Charlotte had done her bit, and had produced 10 petitions, all identical for each of the girls (several others of their friends had joined in the group) to take with them to try to get as many signatures as they could. They were told, by Muriel, to ask all their neighbours, and all the servants and the shopkeepers, and any other women they could find.

It read:

To the Mayor of Worcester and Aldermen and Councilors

Muriel read it through and was somewhat concerned.

‘Charlotte, it is a wonderful piece of work, but I think first of all, it should go not only to the local government representatives, but also to our MP and perhaps to the neighbouring MP’s as well. And I think you should not say we are wanting the voting rights for educated wealthy women. We really are hoping to have this changed so that all women can vote – the servants as well as the Ladies.’

‘Oh, I am sorry, Muriel. I was copying the words from the original document as closely as I could, and I overlooked that aspect of it. I will do them all again.’

‘Perhaps if we alter one of them now, with common consent of the group, that will make it easier for you to make the copies.’

So the girls went back through the document and altered it as follows:

They added in the heading, that the petition was to go to the Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire MP’s.
They left out ‘duly educated women’ and substituted ‘all women, regardless of their position in life, and including servants.’

Charlotte thought that she could use some help with the rewriting of the petitions, but without too much effort, they should have them ready in another week, and then they could begin getting signatures.

‘I think that as well as our households, neighbours, friends and shopkeepers, we should knock on doors, and ask if anyone within each household wants to sign,’ said Margaret and all agreed.

Charlotte’s other task had been to make the purple ribbon banners with green writing, which they would each tie across their shoulders and down to their waists, stating that they were supporters of the WSPU. The girls tried them on and were very pleased with the effect.

So the meeting adjourned, and the girls all went back to their respective homes.
Muriel had purposely kept her parents in the dark about her activities. She wasn’t sure they would approve and wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly before she let them know her intent – to have a march on the Guildhall, and a rally followed by a speech by some well known person sympathetic to their point of view.

It was just a week when the girls met again, and this time as the petitions were deemed correct and to their liking, each took hers and they determined that by the time they met the following week, each of the 100 lines on the paper would be full.

Muriel, having signed it herself at the top of the page, took hers first to the servants of her own house. Amy Brewer said she didn’t suppose it would do any good, but she signed it. Emily Smith said she didn’t want to lose her job, and she wouldn’t sign it unless Mr. King said it was allowed and that he wouldn’t dismiss her because of it.

Muriel was forced to change her plan and present her ideas to her parents before she went any farther with it.

That evening, after dinner, she said, ‘Mother, Father, I have decided on a new quest. I want to attempt to do my part to forward the cause of women’s suffrage. I have joined the WPSU and so have 4 of my friends. We now intend to take a petition which we hope to get hundreds of signatures on and present them to the local and national representatives of Worcester.’

Mrs. King looked most put out. ‘Muriel, have you not got better things to do with your time? I would have thought with your charity work and your lessons in art you more than had enough to keep you busy. Why this? Why don’t you learn to play the piano if you have so much extra time on your hands?’

Mr. King, having taken the petition that Muriel produced read it over carefully. ‘I can see where you got your material from, and I think that the arguments are well presented. I can see no harm from you asking your friends and colleagues to sign this. Not that I expect it will have much effect, but I don’t see how it could harm the situation. If you feel so strongly on it, I will, of course, support your efforts.’

‘Oh thank you Father,’ said Muriel, ‘and can I tell Emily that you won’t let her go if she signs it as well?’

‘Have you been getting at the servants with your idea?’ said Mrs. King, all in a huff. ‘You leave them alone. I don’t want them striking and refusing to work because you put ideas of equality into their heads.’

‘No of course, I won’t get rid of Emily or Amy. But I can see that you are unlikely to get your mother to sign it.’

‘You can be most sure that I will not!’

‘Thank you Father,’ said Muriel and kissed his cheek. ‘Don’t be worried Mother. I won’t ask you to sign it, but I expect that if as a result we do get the vote, you will be willing to do so.’

‘I don’t expect that I will live that long,’ said Louisa King.

Muriel rushed up to Emily and told her that her Father had agreed with the principle of the petition, and would be happy if she would sign it, so she did.

