Aitken-Davies, Miss Eliza, 46 Elm Road, Mannamead
Eliza Aitken-Davies[1] (1869–1953) was the daughter of Edward Aitken-Davies, a Plymouth journalist reputed to have worked for the Western Morning News. Edith was his eldest child, born on 5 October 1869; brother Edward was born in 1871 and sister Edith in 1874. Their mother’s identity has not yet been confirmed, but by the time of the 1881 census Edward was a widower for a second time. He had married Amelia May Bastow in 1874 but she herself had died in 1878. Edward and the three children were living in part of Millbay House, Citadel Road, Plymouth. There were no other family members resident, nor servants. The three children were all described as scholars. The family were still living there in 1891, when the girls were listed with no occupation, although Edward junior aged 18 was described, like his father, as ‘journalist and author’.
Edward Aitken Davies died in 1899. In 1901 both Eliza and Edith were living at 11 Crescent Avenue with brother Edward, his wife, Annie, and their son Edward. Eliza was described as a school teacher and Edith as a telegraphist. Eliza continued her teaching career in Plymouth all her life. She described herself on the 1911 census, by which time she was living at 46 Elm Road, as a school teacher, and the enumerator has written ‘municipal council’ beside the entry. By the time she was 60 in 1939 her occupation was listed as ‘headmistress, retired’.
Eliza was an early recruit to the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), appearing as a donor soon after Annie Kenney and Elsie Howey had established a base there.[2] She was a member of the first speakers’ class established by the WSPU in May 1909, held at the YMCA on Mondays at 8.30, thus allowing even those who, like Eliza, were working, to participate. At the end of the month a Whit Monday Unionist fete was held in Mount Edgcumbe Park. A prize had been offered for the best maiden speech on Woman’s Suffrage. Eliza took second prize.[3]
After that there are no further records of Eliza’s suffrage activity. Towards the end of her life she wrote briefly about her experience of the WSPU in a letter published in the Western Morning News in 1950, prompted by their assertion that the first woman Lord Mayor, Jacquetta Marshall, had been a ‘suffragette’. She explained the distinction between the militant and constitutional wings of the movement, saying that the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society ‘had few members and their meetings were poorly attended’ while ‘the suffragettes charged for seats at their meetings and always had good houses’. She remembered the pledge card which stated that they ‘would not work for any political party until women were no longer classed with convicts, lunatics and paupers’. She also stated that she knew Mrs Pankhurst, Vera Wentworth and other leaders.[4]
Eliza Aitken-Davies of 139 Glendower Road died on 10 February 1953. She left over £3400.
Entry created by Anne Corry and Julia Neville, January 2019
[1] Census and family information from www.ancestry.co.uk.
[2] Votes for Women, 11 February 1909, 338.
[3] Votes for Women, 21 May, 698; 11 Jun, 789, 794.
[4] Western Morning News, 14 Oct 1950.