Vera Wentworth (1890-1957)

 
Striking woman aged 18 wearing heavy serge fabric jacket, collared shirt and wide-brimmed hat

Vera Wentworth in 1909 (Wikimedia)

Vera Wentworth was the adopted name of lesbian militant suffragette Jessie Alice Spink who was born in London in 1890. She moved to Bristol in 1909 and was heavily involved in militant suffragette activity in the city and imprisoned in Horfield Gaol.

She joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906 and formally changed her name the following year after pressure from her father who believed she was bringing the family name into disrepute.

Vera came to Bristol in January 1909 where she chalked on pavements to advertise suffragette open air meetings at the Horsefair, Broadmead, Durdham Downs, Horfield Common, and outside factories. She was active at the WSPU shop at 37 Queen’s Road which ran from 1909-1914. Vera joined a secret spin-off group of the WSPU called “The Young Hot Bloods”.

In March 1909 with Elsie Howey, Vera accosted anti-suffrage Bristol Liberal MP Augustine Birrell at Bristol Temple Meads station and was arrested. In May, again with Elsie Howey, Vera hid in the organ loft of the Colston Hall (now Bristol Beacon) in order to interrupt a meeting where Birrell was speaking (see footnote). In September, with Howey and Jessie Kenney, Vera attacked and struck prime minister Herbert Asquith at Lympe Castle, Kent, and threw stones in the window where he was at dinner. Fellow suffragette, the writer Rebecca West described Vera as “a little terror, rather a handsome girl”.

On 12th November 1909 when Winston Churchill was visiting Bristol, Vera smashed windows at the Bristol Liberal Club, 38 Corn Street. She threw a fossil with a note reading “Liberal statesmen are fossils and out of touch”. She was arrested and sent to prison in Horfield Gaol for 14 days. She went on hunger strike and was forcibly fed.

After being released from prison Vera stayed to recuperate at Henley Grove, Westbury-on-Trym, a 15-bed mansion run as a ladies’ domestic science college and later a hotel from c.1904-1910 by suffrage supporter Violet Bland. Henley Grove was demolished in the 1960s. Vera was given the Hunger Strike Medal by the WPSU.

Vera was also a regular visitor to Eagle House, Batheaston, home of the suffragette sympathizers the Blathwayt family from 1882-1961. Vera had an intimate relationship with Mary Blathwayt but this cooled as Mary was shocked by Vera’s increasing militant action. Eagle House was converted into flats in the 1960s. Vera was arrested at the notorious “Black Friday” demonstration meeting in London on November 18th 1910 when suffragettes were physically and sexually abused by the police and male bystanders. 4 men and 115 women were arrested.

In March 1912 Vera took part in a West End window smashing campaign and was imprisoned in Holloway, during which her play An Allegory was performed by fellow suffragette prisoners, directed by Bristol-born Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. After her release Vera wrote pamphlets Three Months in Holloway and Should Christian Women Demand The Vote.

In 1913 Vera travelled to the USA to support women’s national suffrage there (this was finally achieved in 1920). During the First World War she was a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse.

Votes for women over 30 who were householders was achieved in 1918. Vera had lost interest in politics the previous year when the WSPU was dissolved to become The Women’s Party which in turn was dissolved in 1921.

In the early 1920s Vera met Daisy Ethel Cardew (1896-1992), a former pupil of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, who become her partner for the rest of her life. At the time of the 1939 register they were living in St Pancras, London, with Vera described as “Authoress” and Daisy as “Hospital Clerk”. Vera worked as a secretary and wrote and edited magazines as “Peter Wentworth”. She was also a reader for the Fox Film Corporation.

Vera died in 1957 aged 67, leaving all her assets to Daisy who outlived her by 25 years.

Jonathan Rowe 2024

The Bristol Suffragettes, Lucienne Boyce (2013) https://lucienneboyce.com/book/the-bristol-suffragettes/
Vera Wentworth – Sparatacus Educational: https://spartacus-educational.com/WwentworthV.htm
Vera Wentworth – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Wentworth
Vera Wentworth – Suffagette Stories https://suffragettestories.omeka.net/bio-vera-wentworth

Vera Wentworth’s involvement in the 1909 Colston Hall protest has been questioned by writer and historian Lucienne Boyce: https://lucienneboyce.com/the-suffragettes-were-in-the-organ/