Welcome!
To coincide with the Marvellous and Mischievous exhibition at the Hold, on loan from British Libraries...
... a new exhibition celebrating the rebels of Suffolk was created and exhibited in the Suffolk archives trailer which went on tour across the county.
Now, this exhibition has been transformed into an online exhibition for all to enjoy.
Boudica (C. 30 to 60 AD)
Believed to have been born to an elite family in 30AD, Boudica was a skilled warrior.
Aged 18, she married Prasatagus, King of the Iceni, whose territory made up parts of modern-day Suffolk and Norfolk. The Romans had invaded in 43AD and when Prasatagus died in 60AD, they claimed his land and property and attacked Boudica and her daughters.
Boudica promised revenge and led a rebellion against the Romans, defeating Roman armies at Camulodunum (Colchester), London and Verulamium (St Albans), killing around 70,000 Roman soldiers.
Provincial governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus led an army against Boudica, and they met somewhere between London and Northamptonshire. This ended in defeat for Boudica’s army. It is not known how Boudica died, but it is said that rather than be captured by the Romans, her and her daughters died by their own poison.
Having fought for justice and independence, Boudica is considered a national hero.
St Edmund (C. 841 to 869 AD)
Edmund the younger son of Alkmund King of Saxony, was named by Offa as heir to his throne. On Offa’s death Edmund is believed to have been crowned on Christmas day 855. The Danes who had invaded Britain in 865, eventually clashed with King Edmund in 869. In the ensuing battle Edmund was captured, however when he refused to renounce his Christian beliefs he was tied to a tree, shot with arrows and finally beheaded. Legend has it his head was later found by his followers, in the forest, being guarded by a wolf. King Edmund was initially buried nearby, but later his body was moved was to ‘Bedricesworth’ the Anglo-Saxon site of Bury- St -Edmunds before being moved once again for protection against the Danes to London in 1010. His body was eventually returned to Bury where King Canute had the first stone church built in 1020 to house it, from these beginnings the Benedictine abbey was founded.
Following Edmund’s canonisation his shrine soon amongst one of the most venerated, in England. However following the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. the location of the saints’ body was unknown, and it has remained under much speculation. A recent suggestion by historian Francis Young, is that it was moved in an iron chest to the abbey cemetery and is now, potentially, in the ruins under the site of former tennis courts within the Abbey gardens! Perhaps his tale should be more widely celebrated, particularly in today’s uncertain times, as he is also listed as the patron saint of Pandemics.
Mary Tudor (1496 to 1533)
Mary Tudor (1496-1533) held various titles throughout her lifetime including Queen of France and Duchess of Suffolk. King Henry VIII was her brother.
In 1514 Mary was married to King Louis XII of France. The 18 year old Mary was reluctant to marry King Louis who was 52 and unwell. He died 82 days later. Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk was sent to France to negotiate Mary’s return.
Mary was a strong willed, intelligent woman and before her first marriage had made her brother promise that if she married King Louis she could choose her next husband.
In secret, and without King Henry’s permission, Mary and Charles Brandon got married in France in March 1515 before returning to England. After persuading from Thomas Wolsey King Henry granted and oversaw a second wedding of Mary and Charles in May 1515. Together they lived at Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk. Mary disapproved of her brothers attempts to divorce Catherine of Aragon and did not attend his wedding to Anne Boleyn.
Mary died aged 34 and her brother arranged a magnificent funeral for her. Her body was interred at St Edmundsbury Abbey and later reburied in the church of St Mary.
The Mary Rose warship was named in her honour.
Lowestoft Witches (1662)
In 1662, there was a witch trial where two Lowestoft women were executed for witchcraft. Two children became ill and were said to experience fits, paralysis, vomiting pins and needles and visions of witches’ familiars. The two women were said to have been refused service by the children’s father, Samuel Pacy, causing them to place a curse on his family.
The accused women were Rose Cullender and Amy Denny.
Rose Cullender was a well-off widow with nine children. She lived on Old Blue Anchor Lane, now Duke’s Head Street, where she was searched for ‘witches marks’.
Amy Denny, nee Heckleton, is believed to have been born in Beccles, though she lived in Lowestoft with her husband John Denny. It is said Denny was already unpopular with the townsfolk before a connection was drawn between Denny and Margaret Eccleston, who was executed for witchcraft by Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins in Linstead.
Margaret Catchpole (1762 to 1819)
Margaret stole a horse from her employer while dressed as a man as this images shows.
She is then locked in Ipswich Gaol but then escapes by scaling a wall, and, eventually, made a new life for herself after being transported to Australia.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836 to 1917)
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was Britain’s first female doctor and became the Mayor of Aldeburgh in 1908. Her journey was challenging but Elizabeth forged her own path.
Elizabeth was inspired by women’s rights campaigner Emily Davies and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first women to gain a medical degree in the USA.
Because she was a woman Elizabeth was rejected many times when applying to medical schools. In 1860 she completed a nursing course at Middlesex Hospital but was barred from lectures after complaints from male students who didn’t like her attending classes.
The Society of Apothecaries did not specifically exclude women, so Elizabeth was able to pass an exam enabling her to practice medicine. The Society then changed its rules to prevent other women following her example.
In 1866 Elizabeth established a dispensary in London for and staffed by women, this would later be called the New Hospital for Women. Determined to obtain a medical degree Elizabeth taught herself French and applied to the University of Paris, qualifying in 1870.
Elizabeth married James Anderson in 1871 and together they had three children. Elizabeth hyphenated her family name, and balanced motherhood alongside her medical work.
In 1902, Elizabeth retired from medicine and returned to Aldeburgh. In 1908 a year after her husband died she became mayor of the town, the first female mayor in England.
