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Flora Jane Reynolds
Early years
In 1932 Flora Jane Reynolds (nee Hand) was elected President of the Marazion branch (the only branch in Cornwall) of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).[1] The Cornishman reported on the formation of the WILPF branch in 1930 and in various editions in the 1930s mentioned the activities of the branch. [2]
Flora Jane Hand was born in 1883 in Canonstown near Ludgvan in West Cornwall, the 8th of ten children and daughter of John and Emily Hand. John was a tin miner who died at the age of 53. Flora's four brothers were all miners and all emigrated to Michigan in the USA after the collapse of the Cornish tin mining industry. Flora went to the local school and subsequently trained as a teacher serving at St Levan School near Lands End, at the Wesleyan School in Penzance and Goldsithney Council School. It is likely that she was obliged to resign her position before she married James Reynolds in 1907 in line with the rule of the day that a schoolmistress must be unmarried.
Flora's first four children all died in infancy. Four later children, three girls and one boy, survived. The Cornishman newspaper carried a report of Flora's death in August 1939 and mentioned that she was for many years President of the Marazion branch of WILPF.[3]
Involvement in WILPF
In 1915 a group of women met for an International Women's Congress in The Hague in Holland when most of Europe was engaged in the First World War. According to the booklet "These Dangerous Women: WILPF Women Working in Partnership" (2015), the organisers of the congress were prominent women in the International Suffrage Alliance from both countries at war and neutral countries. Despite the difficulties of travel during war time approximately 1200 women from twelve countries attended the congress. Many women were prevented from attending including 180 from Britain who the British government either denied a passport or prevented from attending by closing the North Sea to merchant shipping. Only three women from Britain managed to attend the meeting.
The congress acted as a protest against the First World War and participants discussed an alternative analysis of the causes of the war and the principles on which it could be stopped and a permanent peace established. The congress set up an International Committee for Permanent Peace which four years later became WILPF. Today WILPF is organised in 37 countries and continues to stand for equality for all people in a world free of racism, sexism and homophobia; the building of a constructive peace through world disarmament; and the changing of government priorities to meet human needs.
It is possible that Flora Jane's involvement with WILPF was inspired by a talk given to the Penzance branch of the League of Nations by Kathleen Courtney the President of WILPF UK in 1926.[4] Kathleen Courtney was one of the three "dangerous women" (a term coined by Winston Churchill) who made it to the 1915 congress and subsequently reported on the gathering "which proved that, even in time of war, the solidarity of women will hold fast and that.. women of different countries can hold out the hand of friendship to each other in spite of the hatred and bloodshed." Ref. Kathleen Courtney was awarded the UN peace medal in 1972.
WILPF active again in Cornwall
Following in the footsteps of Flora Jane Reynolds, a branch of WILPF UK was established again in Cornwall in 2014 under the leadership of Brigitte Morrigan. The branch is active in all peace related activities in West Cornwall including the Penzance Peace Singers and has initiated an annual Reclaim the Night march in Penzance.