Frederick
William Rogers (1859–1927), who ran a firm of Bristol stone masons, and Blanche
Mary Rogers (1866–1951), were married at St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol in 1889.
They were
supporters of the non-militant Bristol and West of England Women’s Suffrage
Society. On one occasion, Mrs Rogers went to a meeting at the home of the
Misses Duncan at 16 West Mall when she read a sketch by Miss M Duncan with the
intriguing title “Latest intelligence from the planet Venus”.
However,
when Annie Kenney came to Bristol to set up the Bristol and West of England
branch of the WSPU in 1907, Mrs Rogers was one of the many Bristol suffragists
who offered practical and financial support to the WSPU. Annie Kenney held a meeting
in Mrs Rogers’ house in August 1908. When
the Bristol WSPU put on two suffragette plays at Princes Theatre in 1910 – How the Vote was Won (by Cicely Hamilton
and Christopher St John) and A Pageant of
Great Women by Cicely Hamilton – Mrs Rogers played Madame Christine in How the Vote was Won, and Mr Rogers
played an attendant to Catherine the Great in the Pageant.
 |
| Prince's Theatre, Bristol |
The
Rogers participated in the Census Protest in 1911, when Mrs Rogers joined census
evaders in Bath. Mrs
Mansel, the Bath WSPU organiser, had taken an empty house at 12 Lansdown
Crescent for the occasion. Twenty nine women gathered, and entertained one
another with music, recitations, and a lecture on clairvoyance. Mrs Rogers gave
a recital but left at midnight. According to their census form, the Rogers’
home in Clifton was unoccupied that night so it seems Mr Rogers also evaded.
The census enumerator, who recorded that there were two daughters, obtained her
information about the family from a neighbour.
Mrs
Rogers gave recitals and violin performances for a number of other good causes,
including the Workers’ Education Association, the Women’s Total Abstinence
Union, and children’s charities. She was involved with a group called the Folk
House Players in the 1920s.
She was
chair of the Bristol Women’s Citizen Association, and a founder member of The
Venture Club, a women’s club formed by the Rotary Club in Bristol in 1920. The
Bristol Club inspired the formation of other Venture Clubs around the country.
It later amalgamated with the Soroptimists group, which was originally formed
in California in 1921, to form the International Soroptimists. Membership of
the Venture Club was open to women engaged in honorary social or philanthropic
work. Mrs
Rogers is listed in 1922–1923 as “Elocutionist: Kensington Villa, Royal Park”.[1]
In 1923
Mrs Rogers was a member of the Bristol branch of the Women’s International
League (WIL). She gave a recitation at a WIL garden party for foreign students
in June 1923. In December 1923 she reported to a WIL meeting about a visit she
had made to Czechoslovakia. She was still involved with WIL in 1932, when she
chaired a meeting at Bristol Folk House.
Mr Rogers
was the honorary secretary of the Bristol Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage. The
branch was founded in 1908 and its address was the Rogers’ home, 2 Kensington
Villas in Clifton. In June 1909 Mr Rogers chaired a Men’s League meeting on
Durdham Down. In July 1910 he chaired a meeting of the Bristol Men’s League for
Women’s Suffrage at one of the four platforms of a WSPU meeting on Durdham Down;
the meeting was nosily heckled by a group of young men.
Frederick
William Rogers died in Derby Royal Infirmary in February 1927. Mrs Rogers died
in St Mary’s Hospital, Clifton in January 1951, leaving two daughters.
[1] The listing for
Mrs Rogers was provided by Marion Reid, who is researching the local Soroptimists.
Men's League for Womans Suffrage image: Women's Library on Flickr; No Known Copyright Restrictions.
Comments
Post a Comment