Constance Mary Lewcock

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(, 11 April 1894 – 11 November 1980) was a British

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

, arsonist and socialist.

Life

Lewcock was born in

Horncastle Horncastle is a market town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, England. It is east of Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman walls rema ...

in 1894. In 1913 Lewcock volunteered her services to the

Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...

(WSPU) and was initially warning against getting arrested. She learnt about politics by chairing and talking at WSPU meetings across County Durham. Lewcock tried to set alight a pier of

Durham Cathedral Durham Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the ...

, but failed. She later committed what she called the "perfect crime," when in 1914 she burnt down a railway building at

Esh Winning Esh Winning is a village, and location of a former colliery, in County Durham, England. It is situated in the River Deerness, Deerness Valley to the west of Durham, England, Durham. History The village was founded by the Pease family in the 185 ...

. She had designed a system where a jar of flammable liquid was set alight when a candle burnt down. This meant that by the time the wooden building was alight she was miles away establishing an alibi. She also had the assistance of a miner named Joss Craddock. They had met and they had worked together at meetings where he could hold back the stewards whilst she made her point. This meant that Lewcock avoided the bruises she used to get before they met. The railway building at Esh Winning burnt down but the Police could not make formal charges as she had over thirty witnesses who could testify that she was with them at the time of the fire. However her employers did not need proof and she was told that she must stop her political actions or give up teaching. She gave up teaching, but this was just as suffragette activity disappeared. That year the WSPU agreed a truce with the government for the period of the war. Lewcock increased her activities for the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...

. From 1960 she represented the Benwell ward on Newcastle city council. She was appointed an

in the

New Years Honours List The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

in 1966 and she ceased being a councillor in 1971. In 1978 she was asked to come to Westminster Hall where leading politicians were leading celebrations of the suffragists achievements as it was fifty years since all women had the right to vote. Brian Harrison recorded two oral history interviews with Lewcock, in April 1976 and April 1977, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.'' In the 1976 interview Lewcock recalls her childhood and her WSPU work, her political interests and her husband, William Lewcock. Elsie Wright, the niece and adopted daughter of Joss Craddock, also took part in the 1977 interview in which Lewcock speaks further about Craddock. Lewcock died in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

in 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewcock, Constance 1894 births 1980 deaths People from Horncastle, Lincolnshire British suffragists Women's Social and Political Union Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire