A crocheted bag that once belonged to Miss Louisa Chapman

You will all by now know the pleasure I take in objects – as evidenced by the creation of The British Women’s Suffrage Movement in 100 Objects: a material history (to be published in July by Bloomsbury Academic). However, many more suffrage objects have passed across my vision – as well as through my hands – in the last 40 years than could ever be contained in any one book and, now that I’ve ceased trading in books and ephemera, I’ve more time to describe some of them here on this website. And so I will begin with items I bought at auction a few years ago that originally belonged to a ‘Miss Chapman’.

Helpfully, within the collection were a few postcards addressed to her at ’11 Bristol Gardens, Maida Vale, London W’. From this I was able to establish, from the London Electoral Register, that she was ‘Miss Louisa Chapman’.

11 Bristol Gardens (in the centre of the screenshot) is a large, stuccoed house, built c 1840s/1850s and now exceedingly smart, but by the early years of the 20^th century was in multiple occupation. The fact that Louisa Chapman was on the electoral register means that she was over 21, was a ratepayer, and probably occupied one or two unfurnished rooms in the house. However, single, independent women with a not-uncommon name and with no obvious links in the official records to family or friends are as ghosts. Despite many hours of determined effort, following all possibilities, I have been unable to furnish Louisa Chapman with a reliable back story. She is not at the Bristol Gardens address on the night of the 1911 census (in his listing the enumerator has noted as ‘uninhabited’ one of the apartments in the property). I, of course, immediately assumed that, as she was clearly a WSPU supporter, she was boycotting the census. But, equally, she may just happened that night to be visiting family or a friend.

From the evidence of the items in the collection I am sure that Louisa Chapman was an early London supporter of the WSPU. Some of the postcards she collected date to 1907, before the break with the WFL. She may have been the Miss Chapman who the early suffrage paper, The Women’s Franchise, noted as helping to organise the WSPU canvass of women householders in Paddington in September 1907. This Miss Chapman was living then at 53 Walterton Road, a 15-minute walk from Bristol Gardens, although she doesn’t appear there on the Electoral Register.

A photograph in the collection, which from the attire of the subjects and the leaf-less trees, I think probably dates from the winter of 1907 or 1908, shows Christabel Pankhurst surrounded by a group of women with, I think, Inspector Jarvis, standing to the right of the group. It is to be assumed that Miss Chapman is one of the party – but which one? I haven’t been able to identify where they are standing (I thought the shape of the railings might provide a clue), which might explain why they were there. The photograph is creased and torn, mended with Sellotape. It was taken by Bolak, a photographer at 10 Bolt Court, Fleet Street, and on the back is written in ink, presumably by Miss Chapman, ‘Taken about 45 years ago’. This would suggest that Miss Chapman was still alive in the early 1950s.

But, certainly, by June 1908 ‘our’ Miss Louisa Chapman was a devoted WSPU follower – purchasing other items to wear, probably for walking in the ‘Women’s Sunday’ procession. I will discuss these in my next posts. The name ‘Miss L. Chapman’ does appear occasionally in the list of contributions to WSPU funds, but whether they were from ‘our’ Miss Chapman it’s impossible to tell. There is no mention of ‘our’ Miss Chapman in either Votes for Women or The Suffragette. Nor does she appear on listings of arrested suffragettes. In fact, I can find no mention of any likely Miss Louisa Chapman in any newspapers in the British Newspaper Archive.

Cards written to her indicate that as late as 1913 Miss Chapman was still very much a WSPU supporter. Alas, the names of the senders – ‘Nannie’ and ‘Austen’ (the latter perhaps a child) – provide no substantial clues as to Miss Chapman’s identity.

I don’t, of course, know whether it was Miss Chapman herself who crocheted the ‘Votes for Women’ evening bag or whether she bought it at a fund-raising fair– but it certainly indicates a certain sense of style. The ‘Votes for Women’ hexagon has, of course, been fashioned from one of the woven badges sold by the WSPU. I noted from a couple of the postcards that Miss Chapman did have French friends living in London – and, from one of the cards a hint is given that she may have had a slight knowledge of the French language which led me to wonder if she might have been associated with the dressmaking or millinery trade.

The little bag is beautifully preserved, suggesting that it was little used. Perhaps it was made for one special occasion – and then laid aside to await its 21st century reawakening.

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