Fell, Miss Rachel, 14 Morton Crescent, Exmouth
Rachel Frances Hunter Fell, LRAM (1875-1963) was born in East Worldham Hampshire where her father Rev George Hunter Fell DD (Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford) was the vicar. Census returns suggest that Rachel’s home was with her parents until their deaths in 1915/17; they moved from East Worldham to Goring and then in 1904 moved to Exmouth.
They lived at 14 Morton Crescent, a substantial 12-roomed house near the sea; the 1911 census records Rachel living there with her father, aged 90 and her mother, aged 67 plus three servants. However, Rachel had spent some time away from her parents; she had studied at Dusseldorf Conservatoire and seriously devoted herself to music. She was a leading light in the musical life of the town and gave lessons from her home; the advertisements for these show that she was offering ‘lessons in violin, ensemble playing (quartets, trios etc) and harmony’.[1] She created a Ladies Orchestra in Exmouth and organised concerts for them to perform in, often for local charities like St Luke’s Nursing home, the Waifs and Strays Society, the Girls’ Friendly Society and Holy Trinity Restoration Fund. She was also a member of Exmouth Choral society where she sometimes played the violin alongside Laura Bull, a fellow member of Exmouth NUWSS. She also formed her own quartet which performed chamber music in the Temperance Hall, Exmouth and the Barnfield Hall, Exeter.[2]
Apart from her involvement in music, Rachel was a regular competitor in the Exmouth Tennis Tournaments[3] where she probably met up with fellow supporters of the NUWSS. She was a supporter of the Red Cross and was at the preliminary discussions, along with Miss Daw, for forming a VAD detachment in Exmouth[4] and in 1915 she was one of the flag-sellers raising money for the Russian Red Cross.[5]
The first reports of Rachel’s involvement with Exmouth NUWSS were in 1912 when she attended the debate for and against franchise when Miss Helen Ward (NUWSS) spoke for franchise in Exmouth and then attended the meeting at All Saints Exmouth where the speaker was Miss Frances Stirling from the executive committee of the NUWSS.[6] By 1913 Rachel was treasurer of the Exmouth branch of the NUWSS and when the Suffragist Pilgrimage arrived in Exmouth at the beginning of July she accompanied them as they left the town.[7] In April 1914 she presided over a meeting of the Ottery St Mary branch of the NUWSS and was the representative of the Friends of Women’s Suffrage in the SW Federation.[8] At the AGM of the Exmouth NUWSS in 1915 it was noted that she was going to be leaving the town, though it is difficult to know where she moved to. Certainly from 1926 to 1939 she was living in London, first at 22 Horbury Crescent and then at 38 Queen’s Gate.[9]
It seems that her interest in women’s issues had not diminished after her involvement with the suffrage movement; in 1934 and 1938 she was listed as the organising secretary for the Society of Women Musicians (74 Grosvenor Street London W1) which had been formed in 1911 to ‘act as a representative body in the interest of women in music’.[10]
She died on 18 February 1963 at Rodmell House, Front Road, Tunbridge Wells.[11]
Entry created by April Marjoram, June 2018
[1] ExJ, 20 June 1908 onwards
[2] DEG, 8 Dec 1910,1 Oct1912.
[3] DEG, 1907/08/09
[4] ExJ, 5 Nov 1910.
[5] WT, 14 Dec 1915.
[6] DEG, 23 May & 28 Jun 1912.
[7] WT, 8 Jul 1913.
[8] DEG, 3 Apr1914.
[9] Information from electoral registers.
[10] The Women’s Who’s Who 1934 & 1938.
[11] Information from probate register.