Peter to share great-grandma's suffragette story in Parliament

Peter Barratt is the great-grandson of Leicester suffragette Alice Hawkins.

He has been invited by the Curators Department, who are responsible for organising events and exhibitions, to give a talk at Portcullis House in the House of Commons on Tuesday, March 1.

Peter said: “It is a free event, open to MPs, Parliamentary staff and the general public and is one of four talks to be given on consecutive Mondays throughout March.

“One hundred years on after Alice’s first arrest outside Parliament, it will be a fitting tribute to her and will be a passionate and inspiring account of her fight for the right to vote.”

Alice Hawkins was a committed suffragette and was jailed five times for taking part in protests.

One of her finest moments was in 1908 when she spoke before a mass rally in Hyde Park. Known as Women’s Sunday and attended by over 250,000 supporters, Alice was reported as a keynote speaker the following day in The Times.

Although the talk is a free event, all the tickets were booked with days of the event being posted onto the Parliamentary website.

The talk is also timely for Peter as it will be held a day after the release of the 2015 film Suffragette on DVD.

Peter and his daughter Kate were invited by the director of the film, Sarah Gavron, to be extras in the film and feature in a scene filmed at the House of Commons with the stars Carey Mulligan, who plays Maud Watts, and Brendon Gleeson.

Peter was also featured in the Telegraph last year when he offered to take his recently-acquired traditional Punch and Judy show to events around the county.