Viva Brighton Issue #61 March 2018

BITS AND BUSES
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ON THE BUSES #35: MINNIE TURNER
(ROUTES 1 AND 1A)
‘Suffragettes spend your holidays in Brighton, central. Terms moderate’
read the advert in The Common Cause, for the Sea View guest house, which
Minnie Turner ran from her Victoria Avenue home. Guests included Mrs
Pankhurst, Lady Constance Lytton, Lady Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence,
Emily Wilding Davison and Flora Drummond - several of whom stayed
there whilst recuperating from hunger strikes - and, when the guest rooms
were full, Minnie would find room for more in the potting shed.
Born in Preston Street, in 1867, Minnie became the honorary secretary of
the Women’s Liberal Association in Brighton but, frustrated by the failure of the Liberal government to advance
the female vote, she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union. Brighton WSPU was an extremely active
branch and Millie was arrested three times for militancy. She received a sentence of 21 days in Holloway Prison
for breaking a window in the Home Office in November 1911.
There was more window breaking in 1913, but this time the windows were Minnie’s own. 13/14 Victoria Road had
gained a reputation locally as a ‘suffragette centre harbouring a colony of militants’ and its windows were stoned
by local youths. ‘Masculine Logic - the only kind of argument men understand’ read the withering signs that
Minnie and her guests posted in the windows in response. (You tell ‘em, Minnie.) She later joined the Brighton
Board of Guardians, working to improve conditions at the workhouse on Elm Grove. She died in 1948. LL
Illustration by Joda (@joda_art)
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