Muriel Lilah Matters (12 November 1877 – 17 November 1969) was an Australian-born suffragist, lecturer, journalist, educator, actress and elocutionist. Based in Britain from 1905 until her death, Matters is best known for her work on behalf of the Women's Freedom League at the height of the militant struggle to enfranchise women in the United Kingdom.
Early life
Muriel Matters was born in the inner city suburb of Bowden in Adelaide, South Australia, to a large Methodist family. Her mother, Emma Alma Matters (née Warburton), gave birth to five daughters and five sons, with Muriel being the third oldest child. Her father was John Leonard Matters, a cabinetmaker and later stockbroker.
Matters spent the majority of her youth in South Australia. In 1894 the colony had gained attention for being the first self-governing territory to give women equal franchise on the same terms as it was granted to men, under legislation passed by the Kingston Government.
During Matters' upbringing she was introduced to two 19th-century literary figures who proved influential in informing her political consciousness. These were the American poet Walt Whitman and the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, author of A Doll's House. While attending elocution classes as a child, the works of both of these writers featured prominently.
Matters studied music at the University of Adelaide and by the late 1890s had begun to act and conduct recitals, initially in Adelaide, but later in Sydney and Melbourne with the Robert Brough Company.
At the time of the Federation of Australia in 1901, Matters returned to Adelaide and taught elocution while concurrently performing for audiences at numerous halls and saloons across the state. In 1904, she left Adelaide once more to join her family who in the meantime had moved to Perth, Western Australia. In Perth she continued her acting and was encouraged by friends in the industry to further her career in London. She soon followed their advice and, in late 1905, aged 28, Matters boarded the passenger ship Persic to travel to London, England.
Conversion to the suffrage cause
When Matters arrived in London she began doing recitals intermittently and eventually performed at the Bechstein Hall (now named Wigmore Hall). However, recital work in London was difficult to acquire due to a surplus of performers and Matters undertook occasional work as a journalist for income. As a journalist she is known to have interviewed George Bernard Shaw and the exiled anarchist Prince Peter Kropotkin. Matters eventually performed at the home of Kropotkin and, after her recital, he challenged her to use her skills for something more useful stating that, "Art is not an end of life, but a means." Matters agreed with his assessment and soon became involved with the Women's Freedom League (WFL) to further the cause of women. She would later write that her encounter with Kropotkin, "proved to be the lifetime in a moment lived – my entire mental outlook was changed." WFL was led by Charlotte Despard and was set up to be more democratic than the Pankhursts led Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) suffragettes. Matters accompanied Maud Arncliffe Sennet to an event where Milicent Fawcett was debating the support for women's militancy Arncliffe Sennett wrote in the press that Matters had not been forced into silence.
Work with the Women's Freedom League
Caravan tour of 1908
In early May through to mid-October 1908, Matters was "Organiser in Charge" of the first "Votes for Women" caravan that toured the south east counties of England. The caravan tour began in Oxshott and passed through Surrey, Sussex, East Anglia and Kent. The purpose of the tour was to speak about women's enfranchisement and establish new WFL branches in the region. Despite the occasional heckler, Matters and the others involved, such as Charlotte Despard and Amy Hicks, were successful in achieving these aims and established several branches. On this tour Matters met a young Quaker named Violet Tillard in Tunbridge Wells who remained a close acquaintance until Tillard's death in 1922, which was due to typhus contracted while helping people in famine-ravaged Russia.