On 11 November 1913, the head
gardener at Begbrook House in Frenchay near Bristol discovered that the building was on fire. The house stood in its
own wooded grounds, and was said to have twenty rooms and a fine old staircase.
Within a few hours the house was
gutted. The fire caused £3,000 worth of damage. A copy of the WSPU newspaper, The Suffragette, was left at the site
with the message, “Birrell
is coming. Rachel Pease is still being tortured”.
Begbrook House
Picture: Frenchay Village Museum
Augustine
Birrell was the Liberal MP for Bristol North, and a cabinet minister. He was
frequently targetted by militants in Bristol. Suffragettes interrupted his
meetings and two women once accosted him at Temple Meads Railway Station with
their demand for the vote.
Begbrook House belonged to Hugh
Thomas Coles, a wealthy banker. Hugh Coles was the son of William Gale Cole of Clifton, who was also a
banker, and was born in Clifton in 1856. Like his father before him, Hugh Coles
was treasurer of Clifton College. He was also very active in church business,
and was treasurer to the Diocesan Training College in Fishponds for fifty
years, until he resigned in 1939 due to ill health (he died in 1940). This post
too had been held by his father before him, and was inherited by his son,
Denys.
Hugh
Coles lived in Begbrook House between 1906 and 1912 with his wife Wilhelmina,
two sons, a daughter, and five servants. But when the fire broke out, he and
his family had already moved away and were living at Elmcroft, Winterbourne Down. The house was still in his ownership, but
it was untenanted.
It wasn’t always possible to be certain that an arson
attack had been carried out by suffragettes. On the night Begbrook burned, the
cactus house at Alexandra Park in Manchester and a tennis pavilion in Catford
were both damaged by fire. In these cases, nothing was found linking the fires
to the suffragettes, but they were suspected, which is some indication of the
impact that suffragette militancy had on the public consciousness. Whenever
there was a fire, the suffragettes were blamed for it. However, it was very
easy to frame the militants, and there were cases of arson attacks where
suffragette literature was deliberately planted by the guilty parties, who were
usually after the insurance money.
However, in the case of Begbrook I think we can be sure
that the suffragettes were responsible, particularly given the connection to an
earlier arson attack. Begbrook House burned a fortnight after the University of
Bristol’s Sports Pavilion. Here arsonists also left a demand for the release of
Rachel Pease and Mary Richardson, who both lived in London but had been active
in Bristol.
Could there have been any other reason for targeting
Begbrook? Hugh Coles was a magistrate, and that could conceivably have made him
a target. On the other hand, he was a conservative not a Liberal, and the
suffragettes’ fight was with the Liberal party. In fact, Bristol organiser
Dorothy Evans once apologised for breaking the windows of a conservative club
in error. So I don’t think there was any reason for selecting Begbrook other
than that it met the criteria of being empty and isolated. But of course many
of the circumstances surrounding this and other militant attacks remain a
mystery...
A care home now stands on the spot once occupied by Begbrook House.
Find out more...
Great blog.Here arsonists also left a demand for the release of Rachel Pease and Mary Richardson, who both lived in London but had been active in Bristol.Thanks for sharing........
ReplyDeleteAspect 3 | Omnia Sheffield
Hallo, thanks for your comment, and sorry for delay in responding - it came while I was on holiday. I'd love to know more about the arson attacks connected with Rachel Pease and Mary Richardson!
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