She continued the mental pep talk as she made tea and toast and then got dressed. At least she could go to the suffrage meeting being held near the bandstand in Castle Leazes that afternoon, which she would have been unable to do if she had been at work. It was a special occasion and a friend of Baroness Stocks, the educationalist and a leading feminist, was speaking, according to the local branch of the movement to which Ruby belonged.

Later that day as she walked the half-mile or so through hot dusty streets to Castle Leazes, Newcastle’s first big public park, she was recalling the evening when she had persuaded Ellie to accompany her to one of the meetings. It hadn’t been a success. Ellie had clearly been uncomfortable as the meeting had progressed, and later, when they had walked home together, her friend had admitted she didn’t see what all the fuss was about. ‘I mean,’ Ellie had said, ‘it’s not as if women can’t vote now, is it.’

‘Only women over thirty,’ Ruby had reminded her. ‘And even then most men in the government regard women as somewhat scatty, hysterical creatures who could never be trusted with any real decisions about the country and important matters.’

Ellie had glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. ‘But men do have a better understanding of politics and all that, don’t they? I mean, women’s brains work different to men’s.’

‘Ellie, we’re just as intelligent as men, more so in some cases. Some men I’ve met are as thick as two short planks.’

Ellie had giggled, but then continued, ‘Still, it can’t be right to do what some of those women did in the past. Blowing things up and hurting people.’

‘I think the militants thought that desperate times called for desperate measures. Do you know that before the war the then Home Secretary tried to get the militant suffragettes to be certified as lunatics and put in asylums? He only failed because the medical profession wouldn’t agree to it. Women like Emmeline Pankhurst were bullied and threatened and put in prison where they went through awful trials, and don’t forget that in the beginning they only resorted to violence because they were lied to and let down by the government on numerous occasions. They got to the point where they couldn’t justify another generation of women wasting their lives begging for the vote. Deeds, not words, was their motto and you can understand why when you look back on how they were treated.’

Ellie had stared at her doubtfully. ‘My da always said that the suffragettes were mainly a load of upper- and middle-class women with nothing better to do than to make trouble because they were bored, and they dragged working-class women into their daftness through telling them a load of old codswallop.’