Muriel Matters takes Adelaide suffragist spirit to London; shouts first female speech in House of Commons

Robert Wainwright's book on Muriel Matters and, right, a London press version of Matters chaining herself to the ladies gallery grille in the House of Commons.
Illustrated London News image courtesy House of Commons Library

Muriel Matters became the first woman to make a speech in the British House of Commons, on October 28, 1908, after chaining herself to a brass grille to protest against women being segregated in the parliament.

The Adelaide-born and -educated Matters had left for London to 1905 to further an acting career but instead she became one of England’s most famous suffragettes – having come from South Australian suffragist background where the vote for women was achieved in 1895.

Matters was at the heart of Women’s Freedom League protesters at the British parliament in October 1908, drawing attention to women’s struggle but particularly to an iron grille in the House of Commons ladies gallery that blocked the view of parliamentary proceedings. Matters and Helen Fox chained themselves to the grille and began loudly proclaiming the benefits of votes for women to the members of parliament below.

The police soon seized all the protesters but couldn’t separate Matters and Fox from the grille that had to be removed completely with the women attached until a blacksmith arrived. Matters was arrested later that night on a "trumped-up charge of obstruction" in trying to rush the parliament's lobby. The next day, 14 women (including Matters) and one male were tried at the Westminster Police Court. Matters was sent to one month in Holloway Gaol.

Next February, Matters hired a dirigible air balloon, intending to shower King Edward with Women’s Freedom League pamphlets during his procession to open parliament. Wind conditions and the balloon’s weak motor power prevented this but Matters, starting at Hendon airfields,  hugged London’s outskirts over Wormwood Scrubs, Kensington and Tooting before landing at Coulsdon after an hour and a half.  Her airship with “Votes for Women” and “Women's Freedom League” signs, rose to 3,500 feet with Matters scattering 56 pounds of WLF handbills. Her balloon tactic made headlines around the world.