Story Category: Legacy

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

Catherine Cookson, courtesy Steve Peaks

Dame Catherine Cookson, DBE (1906 – 1998), the most popular and widely read British novelist of the twentieth century, had a life story good enough for the most outlandish of plots.  

Born the illegitimate daughter of an alcoholic barmaid in the most poverty stricken part of the North East of England, leaving school to work in domestic service and then as a laundry-hand in a workhouse, by 1990 Dame Catherine had managed to become one of Britain’s richest women and the country’s best loved author of over 100 works of fiction.  

​Born in East Jarrow, Dame Catherine is usually claimed as a North Easterner.  However she lived in Hastings for over 40 years and this is where she started her writing career, as a member of Hastings Writing Group.  

​After leaving school at thirteen and working as a maid, a cushion maker and a laundry sorter in a workhouse, Dame Catherine came first to Essex then, in 1929 to Hastings where she’d been offered a relatively well paid job managing the laundry in the Hastings workhouse.  Determined to improve her lot she saved hard and bought a house which she later opened as a lodging house.  In 1940 she married one of her lodgers, Tom Cookson, an Oxford graduate and Maths teacher at Hastings Grammar School.  It was only after sadly losing four babies die to a rare blood disorder and struggling to overcome depression that she joined the town’s writing group in the hope that putting pen to paper would be therapeutic.  

As a child Dame Catherine had been an avid reader and had even written a short story aged eleven, even though the local newspaper had declined to publish it.  Her first novel to be published, written with the writing group’s support was  ‘Kate Hannigan’ (1950).  Its tale of a working class girl’s struggles as she becomes pregnant with a rich man’s baby enjoyed modest success.  

It wasn’t until 1967, however, with ‘Katie Mulholland’ that Dame Catherine’s career took off.  Quickly pigeon-holed as a commercial writer of historical romances for women, Dame Catherine was rarely given serious approbation by critics but this didn’t hinder her growing faithful readership all over the world who were drawn to her strong women characters, born in deprived circumstances beset with obstacles to overcome.  Often based in the past with a romantic framework, Dame Catherine’s novels explored themes such as unemployment, poverty, and class tensions.  They were set amongst shipyards, mines, farms and in the rolling industrial and rural landscapes of the North East.  The characters, particularly the women, were unpretentious and had struggles on their hands that readers could relate to.  

Dame Catherine’s research was meticulous and she once even went down a coal mine so she could emphasize with a character who had to do the same.  It was a winning formula, and Dame Catherine’s success marched on unstoppably with a series of children’s books and magazine serials often written under the pseudonyms, Catherine Marchant and Kate McMullen.  

​Sadly Dame Catherine’s private life was often beset with poor health.  In 1976 – the same year that she was awarded an OBE – she and her husband moved to the North East, settling first in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and later to Langley, a small village in Northumberland.  A generous woman who was always aware of her poor start in life she used her considerable wealth to help others, donating hundreds of thousands of pounds to various charities, particularly those involved with medical research.  She died just a few days before her 92nd birthday, having made a great contribution to literature and giving countless hours of reading enjoyment to her fans across the world.  

​Dame Catherine’s legacy continues to inspire.  Between 1984 and 2000 she was the most borrowed author from British libraries.  Many of her works have been adapted to films, stage musicals and TV dramas.   Her foundation, the Catherine Cookson Trust continues to make donations to worthy causes in the UK, particularly those offering services to young people and cultural ventures.

​Last year, in a fitting commemoration, the annual Hastings Literary Festival announced an annual Catherine Cookson lecture to celebrate the voices of working class women writers.

World Book Day is celebrated every year on 5 March and is a celebration of books, authors, illustrators and most importantly, reading. It is marked in over 100 countries around the world and is on a mission to give every child and young person a book of their own.

​written by social historian, Louise Peskett 

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

Martha Gunn,Brighton bather. Oil painting, British School, c1790

Visitors to Brighton Museum often find themselves stopping by the stairs in front of a portrait of an intriguing woman who looks as if she doesn’t suffer fools gladly.  Wearing a grey dress, a red bonnet and clutching a scrunched up cloth in her right hand, it looks as if she can’t wait for the painter to hurry and finish his portrait as she has work to do. This is Martha Gunn (1726-1815), one of the most famous women in Brighton’s history, and, arguably, one of the cleverest.  

