“Doing good in Brighton”: honouring the educationalist and suffragette Mary Hare

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 27th March 2024)

When I was a councillor in the 1980s, I used to love door-knocking, both during election campaigns and throughout the year. But there was one exception, a street I never enjoyed visiting: St Michael’s Place in central Brighton. It was inevitably windy and raining. I was back in St Michael’s Place last Saturday. Not only was there a bitterly cold west wind, and not only did it rain, there was a most dramatic hailstorm the likes of which I have seldom experienced in England.

But Saturday was different. It was an uplifting and joyful celebration of the life of Mary Hare, a suffragette, the founder of an independent women’s police force in Brighton and, most importantly, a pioneering teacher of deaf children. The Mayor, Cllr. Jackie O’Quinn was there, the Brighton and Hove Bus that bears the name ‘Mary Hare’ was incongruously parked in this side street, and at least half those present were communicating through sign language. They were all there to witness the unveiling of a blue plaque to commemorate the life and work of Mary Hare.

17 St Michael’s Place was Mary’s home from 1895 to 1901, and was one of the sites of the school she had founded. According to the programme prepared for the unveiling, “Mary was ahead of her time in championing the rights and wellbeing of deaf children and women” and was “a revolutionary campaigner for the inclusion in society and education of deaf children who, at that time, were often abandoned in asylums, or considered by some as unworthy of education.”

Mary was a committed suffragette and a contemporary of Mary Clarke, the sister of Emmeline Pankhurst, Brighton resident and organiser, and the first suffragette to die for women’s right to vote. There is currently a campaign to have a statue of Mary Clarke erected in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion to commemorate her life and work. 

The Brighton Gazette of 1908 reports that Mary Hare chaired a Women’s Social and Political Union meeting on Queen’s Road where she said that suffragettes “were going to rouse Brighton”. In 1913 she became secretary of the Brighton Women’s Freedom League, which was prepared to break the law, but rejected violence.

In 1915 Mary Hare set up a volunteer uniformed women’s police force, much against the wishes of the local constabulary, to assist Brighton and Hove’s women and children. An article in the Brighton, Hove and South Sussex Graphic entitled  ‘Bobby – the Woman Policeman’ records her work and describes Mary as looking “particularly smart in her uniform and bowler hat”. Times have moved on and one of the speakers at the unveiling of the blue plaque in St Michael’s Place was Superintendent Petra Lazar from Sussex Police.

Her true passion, however, was as an educationalist for deaf children. She said that her efforts on behalf of these children “have been my greatest joy in life.” She established, originally in London, the Private Oral School for Deaf Children in 1895, taking mixed pupils of all ages from across the country. In 1916 the school moved to larger premises in Sussex, and then to Berkshire, where the Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf still operates.

A past student of the Mary Hare Grammar School is Brighton-born Margaret Stewart who lives with her husband John in Patcham. Margaret single-handedly set about fundraising for the blue plaque to recognise the pioneering work of the remarkable Mary Hare. ‘Remarkable’ can also be said of the formidable Margaret Stewart who herself should be seen as an inspiration to us all. She might be small in stature but she has displayed a steely determination to honour Mary Hare.

While Margaret was the driving force behind securing the blue plaque for Mary Hare, others have supported her including the influential Brighton Women’s History Group. Present, too, at the unveiling was the current Head of the Mary Hare School for the Deaf in Berkshire, Robin Askew, and the force of nature that is Victoria Garcia from Brighton and Hove Buses who does so much to ensure that the names of more of the daughters of the city are celebrated on our buses. 

About the independent police force, Mary Hare said that “we are out to do good work in Brighton, and we have had unsolicited testimonials to the effect that we have done good.” This could be said about all of her life’s work. It can also be said of Margaret Stewart, and those words should be a challenge to the rest of us “to do good in Brighton.”

