Constance Andrews

Constance Andrews was a leading Ipswich suffragette, was committed to social justice and the campaign for Votes for Women.

She formed the local branch of the campaigning group The Women’s Freedom League. This inspired a group of women who demonstrated, held meetings, organised propaganda events, and carried out acts of civil disobedience – all to gain support and put pressure on the government to give women the vote on equal terms with men.

In 1911 she organised the ‘No Vote, No Census’ protest in Ipswich, when about thirty women spent the night in the Old Museum Rooms to boycott the Census. Later she spent a week in Ipswich prison after refusing to buy a dog licence – part of a No Vote, No Tax campaign. She was met at the prison gates by a large crowd of supporters, and processed in a carriage through the streets to a celebration breakfast at 16 Arcade Street.

The Blue Plaque on Arlington’s Brasserie, Museum Street, Ipswich was unveiled on 8th October 2016 by members of the Ipswich Women’s Festival Group that aims to research and celebrate local women’s achievements, organising events and developing resources.

The Group started in the 1980s when it held various women’s festivals in the town. It built on the work done by a Community Education Local Women’s History Group in the 1990s, which compiled the first leaflet, and held an exhibition of Women and Work.

In 2011, the group decided to celebrate the centenary of the Census Boycott, when thirty local women avoided completing their Census forms by staying at the Old Museum Rooms overnight in a campaign to get Votes for Women. Almost 150 women came to the site of that action (now Arlington’s Brasserie) for dinner, talks and singing.