Great-grandson of prominent suffragette Alice Hawkins keen to share her story with Northamptonshire schools

The great-grandson of Alice Hawkins, a prominent suffragette who campaigned for womens’ right to vote, is looking to share her story in Northamptonshire schools.

Alice Hawkins was instrumental in the Suffragette movement, and while Peter Barratt has delivered educational sessions in schools in Leicestershire, he’s eager to volunteer his services to spread the word in his home county.

Peter, 68, who lives in Irthlingborough, grew up hearing about Alice’s exploits from his grandfather.

He said: “Since 2018, in Leicestershire, I have partnered with English Heritage who have circulated my details to schools and, on average, I have been visiting 20 or so schools a year since, these being both primary and secondary with the visits supporting related historical topics, law and order, Victorians, citizenship and in primary schools the British values taught.

“The school visits to date have been very well received and are extremely popular, with many schools inviting me back each year.

"Part of my reason to visit schools is to encourage young people to think about this human right they have today that was denied to the women a hundred years ago.”

Peter learned of Alice as a very young boy, believing it to be ‘a formative time’ in his childhood.

A shoe machinist by trade and mother of six, Alice Hawkins was on the frontline of the fight to give women the vote, which was finally put in motion in 1918. She formed the Leicester branch of the suffragette movement.

Peter’s ‘passionate hobby’ of speaking about Alice has taken him all over Leicestershire to speak to schools about her efforts.

He has spent much of his time learning about his family’s fight for the vote, and has vivid memories learning about his great-grandmother.

Now, he’s eager to use that knowledge to educate young people in Northamptonshire about her struggle and the impact she had.

Peter added: “In Northamptonshire she’s less well-known. She used to come into the county in her day, she was in Rushden, Irthlingborough and all the shoe towns campaigning to get women to join the new trade union.

“I like visiting the schools in Leicester but it’s a 70-mile round trip every time I go. I thought perhaps there were some schools in Northamptonshire who are more local to me who are teaching a related subject and might be interested in having a speaker in on a voluntary basis.”

Peter’s second cousins have a substantial portion of Alice’s suffragette memorabilia, and this combined with Peter’s own collection (which includes Alice’s sash and a letter from Emmeline Pankhurst) makes one of the biggest collections of suffragette memorabilia in the UK.

In 2018, a statue of Alice was installed in Market Square in her home city of Leicester to mark 100 years since votes for some women were granted.

Closer to home, the Wellingborough by-election is looming large, and voting is on the minds of people in north Northamptonshire.

Three different women represent the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats standing as candidates on February 15, something that would have been unheard of when Alice Hawkins was campaigning. The strides that society has made, from Northamptonshire and beyond, because of those brave women certainly can’t be understated.

Peter said: “When I used to speak to my mum about her granny, Alice, she always said the same thing to me.

“She said that when she was a young girl, her granny Alice said to her ‘Vera, you must use your vote, we suffered for it’.”

Peter can be contacted on [email protected], and his website can be found here.