Around the country, women became involved, with demonstrations, speeches and lobbying.

Emmeline Pankhurst is viewed as the figurehead for the movement and in 1903 created the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), as they began to be involved in direct action.

Suffrage began earlier and Grimsby’s suffragette movement was helped by the daughter of an esteemed family.

Isabella Grange was born in 1853. She was the daughter of William Grange, who was the oldest serving town clerk when he died aged 92 in 1913 of old age. He was involved in council business, and her brother Ernest was a solicitor.

She grew up at The Willows on Bargate. In 1877 she married Dr George Skelton Stephenson and they lived at Grimsby Manor on Brighowgate.

Isabella was at the fore of the suffragette movement in Grimsby, aided by the Rev Edward Lauderdale, Minister of the Baptist Chapel. 

It began in February 1873 when members of a London suffrage society visited the town. The meeting was chaired by John Wintringham but on the platform that night were Rev Lauderdale and Rev Fordyce.

Later that year a local committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage was formed with a 20-year-old Isabella as secretary and Rev Fordyce as treasurer.

Over the next ten years various speakers came to speak to the inhabitants of Grimsby. Miss Grange then ceased to be involved, but it paved the way for other groups.

In 1900 a Women’s Liberal Association was set up in the town and The Church League for Women’s Suffrage was set up in 1909.

In Grimsby, the clergy chaired meetings of League activists in the marketplace; and then in 1912 a women’s suffrage movement was set up.

Isabella died on 16 February 1937 and is buried in Scartho Road Cemetery.