Who from Brighton’s past should we be remembering? The film ‘Vindication Swim’ recalls the achievements of the amazing Mercedes Gleitze

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 13th March 2024)

Brighton has a poor record of preserving the memory of those who have gone before. How many Brightonians, not least those who are recent arrivals, know who Herbert Carden, Dorothy Stringer or Lewis Cohen were? And why should they? The City Council does little to commemorate these and other individuals who helped make the city what it is. The Argus remembers them, and Brighton and Hove Buses names significant people from Brighton’s past on its buses and on a special website. It should be commended for this.

From time to time I write about people I have known who have died, people like Selma Montford, Dennis Hobden, Ruth Larkin, Bernie Jordan and Bob Cristofili. Mary Clarke is the ‘forgotten suffragette’ in spite of being Emmeline Pankhurst’s sister. Mary ran the Brighton office of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She died on Christmas Day 1910 from a brain haemorrhage probably caused by rough treatment at the hands of the police and prison authorities immediately before her passing. There is no memorial for Mary other than her name appearing on the front of a Brighton bus. There is now a campaign to have a statue of Mary Clarke erected in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion estate. 

Another long-forgotten Brightonian is Mercedes Gleitze. She was born in Brighton who, in 1927, became the first British woman to swim the English Channel. Her swimming achievements were not ‘limited’ to that. She is believed to be the first person to swim the Straights of Gibraltar and was the first person to swim to Robben Island and back to Cape Town, a sea I know well as I was brought up there and can testify to the currents and coldness of those waters.

After nearly 100 years during which time she had become largely forgotten, her legacy is now secure through a film that went on general release last Friday, deliberately coinciding with International Women’s Day. The film, Vindication Swim, features the amazing Kirsten Callaghan and the equally impressive John Locke. Remarkably, it was written and directed by a 23-year-old Brightonian, Elliott Hasler. If you warch just one film this year, make sure it’s Vindication Swim.

With Kirsten Callaghan and John Locke (I’m the one who didn’t dress up for the occasion!)

After a special screening of the film on International Women’s Day at Brighton’s Duke of York cinema, a cinema that Mercedes herself had visited, Kirsten Callaghan, John Locke and Elliott Hasler answered questions from the audience. Kirsten described some of the discomforts and challenges faced by Mercedes which she, too, had experienced. For example, she wore a heavy 100-year-old one-piece bathing suit. The leather in the goggles she used bled, resulting in a disgusting taste seeping into her mouth. On one occasion she was in the water for four hours, with the salt affecting her mouth and sense of taste. Elliott, too, spent lengthy periods filming in the water, but he had the protection of a wetsuit! John, on the other hand, stayed in a small support boat as had his character, Harold Best, who had coached Mercedes.

All the scenes in the sea were filmed off the south coast. No use was made of stage tanks nor ‘green screen’ technology where subjects can be superimposed onto virtual backgrounds. 

Back to Mercedes herself. Her first endurance swimming record was for 26 hours. Over several years she extended this record to 45 and, subsequently, 46 hours. She had become a popular and famous personality, and when she undertook these endurance swims in public swimming baths, crowds would attend and encourage her by singing together.

Most of Mercedes epic swims, including her world records for endurance swimming, were sponsored.  She used her sponsorship and winnings to open accommodation for homeless people, particularly homeless women, with the first Mercedes Gleitze Home opening in Leicester in 1933. The charity bearing her name continues to operate providing accommodation for homeless people but, sadly, not in Brighton. She helped unemployed people to move from the north to Leicester where there were jobs. She is also said to have supported the extension of the franchise to women below the age of 30 in 1928.

Towards the end of her life, Mercedes became increasingly reclusive. She denied her past achievements and would not discuss them with her family.  She died in1981 in London aged 80. There is now a blue plaque commemorating this daughter of Brighton at the house in Freshfield Road where she was born in 1900.

I hope that in future more Brighton women, perhaps not as exceptional as Mercedes Gleitze, can be remembered for their own extraordinary achievements.

