Miss Vera Holme

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2017/03/15/vera-jack-holme-one-of-the-stars-of-the-womens-library-collection/
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/jQLSqKybfPY_Kw
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)

Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3214/how-effective-was-the-votes-for-women-campaign-in-bristol

Family information: Father a timber merchant.

Additional Information: In 1908, Vera joined the Actresses Franchise League (AFL), a suffrage society that contributed much to the suffrage 'spectacle' in the way of suffrage plays and pageants. It is likely that she joined the WSPU that same year. She was described by Sylvia Pankhurst as a 'noisy, explosive young person', frequently told off by her elders 'for lack of dignity'. Among other theatrical events for the WSPU, she took part in suffrage processions and, in June 1909, on horseback, presented the Prime Minister with a letter announcing the imminent arrival of a WSPU deputation. One incident she was most proud of was carried out with Elsie Howey, whom she hid with in Calston Hall in Bristol inside the musical organ, ready for a meeting chaired by Liberal Party politician Augustine Birrell. The two women repeatedly shouted out 'Votes for women!' and it took bemused officials several minutes to discover their hiding place. By August 1909, she was chauffeur to Emmeline Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, and wore a WSPU-coloured uniform. In 1911, she was sent to prison for five days for throwing stones. Vera was also a member of the Young Hot Bloods (YHB), a society composed of the younger members of the WSPU, who were fully prepared to undertake 'danger duty'.

Other Suffrage Activities: When war broke out in 1914, Vera joined the Women's Volunteer Reserve and served in the Transport Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospital. She was in charge of horses and trucks and was said to be an excellent mechanic. Vera Holme was very close to Evelina Haverfield and they were probably in a relationship together until the latter's death. The couple became deeply concerned during their war work with the plight of the Serbian people and, after Evelina's death, Vera was administrator of the fund and home she had founded for Serbian orphans. Vera was also a member of the Pioneer Players, a radical feminist theatre group that formed during the women's suffrage campaign under the leadership of Edith Craig of the AFL.