Although born of a poor fishing family with no chance of an education, Martha had great entrepreneurial spirit and vigour.  When the sea-bathing craze hit the town in the middle of the eighteenth century, she set herself up as a ladies’ bathing attendant or ‘dipper’ and proceeded to help set the lacklustre poor fishing village of Brighthelmstone into a new, brilliant chapter.  

Martha Gunn’s gravestone with the inscription ‘Peculiarly distinguished as a bather in this town nearly 70 years’

According to Martha’s tombstone, set on appropriately high land just outside the historic St Nicholas Church, Martha was ‘particularly distinguished as a bather’.  In the museum portrait she looks perfectly capable of immersing women into the sea water as the bathing cure demanded, but Martha didn’t earn the nickname ‘Queen of the Dippers’ for nothing.  She had a plethora of other skills – a scientific knowledge of the sea and the weather, for example, and an ability to interpret Brighton beach’s temperamental waves that would ensure her clients were safe and didn’t slip, lose their balance, or worse.  She would have needed great sensitivity – good ‘customer service skills’ as we’d call it today – to make her client’s trust and like her.  That’s without the almost superhuman reserves of stamina needed to spend hours per day – her gravestone has her career lasting ‘nearly 70years’ –  in all weathers in the sea.  Local legend has eighteenth century ladies repeatedly demanding to be bathed by Martha, even queuing at her door to secure her services, so we know she was appreciated.

Mermaids at Brighton

 With her profits, Martha was able to buy a house for her family in Little East Street, together with a number of bathing machines which she ran as a business, creating employment for other locals.  Martha was so successful, her reputation went far and wide, attracting people to the town just to see her, making her a celebrity in today’s sense of the word.  A satirical print of 1796 ‘French Invasion or Brighton in a Bustle’ from a drawing by John Colley Nixon gives us a hint at the esteem in which Martha was held. It shows a group of unfortunate French soldiers attempting to invade England by Brighton beach and being robustly defeated by a gang of rowdy locals, Martha at the head, cheerfully waving one of the soldiers above her head with one hand while stepping on a second one.  

​Much more than a ‘bathing woman’, Martha played a pivotal role in Brighton’s transformation and road to becoming a successful city.  With her reputation as a great dipper, she helped to establish the small village of Brighthelmstone as a must-see place to visit by the first Georgian visitors who started to flock to the town, among them, George, Prince of Wales, the future Regent and King George IV.  Not only this, as a poor woman who ended up running a business, buying property and ended up in a picture, at least, staving off a French invasion, she’s truly a woman we should be proud of.

Martha Gunn

 Written by social historian Louise Peskett. Part of Brighton Museum’s 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex blog series, published to celebrate the current exhibition 100 First Women Portraits by Anita Corbin, on until 7 June. 

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

Millie and Christine McKoy, undated, Charles Eisenmann, New York [Public domain]

Guest blogger Amy Zamarripa Solis continues the series of 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex with the little known story of African-American twins Millie and Christine McCoy, who spent time as performers in Brighton in the 1870s.

It was only by a stroke of luck that I recently learned about conjoined African-American twins, Millie and Christine McCoy, thanks to a local researcher. The McCoy twins experienced an extraordinary life, one of many tragedies but also a few remarkable highlights including performing at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion and the Aquarium and meeting Queen Victoria.

Millie and Christine (the “Carolina Twins”) were born on a farm in Columbus County, North Carolina on 11 July 1851 to Jacob and Monemia McKoy, who were slaves. The twins were conjoined at the lower spine and stood at an approximately 90-degree angle to each other.

At 10 months old, they were sold into the entertainment business, by blacksmith Jabez McKay who owned their parents. Through a convoluted series of business deals and cons, the twins were bartered and exhibited at various fairs and freak shows around America and Canada before ending up in Britain.

