & Son, Ltd., London, p. 163.
  8. ^ "Mary Kingsley Review". British Newspaper Archive. Archived from the original on 28 March 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  9. ^ a b Women's Freedom League 1908, Report for the Year 1908, London, p 13, held in the Suffragette Fellowship Collection, Museum of London.
  10. ^ Women's Freedom League 1908, Report for the Year 1908, London, p 10, held in the Suffragette Fellowship Collection, Museum of London.
  11. ^ a b Society, Muriel Matters (15 August 2017). "The Muriel Matters Society Inc. AGM 2017". The Muriel Matters Society Inc. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  12. ^ Mrs. Leonard W. Matters 1913, Australasians Who Count in London and Who Counts in Western Australia, Jas. Truscott & Son, Ltd., London, p. 164.
  13. ^ "Woman Suffrage – The Disorder at Westminster", The Times, 30 October 1908, p. 9.
  14. ISBN 978-1-4088-4405-2
    .
  15. ^ "Suffragette Tries Balloon Campaign", The New York Times.
  16. ^ The Times, 17 February 1909, p. 10.
  17. ^ "SUFFRAGISTS IN THE AIR". The West Australian. Vol. XXV, no. 7, 171. Western Australia. 19 March 1909. p. 3. Retrieved 23 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ Walsh, Liz (25 March 2017). "Adelaide suffragette Muriel Matters took to an airship to fight for women's rights in the 1900s". The Advertiser. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
  19. ^ Cowman, Krista (November 1994). "Engendering Citizenship Political Involvement of Women on Merseyside 1890-1920" (PDF). University of York Centre for Women's Studies. p. 267. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  20. ^ "W.F.L. in Trafalgar Square". The Vote. 9 April 1910. p. 278.
  21. ^ "Address by Miss Muriel Matters", The Advertiser, 1 August 1910, p. 9.
  22. ^ "Through Women's Eyes", The Register, 13 June 1910, p. 10.
  23. ^ D.S., "Australian Women in Politics: An Interview with Miss Muriel Matters", The British Australasian, 9 February 1911, p. 9.
  24. ^ "Women suffragists and the Reform Bill". The Scotsman. 16 January 1913. p. 6.
  25. ^ "West Lothian By-election: National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies". West Lothian Courier and Lanarkshire, Stirlingshire and Mid-Lothian Herald. 31 October 1913. p. 1.
  26. ^ "Letters to the Editor: British and Russian prisons". The Scotsman. 21 April 1913. p. 9.
  27. ^ "Tayside echoes". The Perthshire Advertiser. 23 July 1913. p. 4.
  28. ^ "The Suffragist campaign". The Scotsman. 7 November 1913. p. 8.
  29. ^ "Suffrage meeting at Nairn". The Aberdeen Press and Journal. 5 December 1913. p. 9.
  30. ^ "The National Union of Women's DSuffrage Societies". The Musselburgh News. 26 June 1914. p. 4.
  31. ^
    ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  32. The Mail (Adelaide)
    . Vol. 2, no. 71. South Australia. 6 September 1913. p. 2. Retrieved 23 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  33. ^ Matters, Muriel 1915, The False Mysticism of War, Headly Bros., London.
  34. ^ Matters, Muriel 1915, The False Mysticism of War, Headly Bros., London, p. 5.
  35. ^ a b c "The Child Mind", The Argus, 6 October 1922, p. 12.
  36. ^ "Parliamentary Candidates", The Times, 21 August 1924, p. 7.
  37. ^ "Election Notes and News", The Hastings Observer, 28 October 1924.
  38. ^ "India: Service in Cause of Freedom", The Hindu, 31 October 1957.
  39. ^ "Muriel Matters: Former Suffragette who Wanted to be Hastings MP", <"The British Women's Emancipation Movement 1830-1930". Archived from the original on 24 October 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2009.>
  40. ^ Hastings Observer, 22 November 1969.
  41. ^ Kesteven, Sophie; Listen, Fiona Croall for The History (18 September 2018). "The daring Australian suffragist who took to an airship to fight for women's rights". ABC News. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  42. ^ "Muriel Matters Awards". Department for Education. 7 October 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2021.

Further reading

External links
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