{{Short description|English suffragette (1876–1952)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Ada Flatman | image = Ada S. Flatman, c. 1917.jpg | caption = Flatman, {{Circa|1917}} | birth_name = Ada Susan Flatman | birth_date = 1876 | birth_place = Suffolk, England | death_date = {{Death year and age|1952|1876}} | death_place = Eastbourne, Sussex, England | death_cause = | occupation = Suffragette }} '''Ada Susan Flatman''' (1876–1952) was a British suffragette who worked in the United Kingdom and the United States.
==Early life== Ada Susan Flatman was born in Suffolk in 1876. She lived in the same Twentieth Century Club Notting Hill rooms as fellow activist Jessie Stephenson. She was of independent means and became interested in women's rights.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Atkinson |first=Diane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwNbEAAAQBAJ&dq=ada+flatman&pg=PA117 |title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2018 |isbn=9781408844045 |location=London |pages=98, 115, 191, 212, 536 |oclc=1016848621}}</ref>
== Activism == Flatman was sent to Holloway Prison,<ref name="ooo">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/suffragettes/8302.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205210905/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/suffragettes/8302.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 December 2010|title=BBC - Archive - Suffragettes - A Talk by Ada Flatman|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=8 February 2019}}</ref> after she took part in the raid on the Houses of Parliament in 1908, led by Marion Wallace Dunlop, Ada Wright, and Katherine Douglas Smith, and a second wave by Una Dugdale.<ref name=":1" />
The following year she was employed by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) to organise their activities in Liverpool,<ref name="mol">{{Cite web|url=https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/shades-militancy-forgotten-suffragettes|title=Shades of Militancy: the forgotten Suffragettes|website=Museum of London|language=en|access-date=8 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Myall |first=Michelle |date=1998-03-01 |title=“only be ye strong and very courageous”: the militant suffragism of lady constance lytton |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09612029800200165 |journal=Women's History Review |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=61–84 |doi=10.1080/09612029800200165 |issn=0961-2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref> taking over from Mary Phillips.<ref name=":0" /> Flatman arranged humble lodgings for Constance Lytton when she came to Liverpool disguised as a working woman, aiming to get arrested for suffragette activism to created suitable publicity.<ref name=":1" />
left|thumb|May 1909 front cover of ''Votes for Women'' depicting Patricia Woodlock as a dreadnought
In Liverpool she worked with Alice Stewart Ker, but it was Flatman who was trusted by Emmeline Pethick when Liverpool requested that they be allowed to open a WSPU shop.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Helmond |first=Marij van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5UVAQAAIAAJ&q=ada+flatman |title=Votes for Women: The Events on Merseyside 1870-1928 |date=1992 |publisher=National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside |isbn=978-0-906367-45-2 |language=en}}</ref> The shop was set up for her by Patricia Woodlock and became a success and it raised substantial funds for the cause.<ref name=bit/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uoe5GSopaUC&dq=ada+flatman&pg=PA18 |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey |date=2013-04-15 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-01062-0 |pages=18 |language=en}}</ref> Flatman later organised the publicity surrounding the release of Woodlock who had completed a prison term in Holloway. A 1909 copy of ''Votes for Women'' depicted "Patricia" as a dreadnought.<ref name=":0">{{Cite thesis|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2450/1/DX186075.pdf |title="Engendering Citizenship" The Political Involvement of Women on Merseyside, 1890–1920 |last=Cowman |first=Krista |degree=PhD |date=November 1994 |publisher=University of York|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208145606/http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2450/1/DX186075.pdf|archive-date=8 February 2019 |url-status=live |access-date=8 April 2019}}</ref>
By May 1909, Flatman travelled to Bristol where the anti-suffrage politician Augustine Birrell was at the Royal Hotel to give a speech to the local Chamber of Commerce.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 May 1909 |title=Breaking a barricade |pages=22 |work=Votes for Women |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0002187/19090521/080/0022?browse=true}}</ref> Flatman checked into a room at the hotel the night before the event and successfully evaded detectives assigned to follow her. After the speech's were given and a guard turned his head to speak to someone, Flatman pushed over a 10 foot barricade and ran into the room, shouting "give votes to taxpaying women!" She threw hundreds handbills in the suffragette colours of green, purple and white into the crowd which asked for Liberal men to support women's enfranchisement. She was dragged out of the event.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hannam |first=June |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zk3JAwAAQBAJ&dq=ada+flatman&pg=PA110 |title=Feminism |date=2014-06-11 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86108-9 |pages=110–111 |language=en}}</ref>
During the August 1909, Flatman took part in a summer campaign on the Isle of Man, and was nearly knocked off a pier when attacked by anti-suffragists.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hart |first1=Marjolein't |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qdWFyFO94j4C&dq=ada+flatman&pg=PA267 |title=International Review of Social History, Supplement 15 |last2=Bos |first2=Dennis |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-72214-8 |pages=267 |language=en |chapter=Humour and Social Protest}}</ref> In December 1909, she was one of the group of suffragettes in the Royal Albert Hall to protest against David Lloyd George's position regarding women's suffrage. In a contemporary newspaper account in the ''London Evening Standard'', suffrage campaigner Frances Ede described how stewards dragged Flatman from her seat and removed her "with quite needless violence".<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 December 1908 |title=War on Suffragists: evidence of brutality by stewards |pages=8 |work=London Evening Standard |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000183/19081214/147/0008 |access-date=2 June 2022}}</ref>