In 1857, Millie and Christine were rescued by an American businessman backer who held their ownership through a promissory note. He traveled to Britain along with their mother, Monemia, to collect them. After that, Smith and his wife provided the twins with an education and taught them to speak five languages, dance, play music, and sing.

Millie and Christine McKoy,1867, Collection of Robert E. Green, John H. Fitzgibbon, St. Louis

Millie and Christine enjoyed a successful career as “The Two-Headed Nightingale”, performing song and dance around the world. The twins’ motto was ‘As God decreed, we agreed.’ They were celebrities  and even appeared with the Barnum Circus. To overcome their mobility issues, which caused them to fall over, they developed a sideways walk that turned into a crowd-pleasing dance style. They were able to master keyboard duets with one soprano and one alto voice and learned to harmonize. 

Local researcher Alf Le Flohic writes, ‘They visited Brighton a number of times in 1870s, both on holiday and working. They had amazing singing voices and were known as the Two-Headed Nightingale. I have found local newspaper articles that show them appearing at a number of local venues including the Royal Pavilion (with the Brother Magri, musical Italian dwarves) and at the Aquarium where people were roller skating. They even appeared at the Aquarium on roller skates themselves on one occasion. They met Queen Victoria on three occasions. She wrote about them in her journal and even gave them jewellery. Millie-Christine were also photographed by the Brighton-based French photographer Louis Bertin on one of their visits.’

On 1 January 1863, Millie and Christine were freed as slaves when the Emancipation Proclamation was passed.

In their 30s, the twins moved back to the farm where they were born, which their father had bought and left for them.

On 8 October 1912, Millie and Christine died at age 61 of tuberculosis. Christine died 12 hours after her sister. They were buried in unmarked graves but in 1969 they were moved to a cemetery in Whiteville.

Several books were written about the twins’ experience. Biography History and Medical Description of the Two-Headed Girl (1869) was sold during their public appearances. Millie-Christine: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made (2000) was part memoir and sourced material.  

Written by Amy Zamarripa Solis, author, artist and producer.

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

Today England’s women’s cricket team are playing Thailand in the ICC T20 World Cup! It’s a great chance to celebrate local sporting hero Clare Connor CBE. Born in 1976, Clare Connor is former Captain of the England Women’s Cricket Team and is currently Managing Director of Women’s Cricket at the England & Wales Cricket Board.

With thanks to Clare Connor

Being the home of England’s oldest county cricket team, Sussex has no shortage of excellent players to boast of, and that increasingly includes women.

Brighton-born Clare Connor has a lot to do with this.  As captain of the national team from 2000 until 2006, Clare notably steered the team to winning the Women’s Ashes in 2005, an achievement England hadn’t pulled off for 42 years, and for which she was awarded an OBE.  As current Managing Director of Women’s Cricket at the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), she’s currently spearheading an exciting period for women’s cricket with increased funding and impetus to get as many women and girls as possible playing, watching, and supporting the game. 

Clare came to prominence in the cricket world when captaining the Preston Nomads Under-16 side, based at Fulking. An all-rounder, she also played for Brighton College 1^st XI, as well as Sussex Women. As early as 1995, when many people didn’t even know women played cricket, and still a teenager, she made her England One Day International debut, and then, later that year, played her first Test match in India. These were the days before women’s cricket became professional and Clare remembers having to pay for her own team blazer for that tour to India.  

Clare retired from the game in 2006 after a career encompassing 93 One Day Internationals,  16 Test matches, and various ‘firsts’, including becoming the first woman to play in The Cricketer Cup in 2002 and, in 2006, becoming the first woman to play in the all-star charity side, Lashings World XI.  In 2002 she was Vodafone’s player of the year.  Her successor as captain, Charlotte Edwards, called her ‘an inspirational leader’.  

Despite also working at Brighton College, teaching English and heading up the school’s marketing and PR department, Clare found the time to champion the progress for women’s cricket.  In 2009, she became the first woman to be appointed to the International Cricket Council’s Cricket Committee.  In 2010 she became a Board member of Sport England, and in 2011 the Chair of the International Cricket Council’s Women’s Committee.

