Mrs Lilian Martha Hicks

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
http://www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/neither-freaks-nor-frumps-two-essex-suffragettes-lilian-and-amy-hicks/
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)

Family information: Mother to Amy Maud Hicks.

Additional Information: Lilian cited her father's forward-looking approach to his daughters as central to her feminism. She stated that he was 'a great believer in women's capabilities' and trained them in all matters 'as thoroughly as he trained his sons'. She began helping with the suffrage cause in the 1880s, organising meetings in East Anglia ? one of which was attended by NUWSS leader Millicent Fawcett. She was for some time a member of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage (CSWS). She joined the WSPU at the same time as her daughter, Amy Hicks, in 1906?7. Also with her daughter, Lilian left the WSPU to join the breakaway society the Women's Freedom League (WFL) when it formed in 1907. She also supported the New Constitutional League for Women's Suffrage (NCLWS) and the Women's Tax Resistance League (WTRL). In 1911, Lilian took part in the illegal suffrage boycott of the goverment census survey, writing across her form, 'As I am not regarded as a sensible citizen, I refuse to fill up this paper.' By 1913, she was acting as honorary treasurer and had her goods seized twice for not paying tax. She had been arrested twice by then but each time was found not guilty. In July, she became a London organiser for the Scottish-based Northern Men's Federation for Women's Suffrage (NMFWS). In 1915, Lilian was honorary secretary of the Hampstead branch of the United Suffragists (US) and in 1918, was a member of the Suffragettes of the WSPU. Both organisations represented breakaway groups unhappy with how the WSPU was being run and how it was failing to pursue the issue of votes for women during the war.