Alice Hawkins (1863 - 1946)

Alice Hawkins was the leader of the suffrage movement in Leicester. She lived for most of her life in Leicester, was a mother of six and shoe machinist by trade. She was determined that women should have an equal say in the democracy of the day and was imprisoned five times for her activities in promoting this.

Alice and her husband joined the Society in 1902. Unfortunately we have no records of their involvement apart from the membership record.

Alice was also a member of the Clarion Cycling Club.The cycling craze starting in the the 1890s had been very liberating for women. The Clarion, a radical newspaper, had promoted Clarion Cycling Clubs and these were at the forefront of encouraging women to participate. The early Clarion cycling clubs had involvement with the founding of the Labour party and were ofter linked to the suffrage movement. They were infamous for their propaganda activity, allegedly putting socialist stickers on cows and other convenient places.

Links to further information about Alice

Alice Suffragette website: http://www.alicesuffragette.co.uk/
Biography by cycling historian Sheila Hanlon: http://www.sheilahanlon.com/?page_id=2231
Ned Newitt's radical who's who: http://www.nednewitt.com/whoswho/H.html#Alice%20Hawkins