In her former role at the ECB, as Director of England Women’s Cricket, Clare oversaw unprecedented success with the England women’s team winning both the 50 over and the T20 world Cups in 2009 and retaining their number one world ranking from 2009-2013. The team also enjoyed back-to-back Ashes wins in 2013 and 2014. From being a sport generally considered for men – despite a women’s cricket team operating in Yorkshire as early as 1887 – women’s cricket in this time has been slowly but surely grown in popularity amongst players and spectators alike. In 2014 the England women’s team turned professional, in 2016 the domestic Kia Super League was born, and in 2017 more than 1.1 million UK viewers tuned in to Sky Sports to watch England win the Women’s World Cup Final at a sold-out Lord’s Cricket Ground. Excitingly, women’s cricket is due to feature in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Last year Clare was appointed Managing Director of Women’s Cricket at the ECB and will have the chance to build even more solidly on the sport’s growing popularity.  As she told Sky Sports one of her plans will be ‘that more people than ever before will be able to say cricket is a game for me.’ 

Another formidable Sussex cricketer is Chichester-born Holly Colvin, who, aged only fifteen, became the youngest Test cricketer of either sex to play for England. This was on 9^th August 2005 against Australia during the Ashes. Unfazed by being centre stage at such a young age, Holly took two wickets in consecutive balls, almost taking a hat-trick.  

With grateful thanks to Clare Connor and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Part of our 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex blog series, to accompany the current exhibition at Brighton Museum, 100 First Women Portraits by Anita Corbin, featuring sports women such as Hope Powell, footballer and the First Woman to achieve a UEFA Pro coaching license, and Nicola Adams, boxer and First Woman to win British Olympic boxing gold medal.

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

It’s pancake day! Which seems like a good opportunity to celebrate someone whose cooking extended far beyond pancakes. Eliza Acton (1799 – 1859) was the writer of the first cook book aimed at the home cook, in 1845.

Anyone who has ever enjoyed chutney, mulligatawny soup, or Christmas pudding has much to thank Eliza Acton for. Her 1845 book Modern Cookery for Private Families, also known as Modern Cookery in all its Branches was where recipes for these dishes were published for the first time.

Modern Cookery bucked a trend. It was the first book of recipes aimed at the interested home amateur rather than a professional chef.  It was also the first recipe book to list the ingredients and quantities required – plus cooking times –  separately from the method, something so obviously sensible, it’s hard for us to imagine that recipes could ever be otherwise.

Born in Battle, Eliza did not set out to become a cooking pioneer.  Her first love was poetry but when a publisher suggested that there were quite enough poetry books already and why didn’t she think about writing about food, she took the suggestion seriously.  Acton poured years of research, testing, and tasting into the book and included recipes invented by friends. Dedicated on the first page to ‘the Young Housekeepers of England’, the recipes are bolstered with chatty advice and illustrations of suitable equipment to use, seasonality of vegetables, whether she likes the dish herself, and any other interesting snippet of information she happened to have come across.

Page from Modern Cookery, first published by Longmans in 1845

The book was considered well written, with many contemporary reviewers commenting that it made a lively read whether you were interested in cooking any of the recipes or not.  Simple but attractive woodcut illustrations of ingredients, tools of the trade, and what the finished dishes should look like didn’t only charm the eye but gave the amateur chef the confidence to go to their local fishmonger, knowing they’d be able to tell the difference between a John Dory and a turbot.

Unlike so many recipe books of our times, that aim to wow us with tricky techniques and innovative ingredient pairings, Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery for Private Families is all about reassuring the lay person that great tasting dishes are perfectly within reach and that she’s there, unfussy, down to earth and reliable to hold our hand through the process.  Interestingly for the twenty-first century reader, the book’s lively introduction rails against food waste and recommends ‘nose to tail’ eating two centuries before those phrases were coined.

Modern Cookery for Private Families was phenomenally popular, with every Victorian household owning a well-thumbed copy.  It went through thirteen editions before being transplanted in the nation’s affections by new star on the block, Isabella Beeton with her Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management which freely plagiarised many of Acton’s recipes.

