Introduction
Grace Alderman (1885 – 1968) was a British suffragette, chairwoman of the Preston WSPU and involved in militant events in London and Preston, and was imprisoned for protesting for women's suffrage.
Background
Grace Muriel Alderman was born. Alderman's working life began as a machinist, but later she married a solicitor but retained her own name
Role in suffrage movement
Alderman became the chairwoman of Preston WSPU, which initially met at 28,Winkley Square, Avenham, the home of Edith Rigby. Alderman recognised the challenge for women in her era to take up activism, when responsible for homes and families. She was with a delegation which attended the Women's Parliament. Alderman was one of the crowd, including three other Preston women, Edith Rigby, Beth Hesmondhalgh,and Rose Towler, who hid in a furniture van as the women's movement charged at the St Stephen's Entrance to Westminster, and she was sentenced to a month in Holloway Prison.
In 1909, Alderman and Edith Rigby, Beth Hesmondhalgh, Rosamund Massy and Margaret Hewitt held meetings across the city of Preston prior to Winston Churchill's event on 3rd December. They spoke up against Churchill's stance on women's rights.
On the evening of the event, police activity was intense including special branch from London, trying to ensure thatwomen were going to be excluded, she and Edith Rigby, Beth Hesmondhalgh, and Catherine Worthington arrived at the door and were refused entry, but would not leave so were again taken away by the police as described in an article in Votes for Women 19 Nov 1909 p116.
Later Life
Alderman wrote about the experiences of Preston suffragettes to Mr R. Fowler of Fulwood in 1964 , shortly before she died in 1968 in Essex.