Jane Suffield (Cont).

Description:There were changes planned for the education of the country; the School Boards elected in 1900 were to be the last. From 1903 there would be Local Education Boards. This gave importance to the last School Board, as the system of education established then was likely to continue when the education authorities took over. Although only a few women could vote in local elections it was believed that they took a particular interest in education for the sake of their children; it was also believed that women had influence over their husbands. In local elections political parties liked to have at least one woman candidate.

One of the two main parties in Birmingham, the Church Party, believed that there should be a non-sectarian religious service in school each day. The Bishop of Coventry (and Birmingham), Bishop E. A. Knox, was the leader; Miss Creak advised him that Jane Suffield would be a good choice as ‘Our lady School Board candidate’. The satirical Birmingham journal the Town Crier, [7] which supported the Church Party, suggested that Bishop Knox had been unaware that both Miss Creak and Jane Suffield were nonconformists rather than Church of England. Whatever the case Jane Suffield was accepted as a candidate at the selection meeting in early October 1900.

There were pictures of Jane Suffield in her degree robes on her election literature, and ‘as a special supplement’ in the Town Crier – special, as very few photographs appeared in papers or journals at that time. Jane was the candidate for the Central ward so on Church Party fliers her name appeared above those of the other candidates, including Bishop Knox. She still worked as a teacher but was energetic in the campaign. She addressed meetings in the evening. She wrote letters to the few women electors; there is an example of one in the elections scrapbook describing her beliefs: ‘… I cannot believe that any training is worthy of that name which neglects character, and trains intellect only… simple non-sectarian Bible teaching should form part of the daily instruction of the children…’ [8]

Jane was elected; Bishop Knox in his autobiography remembered that she had been one of the most successful candidates. From 1900 to 1903 she attended a number of meetings, taking a special interest in secondary education. And in 1901, as Bishop Knox records in his autobiography,[9] the Church Party managed to establish that there would be a short religious service at the start of each day. This continued in most schools through most of the twentieth century as the morning assembly.

At that time, and for years thereafter, middle class women were expected to give up work when they married. In August 1905 Jane married Edwin Neave, an insurance inspector, and left Birmingham.