Description
In the summer of 1920, events celebrating the Pilgrim Fathers were happening all across Britain. On occasion, reference was made to the ‘Pilgrim Mothers’ too – but, in the main, women were not lauded as highly as the men. One exception to this was the Festival of the Pilgrim Mothers, which took place on Hampstead Heath one afternoon in July 1920. The event was organised by the Women’s Freedom League, a less militant suffrage group that had broken away from the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907. Florence Underwood, the secretary of the League, told the press that ‘We now know that of the 102 people who sailed in the Mayflower 24 were wives, seven were daughters, and one was a maidservant. We think that the memory of these Pilgrim Mothers should be commemorated. The festival itself took the form of a garden fete, with stalls selling flowers, fruit, cake and candy, and entertainments like folk dancing, fortune telling by a palmist. More seriously, given the educational and campaigning remit of the League, there were speakers such as Lyn Harold Hough (President of North Western University, Chicago) and a ‘Model Parliamentary Election’ – given that some women had gained the vote in 1918.
Source
‘Pilgrim Mothers’, Western Evening Herald (13th July 1920), 4.
‘Garden fete and festival of the Pilgrim Mothers’, Vote (9th July 1920).