Votes For Women. Miss Muriel Matters

Black and white photographic postcard with a portrait of the suffragette Muriel Matters giving a speech. The postcard was published by the Women's Freedom League, and was based on a photograph by Lena Connell. Matters was an Australian actress who, on coming to London in 1905, became involved in the campaign for the right of women to vote. In 1908 Matters chained herself to a grille in the House of Commons behind which women were obliged to sit. She was imprisoned for this action. She subsequently hired an airship painted with the slogan 'Votes For Women', and sailed over the House of Commons when it opened in 1909, distributing Women's Freedom League leaflets. Like many suffragettes, Matters ceased campaigning during World War I. In 1914 Matters married the man who had been proposing to her for three years.