In July 1910, Flatman was a key speaker at one of the platforms in the 10,000 women's rally at Hyde Park in London.<ref name=":1" /> Flatman suddenly stepped down as Liverpool branch co-ordinator in 1910, over a difference in approach to campaigning. Alice Morrissey took over as volunteer branch organiser from her, until another staff member was appointed.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cowman, Krista, 1964–|title=Mrs. Brown is a man and a brother : women in Merseyside's political organisations, 1890–1920|date=2004|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=978-1-84631-360-8|location=Liverpool|oclc=276174298}}</ref>
In the following year, Flatman became the honorary secretary for the WSPU in Cheltenham. Shortly after her appointment, Flatman organised for Emmeline Pankhurst, Evelyn Sharp and Constance Lytton to visit and deliver talks in Cheltenham.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Liddington |first=Jill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GW5DwAAQBAJ&dq=ada+flatman&pg=PT163 |title=Vanishing for the vote: Suffrage, citizenship and the battle for the census |date=2014-01-01 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-84779-888-6 |language=en}}</ref> The talks were well attended and reported on by the local and regional press, particularly Lytton's comment that women's rights in Britain were "still in the Stone Age".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dV9nAAAAMAAJ&q=ada+flatman |title=Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire |date=1996 |publisher=Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire |pages=191 |language=en}}</ref> Flatman also started organising local "at homes".<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 January 1911 |title=Mrs Pankhurst in Cheltenham |pages=4 |work=The Cheltenham Examiner |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002213/19110126/071/0004}}</ref>
When the 1911 census was taken, Flatman organised "a midnight super party" at her home at Bedford Lodge, College Road, Gloucestershire, so that a group of suffragettes could evade enumeration.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Miss Susan Ada Flatman |url=https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/database/1856/miss-susan-ada-flatman |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=Women's Suffrage Resources}}</ref> When the Liberal Government Minister Charles Hobhouse spoke in Gloucester's Shire Hall, Flatman vainly tried to ask him questions about women's suffrage but was ejected.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Benson |first=Derek |title=Women's Suffrage activism in Cheltenham |url=https://glosdocs.org.uk/suffragettes_cheltenham |url-status=dead |access-date=2 June 2022 |website=GlosDocs: Gloucestershire Local History Association |archive-date=21 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921001132/https://glosdocs.org.uk/suffragettes_cheltenham }}</ref> [[File:Mary Gawthorpe, Emmeline Pankhurst Ada Flatman.jpg|thumb|Mary Gawthorpe, Emmeline Pankhurst and Ada Flatman]]
== Move to the United States == When the First World War started in 1914, the leading suffrage organisations agreed to suspend their protest until the war was over. Many activists disagreed; Flatman, living in Bristol,<ref name=":1" /> was one, joining the Women's Emergency Corps, founded by Evelina Haverfield.<ref name=":1" /> She decided to carry on her work in the United States, emigrating to work for Alice Paul's newspaper ''The Suffragist'' in 1915,<ref name="bit" /> becoming its business and advertising manager.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/women-of-protest/?sp=13|title=Search results from Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party|website=Library of Congress|access-date=8 February 2019}}</ref>
Flatman was in Chicago in 1916, working as an outdoor organiser for the Women's Party Convention taking place there.<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 May 1916 |title=New Party proposed by women |pages=1 |work=The Chickasha Daily Express |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86090528/1916-05-24/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1777&index=2&date2=1963&words=Ada+Flatman&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&rows=20&proxtext=%22ada+flatman%22&y=10&x=12&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |access-date=1 June 2022}}</ref> The ''New York Herald'' stated that she inaugurated the campaign of erecting billboards singlehandedly; noting that she did so dressed wholly in the suffrage colour of purple. The report further noted that Flatman was directing anti-Wilson billboard squads throughout the suffrage states with a view to them pasting a total of one million.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 August 1916 |title=Arm with paste to fight Wilson |pages=5 |work=The New York Tribune |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1916-08-29/ed-1/seq-5/#date1=1777&index=8&date2=1963&words=Ada+Flatman&searchType=basic&sequence=0&sort=date&state=&rows=20&proxtext=%22ada+flatman%22&y=10&x=12&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |access-date=1 June 2022}}</ref>
== Later life == After the war, Flatman was keen to continue her suffrage work, but organisations in America and South Africa did not accept her offers of assistance.<ref name="bit" /> Full women's suffrage was achieved in the U.S. in 1920 and in the UK in 1928. Flatman returned to England in the 1930s, and was a peace campaigner.<ref name=":1" /> Flatman died in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1952.<ref name="bit">{{Cite web|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/Wflatman.htm|title=Ada Flatman|website=Spartacus Educational|language=en|access-date=8 February 2019}}</ref>
== Legacy == Flatman supported the work of Edith How-Martyn in documenting the movement in the Suffragette Fellowship.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Free museum in London |url=https://collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/agent/3592.html |access-date=1 August 2019 |website=Museum of London}}</ref> She left £25 in her will (out of an estate of £250) to the fellowship.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928 |publisher=UCL Press |year=1999 |isbn=184142031X |location=London |pages=221–223 |language=English}}</ref>
Flatman's reminiscences were recorded by the BBC.<ref name="ooo" /> She had also kept a scrapbook of her suffrage adventures, now held by the Museum of London,<ref name="mol" /> and also donated a breakfast loaf that she had brought out from Holloway Prison and preserved as a relic of the cause.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kean |first=Hilda |date=2005-09-01 |title=Public history and popular memory: issues in the commemoration of the British militant suffrage campaign |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09612020500200440 |journal=Women's History Review |volume=14 |issue=3-4 |pages=581–602 |doi=10.1080/09612020500200440 |issn=0961-2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Flatman, Ada}} Category:1876 births Category:1952 deaths Category:Politicians from Suffolk Category:English suffragists