Yates , Rose Lamartine , 1875-1954 , suffragist

Rose Lamartine Yates (1875-1954) was born in Brixton in 1875 to French parents. She studied at Clapham and Truro High Schools, at Kassel and finally at the Sorbonne. Yates studied modern languages at Royal Holloway College in 1896, but did not complete the course, though she did pass the Oxford final honours examination in modern languages and philology. She met her husband, Tom Lamartine Yates, a solicitor, through the Cyclists Touring Club in 1900. In 1907, Rose was elected as its first woman member, stating during the election process that she was not a suffragette. In 1909, she joined the committee of the Wimbledon branch of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), becoming its treasurer and organising secretary in 1910. The Wimbledon branch of the WSPU were renowned for their militant suffrage campaigns. Yates took the step of maintaining her right of free speech on Wimbledon Common after the Home Secretary attempted to prevent public meetings being held in open spaces by drafting in 300 policemen. The start of the First World War saw the Wimbledon branch converting its offices into Distress Kitchens of which Rose was Treasurer. This was followed by the opening of another soup kitchen in Merton. After the fragmentation of the WSPU, Yates became a committee member of a new organisation 'Suffragettes of the WSPU'. Yates was responsible, together with Una Dugdale Duval, for establishing the Suffragette Record Room that opened in 1939.