Laura+Ainsworth

Laura Ainsworth

Nationally, the suffragette movement had decided to boycott the census. Its slogan was: "If we don't count - we are not going to be counted". Laura Ainsworth had already achieved some national notoriety by going on hunger strike when she was in prison. In April 1911, she was lodging at 32 Stuart Road, Gillingham at the home of the Gundy family. Mrs Gundy was the secretary of the Rochester branch of the Women's Social and Political Union. On census night, Sunday 2 April 1911, Laura Ainsworth hired a nearby hall. She and 40 other Medway towns women vacated their houses so they would not be counted in the census.

"They spent the night in the hall dancing, singing and playing cards," said Medway towns historian, Brian Joyce. "There were two lots of breakfasts, one at two in the morning and one at six in the morning. "The police were called by local residents who were worried about the noise during the night but the police just warned them, they didn't do anything to them." The census enumerator left the census forms at the hall for the women to complete, but they refused.