Mary Clarke: The Forgotten Suffragette

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 22nd March 2023)

Women’s History Month is celebrated in March each year. Over recent times there have been moves to recognise the achievements Brighton and Hove women, from the earliest suffragettes, early women physicians like Louisa Martindale (after whom the new wing at the Royal Sussex County Hospital has been named), women involved in sport such as Clare Connor, Sally Gunnell, and the magnificent women at Lewes FC.

Maquette of Mary Clarke by Denise Dutton (photo credit: Andrew Hasson)

There is one woman in particular who should be recognised and lauded by the City. She is Mary Clarke, the Brighton organiser of the Women’s Political and Social Union. She was a quiet, modest woman who never sought the limelight, but who was fearless in the face of male aggression.

She was assaulted and arrested on Black Friday in 1910 when police officers physically and sexually assaulted suffragettes outside Parliament. She was imprisoned in Holloway, went on hunger strike and was force-fed. She was released from prison two days before Christmas 1910 and died at the home of her brother on Christmas Day from a brain haemorrhage, probably caused by her treatment at the hands of the authorities.

There is a local campaign to have the life of Mary Clarke recognised by a statue, ideally in the grounds of the Royal Pavilion Estate where she and her fellow suffragettes held their meetings. Brighton and Hove has two statues of named women. Both of them are Queen Victoria. Now must be the time for a statue for Mary.

The Chair of the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, Jean Calder, explains why recognising the ‘forgotten suffragette’ is so important: “Mary was the first suffragette to die for women’s right to vote, yet there is no public memorial for her anywhere in the country. 

“Despite her sacrifice – and the fact she was Emmeline Pankhurst’s sister and close companion – she is not even one of the fifty-nine suffrage campaigners commemorated on the plinth of the 2018 statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square. The names of her sister and her three Pankhurst nieces, Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, are there. There are even three named men. But Mary’s name is absent.

“Though Mary was known for her gentleness and was not physically strong, she was extraordinarily brave. At a time when domestic violence was condoned and divorce a matter of shame, she had escaped an abusive marriage during which she experienced  destitution and homelessness. Thereafter she dedicated her life to the struggle for women’s suffrage.”

Fast-forward to 2023 and another group of pioneering women have made a comeback. In the late 1970s and early 1980s it was rare to find all-women music groups. This was the era of punk, New Wave, and Two Tone music. In Brighton a group of lesbians called, at different times, the Devil’s Dykes, Bright Girls and, latterly, Siren, rehearsed at the old Resource Centre, performed at The Richmond, The Marlborough, and at venues in London and Amsterdam.

Their presence proved to be a threat to many men, and they were frequently the target of male violence, sometimes after gigs while packing their equipment into their van. Some men, it seems, had a problem with all-women groups and, particularly, an all-lesbian one.

After many years, Siren have reformed and now perform regularly. The story of Siren, as pioneering women, musicians and lesbians, has been told in a documentary that can be seen on Latest TV. Siren have just released a new album, Under the Bridge, which is being formally launched on Friday 31st March at The Brunswick in Hove. 

Their music is unashamedly political: pro-women, pro-lesbian, anti-pornography, pro-environment, anti-war, and anti-capitalism.

One track on the album is The Ballad of Mary Clarke, commemorating the life of Mary. 12.5% of the proceeds from the sale of the album is being donated to the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal.

At this point I should declare multiple interests: I am a trustee of the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, and am married to the Chair of the Appeal. My sister, Jude, is the keyboard player in Siren and her wife, Debs, is the drummer. As for the magnificent women at Lewes FC, I am a proud co-owner of the Club (along with 2,300 others in 40 countries).

As for the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal, we are making slow but steady progress. We have raised about a third of what we need. We have commissioned the sculptor, Denise Dutton, to produce a maquette which can be seen until the end of the month in the foyer of the Jubilee Library.

The eventual site for the statue is still a matter for discussion but one day Mary will be honoured and will no longer be the forgotten suffragette. For more information please see our website: https://maryclarkestatue.com

Jean Calder will be giving a talk about Mary Clarke tomorrow (Thursday) at 1.00pm in The Dome.

