In 1908, a South Australian suffragette, Muriel Matters, became the first woman to speak in the British parliament.

Loading

She chained herself to an iron grille in the ladies gallery of the House of Commons and made a speech demanding that women have the right to vote.

Now the Muriel Matters Society is trying to raise awareness of the role played by the South Australian activist in the fight to get British women the vote.

Members recently gathered at an afternoon tea at Westminster held in her memory, with the likes of British Home Secretary Amber Rudd in attendance.

Frances Bedford, a South Australian Labor MP, arrived at the House of Commons dressed as Ms Matters to commemorate her activism.

"There are several newspaper accounts, so they must be true, of her pressing her nose to the grille and after years of training as an actress and elocution saying: 'The women of England demand the vote, for too long we have been kept behind this grille," Ms Bedford said.

"They realised they couldn't remove the chains quickly enough, so they unscrewed the grille and by doing so placed her on the floor of the House of Common.

"Which is why we are able to proclaim she is the first woman to speak in the House of Commons — and everyone agrees with us."

For this act, Ms Matters was sent to Holloway prison for one month.

Photo of suffragette, Muriel Matters ( ABC News )

'Ms Matters has been an inspiration to women in parliament'

A proud South Australian, Ms Matters grew up in the state that was the first place in the world to give women dual suffrage — the right to vote, and the right to stand for parliament.

Having twice voted at home, when she moved to London Ms Matters could not understand why she could no longer vote.

Ms Rudd now holds the seat in the area where Muriel Matters unsuccessfully ran for parliament back in 1924.

She said suffragettes such as Ms Matters had been an inspiration to women in parliament

"The bravery, the courage and the determination shown by the women who were demanding suffrage was incredibly important," she said.

"There was a lot of resistance to it and personally when I'm out campaigning or canvassing, trying to talk people up about how they should vote, when the women say (they) can't really be bothered, I do remind them that it wasn't that long ago that women got the vote, and how hard women worked, sometimes at great costs to their lives, to try and get us the vote."

Plan to pelt the King with brochures from a balloon backfired

Chaining herself to the grille in the House of Commons was not the only act Muriel Matters was known for.

Ms Bedford said that after being released from prison, Ms Matters wrote to King Edward VII and demanded that the vote for women be placed on parliament's agenda.

"Her request was completely ignored," Ms Bedford said.

So in 1909 Ms Matters "did what any red-blooded women would do" — hired a dirigible air balloon and took off with a plan to dump universal suffrage propaganda on the monarch of the day.

Loading

Ms Bedford said all that would have been fine, except that in those early days of flight you needed the winds to be going in the right direction, and unfortunately for Ms Matters, they were not.

"So these balloons never actually landed where they took off, and she sailed miles away — but created international headlines."

Ms Matters' escapades will be toasted tomorrow night when the London chapter of her society is launched at Australia House.