The very next day, Muriel and May, who had agreed reluctantly to take part as long as nobody told John, were both out by ten o’clock with their petitions in hand. May’s mother had also refused to sign, but was quite happy for Elizabeth Wilcox, their servant, to do so. ‘Much good may it do her,’ was her final comment.

As Muriel lived at number 7 Lansdown Crescent, and May at number 9, Muriel went to 1,2,3,4,5,8 and 10,and May went to 11,12/13,14,15,16,17,18 which is called Lansdown Villa, around the corner.

Then May walked up on the left hand side of Rainbow Hill while Muriel tried her luck on Rainbow Hill Terrace and the houses on the right hand side. They agreed to meet again after lunch to compare notes and decide where to go next.

They were both bitterly disappointed with the results. Many householders had been very unwelcoming. Only two of the women of education with whom Muriel talked had agreed to sign, and none that May had seen. May did have several more signatures from the servant group than Muriel did, but between them they had only a total of 15 signatures. None of the servants admitted to being unable to read.
However undaunted, they went into Lowesmore Road and one on each side of the street, they tried their luck with commercial premises. They did better in establishments with women in charge. By the end of the day they had doubled the numbers, but still had some way to go towards the target that each hoped to get by the end of the week.

At their next meeting, it turned out that similar experiences were expressed by each of the girls there. No one had reached her target. They were disappointed and rather bored with the whole idea. Muriel tried to get the enthusiasm back into the group.

‘Surely you must not let our slow start deter us. This is an important matter, and if we fall at the first fence, as it were, what hope is there for our cause? Do you think Emmeline Pankhurst didn’t have people slam the door in her face? But she didn’t give up. There are thousands of brave women devoting all their time to this cause so we must not be deterred by a little setback. We must keep at it each week until we have reached our goal. Now can we all get out there and think positively? We will meet again next week, and I hope we shall have met our target by then.’

Several of the new girls who had been recently recruited said they had had enough, and leaving their petitions behind, they walked out. But Charlotte, who had had the fewest signatures as she seldom left home, was undeterred.

‘We must go to the Victoria Institute where the classes are going on. I’m sure we will get support from those women. And why don’t we get men to sign our petitions too? Some of them might agree with our cause. Has anyone had a man’s signature yet?’

‘No,’ chorused around the room.

‘Have you specifically asked any men?’

‘No,’ they again said.

‘Well it won’t hurt to try, and if they refuse, we haven’t lost anything. But if several men sign, it will add weight to our argument.’

Later that night, Muriel asked her father if he would sign her petition. He had forgotten all about her plan, and read it again. ‘Yes, I will,’ and surprised and delighted her by putting his name boldly across the page, in much bigger writing than the rest, ‘But you don’t have to tell your mother I did it,’ he said with a wink.

Charlotte’s idea of petitioning at the Victoria Institute’s classes worked well. Before long all the forms were filled – with some other men as well as Mr. King being brave enough to put their weight behind it. Mr. Tree, like Mr. King was very proud of his girls and agreed with what they were endeavouring to do. His wife and his sister also signed, as well as their servants, Emily Wilkes and Laura Pownell.

By mid April the girls met again at Charlotte’s house and seemed much happier with themselves and the rightness of their cause.

‘Now we must plan what day and time we take the petitions to the Guildhall. Our plans for the rally can be delayed until after our first big impact,’ said Muriel.
‘We should do it on a Thursday, as that is when most of the meetings take place in the Guildhall, and the meetings tend to be between 11 and 1, so if we get there for 12, we should be seen by those finishing at the earlier meetings as well as those coming for the later ones.’

‘Let’s make posters inviting anyone interested in joining in the rally, and put them in the windows of all the shops, and see how big a crowd we can attract.’

‘How about May 6th for the Rally. That gives us a couple of weeks to make and display the posters.’

‘Good,’ said Charlotte. ‘Should the posters should say something like this?

Rally in Support of Women’s Votes
Meet at the Guildhall on
May 6th at 12 noon

‘That sounds fine,’ said Jessie. ‘I will come and help you make the posters. How many do you think we should make?’

‘I would think 30 might be enough. Not every shop will agree, and we want to concentrate on the ones in the centre of town where people might be shopping on that day anyway.’

The girls went home full of enthusiasm and hope for their venture.