Elizabeth supported the women’s suffrage movement but reduced her involvement when demonstrations became increasingly violent.
Nina Frances Layard (1853 to 1935)
Nina Frances Layard was born in 1853 in Essex before moving to Ipswich and becoming an esteemed archaeologist, prehistorian and poet.
Layard was one of the first women to be admitted to the Society of Antiquaries of London and became the first female president of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia. She had a close relationship with Ipswich Museum and many of her finds are held in their collections.
Layard met and lived with Mary F Outram, a fellow archaeologist who assisted in Layard’s archaeological excavations. They are recorded on the 1901 census as living together. Neither woman married and they lived and worked together for the rest of their lives, before being buried in the same grave in Kelvedon churchyard. It is widely thought that the pair were in a same-sex relationship, though due to contemporary attitudes, they were not able to live openly as a lesbian couple.
Duleep Singh Sisters (1869 to 1957)
Catherine Hilda, Sophia and Bamba Duleep Singh were daughters of the deposed Maharaja of Punjab and spent their childhoods in Elvedon Hall.
Catherine and Sophia were members of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, both campaigning for women’s voting rights. Sophia was often seen selling The Suffragette newspaper near her London home. She also belonged to the Women’s Tax Resistance League and was summoned to court twice due to her unpaid taxes. Some of her jewels and a diamond ring were confiscated after she refused to pay the fines.
Catherine also had a life-long relationship with her governess Fraulein Lina Schafer. They moved to Germany in 1904. A deposit box discovered in 1997 indicated their commitment as a couple.
Unlike her sisters, Bamba settled in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, after a childhood in England. She was a passionate suffragette and advocated for the self-rule and independence of India.
Edith Maud Cook (1878 to 1910)
Edith Maud Cook was born on 1st September 1878 at 90 Fore Street, Ipswich.
It is said that 10-year-old Cook was inspired to enter the aviation career after seeing a balloon flight in Ipswich in 1888. She went on her first balloon flight at the age of 14 and at 20 was employed as a parachutist, performing in dangerous exhibitions country wide.
Cook formally trained as a pilot at the Bleriot aviation school in France and became the first British woman to pilot a plane in 1910. She made over 300 balloon ascents over her career before unfortunately passing away after sustaining injuries in a balloon jump in Coventry in July 1910.
Prince Monolulu (1881 to 1965)
A popular local character, Prince Monolulu was a celebrated horse racing tipster and one of the first black people in Britain to become an international celebrity.
Basil Brown (1888 to 1977)
Basil Brown was a Suffolk man of humble beginnings, who made one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time when he found the Sutton Hoo ship burial in 1939.
Suffolk Archives has also created another exhibition on Basil Brown, which can be viewed here: Basil Brown: ‘a pure piece of rustic Suffolk’ (shorthandstories.com)
A few clips from the BBC archives of a programme transmitted on the 17.08.1965 about Basil Brown. © BBC. Click the play button to play the video.
A few clips from the BBC archives of a programme transmitted on the 17.08.1965 about Basil Brown. © BBC. Click the play button to play the video.
Agnes Olive Beamish (1890 to 1978)
Agnes Olive Beamish was a suffragette and campaigner for women’s rights. She was imprisoned tice and forcibly fed when she went on hunger strike
Fritz Ball (1893 to 1976)
Fritz Ball was a German Jewish lawyer and amateur cellist born in Berlin in 1893. He lost his law licence under anti-Semitic Nazi law and was imprisoned twice. The frostbite he suffered at the second concentration camp caused paralysis in his right hand, stopping him from playing the cello.
Fritz and his wife Eva Gutfield arrived in London as refugees in 1939 and were placed at Palace House Stables in Newmarket. With great determination he learnt to play the cello again and performed in public concerts.
Although they were considered no threat to the UK, Fritz was interned in a camp on the Isle of Man for four months in 1940. In the camp he met other refugee musicians, like the well-known Jewish composer Hans Gal.
After his release, Fritz returned and lived in Newmarket until 1942. In 1946 he and Eva reunited with their three sons in the USA.
Also in 1946, Fritz wrote an memoir entitled, 'We have to move on'. The below excerpt comes from a project based upon this memoir in collaboration with Suffolk Archives, the National Horseracing Museum, and Orchestras live.
Colonel Victor Barker (1895 to 1960)
Colonel Victor Barker was assigned female at birth in 1895. They became a nurse and joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.
After leaving their abusive partner Earnest Pearce-Crouch, Barker began to present as a man and married Elfrida Howard in 1923.
Barker was taken to Brixton prison in 1929 when they were charged with perjury. Barker was convicted of making a false statement on their marriage certificate after their assigned sex of female was revealed.
Barker later performed in a peep show with Howard in Blackpool.
Colonel Barker assumed the new identity of Geoffrey Norton when WW2 ended and married Eva Norton by 1956. They lived at 3 Wrights Cottages in Kessingland.
Barker died in Lowestoft Hospital in the age of 64. It was not until three months after his death that it was revealed Geoffrey Norton was in fact Colonel Barker.
Albert Grant (1934 to Present)
Albert Grant is a prominent community leader in Suffolk who has dedicated his life to securing racial equality.
Albert was born in 1934 and was educated in Barbados before coming to Ipswich in 1954. It was his father, one of the founders of the Barbados Working Union, who inspired him to get involved in politics.
He began his politics career in the Labour party and people took a long time to accept him. Albert became Ipswich’s first Black councillor and Mayor of Ipswich in 1995. He served as a Councillor for 26 years.
He founded the Ipswich Caribbean Association as a community centre for young people to learn about Caribbean history and heritage. Grant received his OBE in 2000 for his services to ethnic minorities.