This biography, written by Caroline Sutton and Karen Antoni, is shared with permission from Brighton & Hove Museums.
Born: 6 May 1866, United Kingdom
Died: 1948
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: NA
Minnie Turner was born in 1867. She was bought up in a modest house in Preston Street in Brighton. Her family ran a very busy shop selling knitted garments. She and her elder brother Alfred loved books. They were mainly self-educated. As a young woman she made her living running a lodging house. Her guests were professional people. She became very interested in politics and social justice, particularly women’s suffrage.
In 1906 the UK had a new Liberal government. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith had promised women the vote, so lots of women had tirelessly campaigned for the Liberal party. Minnie, like many other women, felt very let down when they broke their promise. So in 1908, she joined the WSPU – the Women’s Social & Political Union.
Minnie advertised her home at 13-14 Victoria Road, Brighton as “Seaview”. Suffragettes could recuperate after being released from prison or prominent speakers addressing meetings could stay. Lots of women connected to the women’s movement stopped in Seaview. All the Pankhurst sisters, Constance Lytton, Emmeline Pethic-Lawrence, Annie Keeney, Flora Drummond to name just a few.
An office opened in 1909 at North Street Quadrant to organise demonstrations, sell tickets for events in London and as an address for correspondence and letters in the press. Minnie was one of the organisers along with Mary Clarke (Emmaline Pankhurst’s sister) who also stayed at Seaview. The windows at Seaview were broken after rowdy meetings on the seafront. Minnie was arrested twice for her suffrage activities. In 1911 during a protest opposed to Asquith’s Reform Bill, she broke a window at the Home Office and was sentenced to 3 weeks imprisonment at Holloway.
In 1912 Minnie had furniture seized through non-payment of taxes. She was a member of the Tax Resistance League for Women’s Suffrage which argued ‘No Taxation without Representation.’ By 1913 Seaview had acquired a mixed reputation as a “Suffragette boarding house” harbouring a colony of militants. In April 1913, the windows of the house were stoned by local youths. Minnie Turner and her guests retaliated by sticking up signs in the windows declaring the damage as an illustration of ‘Masculine Logic, the only logic men understand.’