Heather Pass, our Vice President, welcomed us to our October meeting on another beautiful sunny afternoon in Cheshire. Following all the information sharing where Christmas activities seemed to be in abundance, from meals out, to the group meeting carol service on Dec 2nd, we were introduced to our speaker for the afternoon, Joanna Williams.
Joanna's talk was titled "The Great Miss Lydia Becker" who was a suffragist, scientist and trailblazer.
We learned about her early years living in Altham in a large family. Lydia was the eldest of 15 children and although she isn't known to have had any formal education, as a bright and resourceful individual, she adopted the science of botany supported by John Leigh a relative who was the medical officer for health in Manchester. Lydia won a gold medal from the Royal Horticultural Society for a collection of dried plants specially prepared to keep their colour, and spent years in correspondence with Charles Darwin.
Following the death of her mother and a change in the family's work circumstances, she ended up moving to Manchester. Keen to participate in the intellectual life in the city she found herself excluded from its existing literary and scientific societies on the grounds of being a woman. Her response was to set up her own organisation, becoming a campaigner, orator and parliamentary agent for the women's suffrage movement as a result of this. Lydia spent her life addressing gender inequalities, eventually moving to London to be even more effective in this role.
She appears to have laid the groundwork for the suffragettes who followed on e.g. Emmeline Pankhurst who had heard Lydia Becker speak and was inspired by her.
It was a great afternoon learning about a woman who few of us had heard about. Joanna knew her subject well and has written a book by the same title as the talk ..maybe one to put on the Christmas wish list.
Next month our AGM will be held at 2;00pm on Friday 1st November with both music and a quiz planned for entertainment, all welcome
Luncheon club will meet at the Farmers arms in Ravensmoor on 11/10 12 for 12:30.
Our walking group are setting off from the aqueduct marina car park in Church Minshull on Wednesday 9th Oct at 10:30.
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