Page from Modern Cookery, first published by Longmans in 1845

In 1857 Acton went on to produce The English Bread-Book for Domestic Use, which, despite its title, featured recipes for, among other things, Indian and Turkish breads, German pumpernickel and French baguettes. She also became the cookery correspondent for the magazines The Ladies’ Companion and Household Words,

Today, Eliza Acton’s fans are numerous.  Delia Smith once called her ‘the best writer of recipes in the English language’.  Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, Clarissa Dickson-Wright and Rick Stein are just a few of the big names who claim her as an influence.  Some of the recipes in Modern Cookery for Private Families such as pineapple marmalade, Lemon Dumplings, and Mushrooms Au Beurre are begging to be rediscovered, although perhaps there wouldn’t be so many takers these days for her mince pies containing ox tongue and boiled lemons.

Although born in Battle, Eliza spent most of her youth in Suffolk where she co-ran a boarding school. She spent some years in France before returning to England and settling first in Tonbridge, then Hampstead.

Written by social historian, Louise Peskett

Correction 16/08/2021: this article was previously accompanied by a misidentified photograph. This has now been removed.

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At the Booth Museum our insect displays were originally built in the early 1980s.

Since then the objects have been enjoyed by many thousands of visitors. However, the scale of the displays, the difficulty in accessing the cabinets and the availability of staff has meant these objects have not been changed since they were originally installed.

Having finally completed a test re-display of one of the insect cabinets, we turned our attention to the next one along. This display of British lepidoptera looked uniformly brown and white. Most viewers unfamiliar with the insects may assume the moths are naturally this colour, but we realised they were severely faded.

We set about switching the specimens displayed with examples from our spares collections (both those displayed and those replacing them are specimens without data, so not part of our scientific collections).

Whilst this will be an ongoing project, we have successfully replaced most of the more eye catching specimens. The gallery of images here gives an idea of how faded the removed specimens were! Click on the image for the full view. 

Lee Ismail, Curator of Natural Sciences

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Regency Brighton and the Royal Pavilion is an inspiration for many authors, artists and visitors in general. None more so than 20th Century author Georgette Heyer (1902 – 1974), known for her historical fiction.

Georgette Heyer by Howard Costa. Half plate negative, 1939. National Portrait Gallery CC BY-NC-ND.

Although born in Wimbledon, writer Georgette Heyer spent many years living in Horsham and Brighton. In fact, it was in the village of Slinfold near Horsham where, in 1935, she wrote the novel many consider her defining work, ‘Regency Buck’.  A story of mystery and intrigue set in 1811 and featuring the dandy, Beau Brummell, it was the first of the ‘Regency Romance’ genre she single-handedly created and proceeded to add to at breakneck speed.

Cover of the novel Regency Buck, by Georgette Heyer, published 1935 by William Heinemann

Full of young women navigating high society, handsome men with more money than sense, duels, danger, and romance,  Georgette Heyer’s novels paint a world that was far from the one lived in by the 1920s and ‘30s readers who were the first to eagerly flock to her work.  Writing an incredible 56 works of fiction in her life, mainly historical but also contemporary and mystery-detective works, Heyer’s output was staggering and led to her sniffier critics claiming that she was nothing more than a dumbed down Jane Austen.  This didn’t appear to bother the writer.  She described being in the public eye as ‘nauseating’, and anyway, didn’t need the publicity to sell her works by the thousands to her faithful fans, who made her one of the twentieth century’s most successful – and loved – authors.

As a child, Heyer was a bookworm who loved reading and discussing books with her friends.  She started to take her career seriously aged 17 after writing a story to entertain her younger brother who was ill while holidaying in Hastings.  In 1921, it became her first novel, ‘The Black Moth’.  When her third novel. ‘These Old Shades’ was inadvisedly released without fanfare in 1926 – the midst of the General Strike – yet still sold 190,000 copies, her future runaway success was assured.  In the 1920s Heyer continued to write even though her husband’s career as a mining engineer took them to Macedonia and Tanzania, where they lived in a grass hut.  Returning to England in 1929, the pair settled in Slinfold where Heyer, now the main breadwinner, discovered the appeal of the Regency period for readers while her husband ran a sports shop in Horsham.

