Phear, the Misses Ethel and Winifred, Marpool Hill, Exmouth
Ethel Kamini Baker, née Phear (1867- )was born on 17 September 1867 in Calcutta (Kolkata), India. Her younger sister, Winifred Mary Phear (1872-1942) was born on 12 January 1872 in Fort William, Bengal. Their father was Sir John Budd Phear, High Court Judge in Calcutta and Chief Justice of Ceylon. At the end of his term of service in Ceylon the family returned to England and lived in Exmouth. In September 1880 they were staying at 11 The Beacon but three months later they moved into Marpool Hall, Exmouth. Winifred and her sister Ethel grew up in this mansion whilst their parents ‘took a great interest in all matters of parochial work’ and ‘rendered important public services’ to the town. Both parents were leading figures in the Liberal party and Sir John was Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, the local Board of Health and a Devon County Council alderman whilst his wife was a committee member of the Exmouth District Schools Board and the Evening Continuation classes.[1] In 1884 at a meeting of the Exmouth Liberal Association meeting Sir John Phear gave a speech in support of the motion under consideration which was in favour of women’s suffrage.[2]
In 1903 Ethel (as president) and Winifred (as vice-president) were at the Women’s Liberal Association meeting when Mrs Marrack, President of Devon Union of Women’s Liberal Associations, gave an address on women’s suffrage.[3] It is difficult to know, therefore, whether it was Ethel or Winifred who took her place on the committee (alongside Mrs Montague, Miss Pinckney and Miss Stuart) at the first meeting of the Exmouth Women’s Suffrage Society, formed in 1904.[4] Certainly both sisters were interested in women’s political issues and were involved in public service. Ethel was a voluntary organiser for the Society of the Return of Women Guardians and was one of the three Guardians of the Poor in Exmouth from 1898 until 1906. She served on the Exmouth School Board and was also the secretary of the Women’s Liberal Association for Devon.[5] Ethel studied at Girton College Cambridge between 1887 and 1890 and so a comment she made to the press in 1949 was particularly meaningful: she felt that ‘the latest move in granting the diplomas to women students marks the final stage in women’s suffrage’.[6]
There were changes after the death of Sir John Phear in April 1905 (Lady Phear had died seven years earlier). The Marpool estate was given to the town; it was officially opened as Phear Park in 1910 and Ethel, Winifred and their brother were occupied with the process of handing it over. In 1906 Ethel married a Congregational minister, John Kitto Baker, and went to live in Paignton and Winifred moved to a smaller house in Exmouth and took over some of the positions in organisations which her sister had held, particularly in the Liberal Association. Apart from more general activities on behalf of the Liberal party like opening the Withycombe Radical Club, attending Liberal rallies or meetings in Exmouth and hosting the Radical candidate for the Honiton division; she used the Women’s Liberal Association as a channel through which she could press for women’s suffrage. In October 1909 at the Devon Union of Women’s Liberal Association(WLA) Miss Sommerville spoke on ‘the WLA and the Suffrage’; this was followed by an address by Winifred and a resolution was passed: ‘that this conference of Devon Liberal Women while strongly deprecating violent and unconstitutional methods urges all WLAs to do their utmost to further the cause of women’s suffrage by every orderly and legitimate method’.[7] The following year she and Miss Earp (q.v.), a fellow suffragist, signed a pledge to the Liberal Association: ‘We members of the Exmouth Women’s Liberal Association pledge ourselves not to work for any parliamentary candidate who will not pledge himself, if elected, to vote for any Women’s Suffrage Bill or amendment at any stage, unless the Liberal Party Whips tell officially against it’.[8] She served on the Honiton [Liberal] Division committee and at the annual meeting in 1913 announced that ‘ladies could work with far greater heart and keenness if they had a candidate who could see his way to adult suffrage.’[9] Miss Bull of Exmouth (q.v.) supported the statement.
Additionally Winifred was evidently a member of Exmouth NUWSS; in 1909 she attended the garden meeting of the Exeter NUWSS at Spreytownway, Pennsylvania organised by Miss Montgomery where the Hon. Lady Acland addressed the group.[10] Later that year a lunch was held in Exeter for Lady Frances Balfour and Sir John Cockburn who had been the principal speakers the previous evening at a meeting of the Exeter NUWSS; Winifred attended, along with Miss Earp and her partner Miss Dougall from Exmouth.[11]
Alongside this Winifred was committed to civic work in Exmouth. She was on the committee of the Book Club (essentially a lending library for the town), was president of Withycombe Village Institute and Reading Rooms and was the first president of Phear Park Tennis Club. She was manager of Exmouth Schools Council and was part of a deputation to Devon Education Committee to support the development of the Cambridge University Extension classes.[12] Her involvement in these kinds of organisations continued on into later life and in the 1920s she was appointed a J.P.
On 21 December 1932 at Point in View church Exmouth, she married Rev Edward Peters who was the minister of the Beacon Congregational church. They lived at 1 Ashleigh Road Exmouth. He died on 25 May 1934 and she died 6 September 1942.[13] She is buried in Littleham churchyard, Exmouth.
Entry created by April Marjoram, June 2018
[1] ExJ, 1 Jan 1898; 8 Apr 1905.
[2] ExJ, 26 Jan 1884.
[3] DEG, 19 Mar 1903.
[4] ExJ 8 Oct 1904.
[5] Joyce Sanders Pedersen, The Reform of Girls’ Secondary and Higher Education in Victorian England, Routledge Revivals, 2017.
[6] Torbay Express & South Devon Advertiser, 13 October 1949.
[7] WT, 9 Oct 1909.
[8] WT, 25 Nov 1910.
[9] WT, 25 Apr 1913.
[10] DEG, 17 Jul 1909.
[11] WT, 1 Dec 1909.
[12] WT, 6 Jun 1913.
[13] Probate Register.