Celebrating 100 years since the great Edinburgh March

GUDE CAUSE was formed to mark the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement Procession along Princes Street in 1909. The celebratory procession they organised as the climax to their work was the grand finale of our work too.

We were celebrating 100 years since the huge Suffragette march in Edinburgh in October 1909. The tramworks prevented an exact re-enactment but we walked from Bruntsfield Links to George IV bridge, then along part of the Royal Mile, North Bridge, Waterloo Place to Calton Hill, where we congregated for a rally and some singing.

Some of us had made pieces of 'sufragette' jewellery to wear, others had made costumes and sashes and yet more had created a colourful banner. All went on display on Saturday October 10th 2009 for the grand procession. Other groups had taken equally as much trouble and the whole thing was a blaze of colour.

The weather was fine and the mood good. We were in front of a salsa band that kept us jiggling along in time. Others had been singing songs written for the Marches (2009 and 1909) along with the singing group ‘Protest in Harmony’. They had produced a songbook for the occasion - launched three weeks before by a concert in the reference library.

Pictures of the March, taken by the participants, are on flickr. (Warning - there are loads!)