From 1939 until 1942 the family lived in Brighton, first on the Kemptown seafront, then Adelaide Crescent in Hove.  It’s tempting to think that, with Brighton and the Royal Pavilion playing a major role in many of her books, the Regency squares and terraces of the town must have made an evocative and inspiring backdrop to Heyer’s writing.

Regency Square, Brighton (c) Royal Pavilion & Museums

With the fantasy and romance of her historic novels finding an eager readership in war torn Britain eager for some escapism, novels followed at a rate of two per year.

Although often derided for the speed at which she brought her novels out, she was known to have been a minute researcher, poring over reference books and tending to every last detail.  For ‘An Infamous Army’, for example, she claimed to have purchased a book of the Duke of Wellington’s speeches to ensure that everything he said as a character in the plot, was authentic.   At her death Heyer still had 48 novels in print and, despite never having given an interview, courting publicity or having any of her novels reviewed in a serious publication, was a best selling author with millions of fans all over the world.

Today, the serious literary establishment may not have softened their stance on the quality of Heyer’s work but her fans continue to grow, with modern readers pointing out her wit, cleverly thought out plots, and female characters who shoot, speak out of line, and show independent spirit subverted conventional feminine behaviour.

She’s also an important ambassador for Brighton, with many visitors having had their first tantalising glimpse of the city’s Regency past and the Royal Pavilion – and making a decision to visit one day – through the pages of a Georgette Heyer novel.

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton

Dame Hilary Mantel, from the series 100 First Women Portraits by Anita Corbin

Women are still pushing the boundaries as to what can be achieved as female authors today. Our current exhibition, 100 First Women Portraits, by Anita Corbin (showing at Brighton Museum until 7 June 2020) features novelist Dame Hilary Mantel DBE FRSL. She is the first woman to win the Man Booker Prize for Fiction twice, in 2009 and 2012. In it’s 51 year history, only 16 women have won this annual award.

This blog is part of our 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex blog series, written by social historian, Louise Peskett.

This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.

From trailblazing female doctors in Brighton and Hove to the first women police officers, this third blog in our series 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex looks at the life of Margaret Damer Dawson (1863 – 1920), Police Pioneer.

Among the fascinating displays at Brighton’s Old Police Cells Museum is information about one of the first women to enter the very male world of policing and prove that women could play a role in this line of work.

Margaret Damer Dawson, Chief Officer, about 1917

Margaret Damer Dawson, born at York Road, Hove, in 1863 was a woman who aimed high and got things done.  Before becoming involved in policing, she was a talented student at the London Academy of Music, a respected mountaineer and a fearless campaigner for animal rights and the anti-vivisection movement.  In 1906 she was secretary of the International Animal Protection Societies and was awarded medals by Finland and Denmark for her outstanding contribution to animal welfare.

It was in London at the outbreak of the First World War, however, that her attention turned to policing and the fact that it might be time for the all-male force to have some help from women.  At the time she was working as a volunteer, meeting and greeting fleeing Belgian refugees at London railways stations.  She had been disturbed to see how easy it was for lone, vulnerable women to fall victim to organised crime and find themselves recruited into the sex trade.  A woman in authority, she thought, would be able to prevent this situation and offer real support to the women involved.  Dawson saw her chance when a call went out from Sir Edward Ward, the War Office’s Director General of Voluntary Organisations for volunteers to help the police due to so many men having gone to serve in the war.  She immediately offered her services but was disappointed to be told they would not be required as she was a woman.  Undeterred and making good use of the social connections she had from her step-father who was a baron,  Dawson arranged to meet Sir Edward Ward and soon afterwards she and Nina Boyle, a journalist and Suffragette, were founding the first group of women ever to work for the police, the ‘Women Police Volunteers’.

Numbering at first around fifty women and dressed in a military style uniform designed by Dawson, who became Commandant, the WPV’s duties included moving on drunks, calming down situations on the street, supporting women in court, assisting with children who were being taken into care, and looking after refugees.  It was hoped that their presence would have a calming affect on the streets of London and further afield and, as such, they had no powers of arrest and weren’t allowed to carry truncheons.

