Violet Addis

​Violet Ethel Addis was arrested on February 12th 1908. The Suffrage Roll of Honour records Violet Mary Aldis which appears to be the correct spelling of her surname. 

Violet’s maiden name was Atkinson, the daughter of Frederick and Eliza Atkinson. She was born in Surbiton, Surrey in 1877, into a comfortably circumstanced household. Her father was a doctor and the 1881 census records the family having several members of staff. Her mother had been married before and Violet had a step brother but no other siblings.

In 1900, she married Hugh Lancelot Aldis. The 1901 census return records the newly married couple living with Violet’s mother. On neither the 1901 or 1911 census are her parents recorded living together and it appears whilst remaining married they had separated.

When Violet had two children, she travelled to London to take part in a demonstration during February 1908: Ursula and Hugh were both under five years old. A member of the WSPU, she was part of an attack on the House of Commons. The women split into two groups: some were concealed in a van which pulled up outside St Stephen’s Hall, and the other group marched from Westminster Hall where the Women’s Parliament had been sitting to present a resolution of the meeting demanding the vote. Both groups failed in their attempt to enter the House of Commons, and about fifty women were arrested. Violet went to prison but no details of her sentence have been located.

Violet and Hugh settled in Sparkhill, Birmingham where Hugh was an optical manufacturer. After her release from prison,j Violet went on to have another child Ralph.

Violet died in March 1955.