Airborne campaigning

While a member of the Women’s Freedom League’s National Executive (London), Muriel Matters was involved in the first airborne protest held over London on 16 February 1909.

On that day parliament was to resume sitting for the coming year and, in keeping with tradition, it was King Edward VII’s responsibility to speak before the house and officially declare parliament open. The King had no intention of incorporating the issue of women’s suffrage into his address. The League chartered a hot air balloon to follow King Edward’s royal procession to parliament and drop handbills from the air, demanding that the question of suffrage be addressed in his speech. The balloon was blown off course and only made it through the outskirts of London.

On loan from The Muriel Matters Society Inc., MMS107PFI