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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: Cazza47 on Thursday 15 September 22 16:07 BST (UK)
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Would servants be listed in electoral rolls in 1920
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I was going to post a simple answer to your question, but decided to read up on the Representation of the People Act 1918, which seems anything but simple.
The situation seems to be :
A man or woman* over 21 who "occupied property as owner or tenant" was entitled to register. An employee who occupies a dwelling or lodging as a condition of employment, but the employer does not live there, is entitled to register.
But none of that seems to enable a servant living on the premises of their employer to be registered to vote. It does not even seem to entitle the son or daughter of any occupier to be registered, which is surprising, so I may have got this wrong.
So your servant may not have had the vote unless they were a tenant of property in their own right.
(* - a woman over 21 had the same right as a man to vote in local elections but not necessarily in Parliamentary elections)
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Thank you, she was 21 but as a servant I doubt she was registered. I have not been able to find her so that will be the reason.
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Depending on the date of the Register you're looking at
a woman under 30 wasn't eligible to vote until 1928
so won't appear until 1930.
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Depending on the date of the Register you're looking at
a woman under 30 wasn't eligible to vote until 1928
so won't appear until 1930.
Well I could just repeat the whole of what I wrote above:
I was going to post a simple answer to your question, but decided to read up on the Representation of the People Act 1918, which seems anything but simple.
[ ... ]
So your servant may not have had the vote unless they were a tenant of property in their own right.
(* - a woman over 21 had the same right as a man to vote in local elections but not necessarily in Parliamentary elections)
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It's a simple answer to a simple question.
Women over 30 could vote in national elections after the Act.
Women under 30 & over 21 could vote in local elections providing
they met the property criteria.
Male servants got the vote in 1911 providing they were over 21.
Occupation wasn't an issue.
So the answer to the question is yes.
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Thank you
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Have you looked for her on the 1921 census?
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Yes she had a child in 1921 but was working for a family in yorkshire when she supposedly got pregnant by their son. Both the husband and wife were doctors. By 1921 she was back with her family and gave birth at the end of june that year.