The Book And Suffragette Coincidence

This is a coincidence I came across but as to whether there is any significance I'm not really sure.

I bought an old book at a car boot sale for 50p (about 70c) because of the title Natural Law In The Spiritual World and also because I simply like old books.

When I got home I saw that it had been signed by the owner, Mary Aldham, way back in 1884.

I also noticed that this lady had made numerous sketches and drawings throughout the book.

As the cost was only 50p I hadn't bothered to flick through the pages previously. To my untrained eye the paintings look quite good - see at the top of this post and below.



All well and good but then looking through some other old bits and pieces I have hoarded - much to my wife's despair - was the poster below of a Mary Aldham!


You can just make out that Mary Aldham is the photo on the left. It seems that she was part of the suffragette movement in Britain along with Ethel Cox. The story is that the two women caused damage to public art treasures and buildings and that others should be aware that they may try to perpetrate similar offences.

One of the aims of the Suffragette movement was 'votes for women' the most well known suffragettes probably being the Pankhurst family: Christabel, Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst. There is more information on the Suffragettes, which started in 1897, here.

Now I can't say for certain that the two mentioned Mary Aldhams are the same person - but the dates fit and I've got a 'feeling' they could well be.

If they are or not it's still a nice coincidence and, no matter how often things like this can happen, I find it fascinating. Coincidences sometimes seem to come about to bring 'things' to our attention.