British Women’s Suffrage, Mary Wake Letter for the New Constitutional Society After the House of Lords Victory, 1918

Consitutional Society for Women's Suffrage

Manuscript & Autographs

Wake, Mary typed letter signed, 1918, documents British constitutional suffrage organizing at the moment women’s parliamentary enfranchisement was nearing enactment after decades of agitation, lobbying, and public campaigning. Written on New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage letterhead, the letter records the organization’s reaction to the recent House of Lords victory and identifies suffrage not as an isolated triumph, but as part of continuing legal and social reform. The material documents constitutional suffrage advocacy through organizational letterhead and movement correspondence, revealing how non-militant suffragists interpreted parliamentary success as both a political breakthrough and a mandate for further work, and providing primary-source evidence for the study of British women’s rights organizing, parliamentary reform, and feminist strategy during the final months of the First World War.

Wake, Mary. Typed letter signed on New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage letterhead. London: New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage, January 1918. One page. The letterhead names leading members of the organization, visually placing the correspondence within a formal suffrage network rather than private celebration alone. Wake writes with “the greatest joy and satisfaction” over “the recent triumph in the House of Lords,” adding that, although the measure was “not yet actually on the Statute Book,” supporters could “for the first time regard women’s suffrage as practically fait accompli.” She also stresses that “much work in the women’s movement yet remains to be done,” a key statement linking the parliamentary vote to continuing demands for women’s access to legal, civic, and social rights. The New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage had been formed in 1910 to pursue votes for women by constitutional means, and its dissolution in 1918 followed the passage of the Representation of the People Act.

The letter’s date places it directly before the Representation of the People Act 1918 received royal assent on February 6, 1918, granting the parliamentary vote to women over thirty who met property qualifications while extending the vote to all men over twenty-one. Wake’s language captures a precise transitional moment: suffrage had effectively been won in Parliament, but equal franchise and broader equality remained unresolved, with full voting equality for women not secured until the Equal Franchise Act of 1928. Minor age-related toning; otherwise clean and well preserved, very good. A strong suffrage movement letter from January 1918, preserving the language of victory, caution, and continued feminist organizing immediately before the first major enfranchisement of women in Britain.

Item #14802

Price: $480.00