Margaret Damer Dawson, Chief Officer, centre figure

As the war progressed, it became expected that the volunteer ‘lady policemen’, as the press dubbed them, help to police other women, supervising female munitions workers, visiting any woman deemed to be at risk of becoming a sex worker and, most controversially, helping to enforce a curfew of women in the barrack town of Grantham for the army.  With the prevalence of young trainee soldiers in the town, the army wanted to prevent distraction and poor moral behaviour by keeping women away.  Uncomfortable with this, Nina Boyle and several other women left the organisation. Dawson stayed until the end, assisted by Mary Allen, a Suffragette who had previously been a WSPU organiser in the Hastings area, changing the name first to the more serious sounding Women Police Service and then the Women’s Auxiliary Service.

At the end of the war there were 357 ‘lady policemen’ on the streets of London but if Dawson thought that the door had now been opened for women to join the force permanently, she was disappointed.  Sir Nevil Macready, the Police Commissioner, put his foot down, refusing to employ Dawson.  However, he rethought his decision and started to recruit women shortly afterwards.

Sadly Dawson died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1920 before she could see the profession she’d worked so hard to establish fully opened up to women.  How would she have felt to know that in 2019, almost 100 years after her death and her hard work proving that women were able to police, women make up 30% of the police force.  Her contribution was acknowledged by her award of an OBE in 1918 and a blue plaque at her former house in Cheyne Row, London.  In a nod to her great contribution to animal rights, a commemorative bird bath, recently restored, stands in neighbouring Cheyne Walk.

Pauline Clare CBE, First Women, from series 100 First Women Portraits by Anita Corbin

100 Pioneering Women of Sussex blog series is published to celebrate the exhibition 100 First Women Portraits, currently on display at Brighton Museum (until 7 June 2020). It features Pauline Clare CBE, who became the Chief Constable for Lancashire Police in 1995, making her the first ever woman to hold that position in 103 years of the police service.

Researched and written by social historian Louise Peskett

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Come and explore this tactile material and make some masks that you can take home! 

Event Details: 

Start: 22^nd February 2020 at 10.00am

End: 22^nd February 2020 at 12.00pm

Categories: Events, Families, Workshop Half term, School holidays,

We are pleased to have local potter Adam Campbell to guide you through a fun morning of clay mask making, inspired by the current exhibition ‘Cultural Icons’ at Hove Museum and Art Gallery.

Adam’s enjoyment of clay really comes across in conversation. He first discovered the magic of clay at age 7 when he was given a small Roman London pot that still held the ancient fingerprints of its maker. Come along to his workshop and be inspired too! Adam also gives pottery classes from his shop in Hove. To find out more about Adam’s work see his website Art shop and Pottery.

The cost of workshop is £10 per child (plus £5 for optional firing). Children must be accompanied by an adult. Places are limited so please book in advance.

You can buy tickets by telephoning the Event booking line on 03000 290902 (Mon – Fri) or in person at any of our venues. You can also email visitor.services@brighton-hove.gov.uk if you have any queries.

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To celebrate the 100 First Women Portraits exhibition at Brighton Museum we are launching a blog series called ‘100 Pioneering Women of Sussex’.

• 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex

Martha Gunn, c1790

It’s a great opportunity to delve deeper into the achievements and stories of women who have a connection to our county. It will be a mix of historical and contemporary women and has been researched and written by many different voices.

It’s not a surprise that there are so many extraordinary women but many of them have never had their story recognised. As social historian Louise Peskitt (who has written many of the upcoming blogs) says, ‘the more I delve and look, the more pioneering women I find to write about.’

From the first women doctors, to record breaking swimmers and cyclists, to witches, to authors, the blog will showcase a huge range of incredible feats and actions, that continue to inspire.

And don’t forget to see the exhibition of portraits of inspiring UK women in Brighton Museum.

100 First Women Portraits by Anita Corbin

More information

• 100 Pioneering Women of Sussex
• Anita Corbin 100 First Women Portraits at Brighton Museum