Lady Freemasons – once never mentioned in polite masonic society – have recently been celebrated in a highly successful Centenary exhibition at Freemasons’ Hall in London. Along with their heightened profile, new research has shown that early women masons (and some men) once played a striking part in feminist history, in their support of the fight for the vote.
     Freemasonry which included both men and women in its lodges - called Co-Masonry – was brought to this country by Annie Besant, the social reformer and feminist, following her initiation in France in 1902 into a new mixed Order called Le Droit Humain (Human Right). That year, the first Co-Masonic and mixed Lodge of Le Droit Humain, Lodge Human Duty No.6, was consecrated in London, with Annie Besant as its Worshipful Master and feminists Ursula Bright and her daughter Esther among the officers.
     Some feminists saw the new type of mixed Freemasonry, with its emphasis on universal brotherhood and equality of the sexes, as a force which could be used to change society for the better. The first part of this study will feature some Freemasons who strongly endorsed these ideas and saw the power of the vote as a medium of service to humanity.
     Annie Besant’s support of suffrage was the most public – in 1911 she headed a contingent of Co-Masonic ladies, under their Lodge banners and in full regalia, in the great 40,000-strong protest march of women through London just days before the Coronation of George V. Although Masonic involvement in political movements was unusual, Dr. Besant ‘sanctioned wearing regalia on this occasion because she regards the women’s movement as a matter of national concern, not as one of party politics’.
     Dr William Cobb, London clergyman, was the leader and Grand Master of a new masonic Order which split from the Co-Masons (Le Droit Humain) in 1908 - the Honourable Fraternity of Antient Masonry. A significant number of upper middle class professional men gave active support to women’s struggle for the vote. Dr Cobb was an enthusiastic speaker at suffrage meetings, particularly for the Women’s Social and Political Union, the most radical of the suffrage societies. In a speech in 1910 it was reported: ‘With the prophetic eye of the Church of England, he said that he made bold to declare that they would not have long to wait for the suffrage! When they had obtained the vote, he urged them to do their best to elevate civic life, [and] to endeavour to eliminate party from politics …’
     He felt that to give women the vote was only just, that the duties of citizenship would be beneficial to them, and that they would then be able to ‘help men to ideals, no longer as unpaid servants, but as friends with equal rights and privileges’. Suffrage was the most important political issue of the time and, although he deplored unnecessary violence, he admitted that at the present he could see no alternative – and this from a High Anglican clergyman!
     Annie Cobden-Sanderson, daughter of the great Liberal reformer Richard Cobden, is one of the best-known militant suffragettes. A member of the Women’s Freedom League, she first joined Freemasonry in France, belonged to the Co-Masons (Le Droit Humain) in England and then Dr Cobb’s Honourable Fraternity. In a lodge discussion on the purpose of the Co-Masonic movement, she said that she had hoped that they might put themselves directly in touch with some of the great movements – such as women’s suffrage – outside. The Lodge demonstrated its support for her when, in November 1906, whilst still a member of the Co-Masons (Le Droit Humain) she was arrested following a militant protest demonstration and sentenced to two months in prison. They sent a message to her in Holloway – ‘This Lodge desires to convey the assurance of its sympathy with Sister Cobden-Sanderson in her present suffering and self-sacrifice in the cause of political equality of the sexes, and to express its admiration for her courage and endurance in conditions so trying’.
     Annie was involved in several violent struggles during demonstrations. In one of these in Parliament Square in 1910 she came face to face with her friend, social equal and sometime dinner guest Winston Churchill.
     Afterwards she wrote to Churchill at the Home Office: ‘… I had been left on the pavement by the police, exhausted by the struggle … when I saw you approach. I went forward to speak to you, for you were not unknown to me, when, without enquiry as to my purpose … you ordered the police to remove ‘that woman’. … You are a Secretary of State, but your office does not release even a member of the present Government from the obligations of a gentleman , or authorise him to make allegations without foundation…’
     Another notable figure in the suffrage movement and also a Freemason was Muriel, Countess de la Warr. A very wealthy woman who inherited her fortune from her grandfather, the railway magnate Thomas Brassey. Her money not only kept the Daily Herald going – a newspaper which strongly supported the suffrage cause – but her anonymous funding of people and causes helped to keep the suffrage flag flying. Representative of the moderate constitutional feminists, she was president of the Federated Council of Suffrage Societies and was a member of Lodge Golden Rule No.1 of Dr. Cobb’s Honourable Fraternity. Women’s Freemasonry at the beginning of the 20th century included many other personalities who figured in the suffrage agitation. Charlotte Despard was a Co-Mason in Le Droit Humain and founder of the Women’s Freedom League, one of the main suffrage organisations. She headed the League’s contingent in several protest marches through London. Marion Lindsay Halsey (daughter-in-law of the Deputy Grand Master of UGLE and herself Grand Master of the Honourable Fraternity from 1912 to 1927), although not recorded as playing an open part in supporting suffrage, nevertheless was reported in Votes for Women in 1910 as wishing ‘to thank all members of the WSPU [Women’s Social and Political Union] who have so very kindly sympathised with her during the illness and on the loss of her brother’.
     Eustace and Hettie Miles, first Co-Masons and then members of Dr Cobb’s Order, owned a fashionable vegetarian restaurant at Charing Cross, which both accommodated masonic meetings and hosted celebratory meals for suffragettes on their release from prison.
     These men and women were committed Freemasons. They believed that the principles of Freemasonry encompassed a true equality of the sexes, which was lacking if one sex did not have a right – through the vote – to influence political thought and legislation. Brotherly Love and Relief were to be expressed as service to humanity.
     The concluding part of this study in the next issue of Freemasonry Today will describe their justification for this view.