Women's Freedom League Victory Breakfast

A souvenir menu and programme issued for the Women's Freedom League Victory Breakfast held at the Hotel Cecil on Thursday 5 July 1928, to celebrate the passing of the Equal Franchise Act.

The programme is printed in green and gold with the Women's Freedom Leafue logo embossed and coloured at the top of the cover. Inside is printed the menu and a list of speeaches including those given by Ramsay Macdonald and F Pethick-Lawrence. On the reverse are signatures of many suffragette prisoners who attended the event including Teresa Bilington Greig, Edith How Martyn, Myra Sadd Brown and Mary Richardson. Included in the breakfast menu were porridge, kippers, fried plaice, eggs and bacon, omelette, boiled eggs, jam marmalade and toast.

The Equal Franchise Act meant women finally achieved the same voting rights as men, with all women over the age of 21 given the vote. This meant the total number of women eligible to vote went from 8.5 million (after the 1918 Representation of the People Act) to 15 million.