As communities and volunteers have been transcribing the 390,296 signatories from the 1923 Welsh Women’s Peace Petition to America, many have been identifying and uncovering the stories behind this generation of women who stood against war. Who were they – and what messages might they have for us 100 years later.

‘Hidden Histories’ project led by the WCIA invited people across Wales to uncover and share ‘peace stories’ behind the 390,296 women who signed the Peace Petition – not just ‘the great and the good’, but the thousands of ordinary women across Wales moved in the aftermath of World War One to petition for peace.

This story and supporting material were contributed by Catrin Stevens.

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Sarah Emily Matthews

When celebrating the achievement of the Peace Petition of 1923-24, we must remember the efforts of the local organizers who walked from house to house, from farm to farm in all weathers to collect the signatures on it. One woman who contributed a great deal to this work was Emily Matthews (1875-1945), of Trehinon, 35 Stryd Mona, Amlwch on Ynys Môn. She led the campaign on Anglesey, and it was her responsibility to collect the petitions from there to send to the Welsh League of Nations Union office in Cardiff. To assist in the work, 52 local organizers were attracted to thoroughly canvass each parish, and today, as we read the signatures on the petitions, we see how successful their work had been. Emily's description of the reaction is infectious:

“In my area, a woman ... who had dedicated two days to the work, brought me her list with great pride, saying that she had the signature of every woman in her area. Early the next morning, before going to work, he came to collect the form, because during the night he had remembered another woman who had recently come to stay in the area and he had not seen her. In another area, a woman, living in a small bleak house in the slums of the town, met one of the canvassers and asked when she would call, that she and her neighbor had already bought a bottle of ink and a pen!”

Emily was the daughter of John Matthews - a bank manager - and Sarah, daughter of Thomas Gee from Denbigh, a temperance campaigner. She was a Justice of the Peace, and extremely active with all kinds of organizations on the Isle of Anglesey: the County Nursing Association, the Education Committee, the Union of Anglesey Village Halls and Societies and the Women's Institute. In the thirties he served on the Steering Committee of the Wales League of Nations Union. Emily married Captain A. Stanley Davies in 1935. Ironically, he had been recruiting Caernarfonshire boys into the army during the Great War, but it seems he was ‘converted’ because he was attending WLNU meetings together in the 1930s. In the 1939 Register Emily notes that she did 'only public work' (not 'only domestic work' like all other married women). This earned her the

M.B.E. They lived in Y Wenallt, Llandegfan, and Emily died in 1945