Old Brighton: we will miss it when it is gone

(This article was published in the Brighton Argus on 20th April 2022)

I’m not a Looker. I can be Slummocky. I am certainly Outlandish. These are all old Sussex words meaning, in order, a shepherd, messy or untidy, and foreign as in ‘out of the local neighbourhood’.

Brighton has become such a cosmopolitan city that it can be hard to find anyone born and brought up here. Locals are increasingly being priced out of the city by affluent people moving down from London.

Other than some of our architecture, little of old Brighton remains. The railway works are long gone, so too white-helmeted police officers. The Hollingbury Industrial Estate now boasts an Asda superstore.

As a city I think we are lousy at celebrating our past. It got me thinking about the things I have known and loved over the forty plus years I have lived here. Some remain, many have gone.

Gone are Hanningtons in North Street and the old Co-op Department Store on London Road. We have lost Bamfield in Little Western Street, and the cafe on St James’s Street that served the most delicious liver and bacon. The Bardsley / Brown family has move on from their iconic fish and chip restaurant in Baker Street after 92 years, although the same high standard of frying continues. 

We still retain some extraordinary Brighton ‘classics’ such as Connie’s in Baker Street, the Pavilion Gardens cafe with its to-die-for rock cakes, and the Yellow Shop in Oxford Street. What would we do if Ransoms in Ann Street was to close, or North Road Timber, or Dockerills in Church Street?

There are some more modern manifestations of what is good: the independent shops and cafes in the North Laine, now spreading towards Seven Dials, up London Road towards Preston Park, and along Lewes Road.  

My favourite shop is Pen to Paper in Sydney Street.  I avoid the place in case I spend vast amounts of money on even more beautiful stationery to add to what I already have. 

I realise that in naming these central Brighton institutions I show how little I know of other parts of the city. I am sure that the outgoing Mayor, Alan Robins, a proud son of Portslade, could educate me on the rich heritage of the area that the Boundary Commission, knowing even less than me, referred to as ‘West Brighton’!

I am always amazed how few people know of the Preston Park Velodrome, the oldest velodrome in the country. The Duke of York at Preston Circus is, itself, the oldest cinema still operating in England. 

There used to be several cinemas that are long gone, including the Continental in Kemptown that in the 70’s and 80’s attracted the ‘dirty mac brigade’. Its closure and demolition, to be replaced by housing, is perhaps not the greatest loss! It was the site of a tragic loss of life during the war when, before it became a known for ‘adult films’, a matinee screening was bombed resulting in the deaths of four children and two adults along with a further 48 people killed in the surrounding area. (See footnote added 31/12/2022)

An attempt to relocate the County Cricket Ground to mid-Sussex failed, thankfully, and the quaint, higgle-piggly Eaton Road ground remains, although its redevelopment has changed its character almost beyond recognition.  

The West Pier has succumbed to fire and fallen into the sea.  It will never be rebuilt.  The future of the Madeira Arches is balanced on a knife edge, and any hope for their future is due to the tireless work of people like Jax Atkins. Over the years organisations like the Brighton Society and the Regency Society, along with people like Selma Montford, have done their best to safeguard our architectural heritage.

Last month a plaque was unveiled marking the Lewes Road Hospital in Roundhill Crescent which was opened by Dr Helen Boyle in 1905, the first hospital in England to care for poor women suffering from nervous breakdowns.

I am an active supporter of the campaign for a statue for Mary Clarke, the sister of Emmeline Pankhurst, who ran the suffragette’s office at the Clock Tower and who was the first suffragette to die for the cause.

It is one thing celebrating the past through blue plaques, but we are in danger of losing what still remains of times gone by. And we will miss them when they are gone.

(Note added 31/12/2022: several readers have pointed out an error in this item. It was not the Continental cinema that was bombed but the Odeon that was around the corner. I apologise for this error, The frontage of the old Continental remains but the site is now, as I said, housing.)