Violet Key Jones
Violet Key Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 June 1883 |
| Died | 30 August 1958 (aged 75) |
| Burial place | Scholemoor Cemetery, Bradford, Yorkshire, England |
| Movement | Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) |
Violet Frances Key Jones (17 June 1883 – 30 August 1958) was an Irish-born suffragette who was the treasurer of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) branch in York, England.[1]
Earl life
[edit]Jones was born in County Kildare, Ireland in 1883.[2] Her parents were John Jones, an army surgeon, and his wife Harriet Jones née Key, who came from a Yorkshire gentry family.[1] Her maternal uncle was Captain William Key, Lord of Water Fulford Hall, Yorkshire, and she had a brother who became a railway engineer.[3] After her father passed away, Jones and her family moved back to Yorkshire in 1900.[4]
Activism
[edit]Jones became involved in the suffrage movement and was the treasurer of the York branch of the WSPU, which had been founded by Annie Coultate in 1910.[5] A year later she was employed by the WSPU as their first paid York and Doncaster organiser and became prominent in the suffrage campaign.[6] Her home on Osbourne Road became a safe house for suffragettes, such as Lilian Lenton, Kathleen Brown and Augusta Mary Ann Winship.[3][7]
In February 1911, Jones was one of the performers in three plays put on at the York Assembly Rooms by the WSPU in association with the Actresses’ Franchise League.[8] One show was titled "How the vote was won".[8] When the 1911 census was taken, Jones organised the suffragette boycott in York and herself evaded being enumerated.[8]
In 1912,18-year-old journalist Harry Johnson, a supporter of women's enfranchisement and possible member of the Men's Political Union (MPU),[9] was sentenced to a year's imprisonment in Wakefield Gaol with hard labour for attempting to blow up a house near Doncaster for the cause.[10] He went on hunger strike and was released temporarily from prison under the Cat and Mouse Act, and Jones, along with Annie Seymour Pearson, helped him to evade rearrest.[5] Jones was lucky to not have been implicated and arrested herself, as detectives searching the grounds of a suspect property found her name on a piece of paper with a copy of The Suffragette newspaper, two gallons of paraffin and a box of fire-lighters.[11]
Also in 1912, Jones jumped onto the running board of Sir Walter Worsley's car during the opening ceremony of the "Open Air School" in York and scattered Votes for Women pamphlets.[12] The same year the WSPU hosted an open-air meeting in Doncaster and a crowd of anti-suffragists attacked the event, heckling the speaker Barbara Wylie, snatching away leaflets and throwing rotten eggs and orange peel until the meeting was broken up. Jones was one of the organisers of the event who had to be escorted to safety by her bodyguards and the local police.[13] She later said about the event: "this sort of rowdyism can only help the cause... I would have spoken if I could make my voice heard above the noise".[3]
In March 1913, Jones chained herself to a chair, heckled and disrupted a meeting held by the anti-suffrage politicians Phillip Snowden and Keir Hardie at the Exhibition Buildings in York.[1][8] She was ejected from the meeting and arrested.
Later life
[edit]Jones died in 1958 in Bradford and was buried at Scholemoor Cemetery.
Legacy
[edit]In 2019 a plaque was placed on Coney Street by the York Civic Trust in partnership with Pilot Theatre and the Theatre Royal to commemorate the office headquarters where York's suffragettes organised and campaigned.[11][14]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Cowman, Krista (2007). The Militant Suffragette Movement in York. Borthwick Publications. pp. 11–15. ISBN 978-1-904497-21-9.
- ^ Cowman, Krista (15 July 2007). Women of the Right Spirit: Paid Organisers of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), 1904-18. Manchester University Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-7190-7002-0.
- ^ a b c Liddington, Jill (3 September 2015). Rebel Girls: How votes for women changed Edwardian lives. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0-349-00781-6.
- ^ Lewis, Stephen (19 February 2018). "Who were the York suffragettes?". York Press. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ a b "What did the suffragettes do in York? Quite a lot actually..." York Press. 18 October 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ Waters, Michael (1 January 2018). "The Campaign for Women's Suffrage in York and the 1911 Census Evasion". Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. 90 (1): 178–194. doi:10.1080/00844276.2018.1465692. ISSN 0084-4276.
- ^ Godfrey, Jennifer (4 July 2024). Secret Missions of the Suffragettes: Glassbreakers and Safe Houses. Pen and Sword History. ISBN 978-1-3990-1399-4.
- ^ a b c d "Victorian Women". HerStoryYork. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ "Mr Harry Johnson / Database - Women's Suffrage Resources". Suffrage Resources. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ "In History: Suffragettes speak about direct action and their brutal treatment". BBC News. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
- ^ a b Lewis, Stephen (28 January 2019). "WOMEN AT WAR: Meet the York suffragettes who fought for the vote". York Press. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
- ^ Chrystal, Paul (15 November 2014). Secret York. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-4456-4084-6.
- ^ Brown, John (10 March 2016). The Obedient Servant: Doncaster borough police 1836-1968. Troubador Publishing. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-1-78589-038-3.
- ^ Lewis, Stephen (30 January 2019). "What was the 'demo' that briefly closed Coney Street this morning all about?". York Press. Retrieved 21 November 2024.