The November 11 1924 edition of the Toronto Daily Star continues to be a good source of blog posts! The photo section of this paper included this photograph of a former British suffragette leader:
Flora Drummond (1878-1949) originally trained to become a postmistress, but was not tall enough – she was 5’1″, and the minimum height was 5’2″. I’m not sure why postmasters and postmistresses had to be a certain height, but obviously this would discriminate against women, who tend to be shorter.
As a suffragette leader, she was called The General, as she tended to lead marches wearing a military uniform and riding on a large horse. (And why not?) She was committed to the cause: she endured arrest, imprisonment, and force-feeding following hunger and thirst strikes. After 1914, she focused on public speaking (which she was good at) and administration, as her health had been damaged by her earlier efforts.
Adam Simpson was a cousin of Ms. Drummond’s; he was killed in 1944 in an air raid.
Toronto Old News 