[Guest post by Helena Wojtczak, a local historian and researcher dedicated to uncovering the hidden histories of women, http://www.hastingspress.co.uk]
In a terraced house in St Leonards, a letter was once found that changed art history. But the women who lived in that house were busy changing much more than that. The MacMunn sisters were a triple threat to the status quo: one was a pioneer who broke the glass ceiling at Oxford University; another was a militant suffragette who dodged the census and ran a thriving art studio; the third was a civic leader who became one of the first women to sit on the local bench. For too long, their stories have lived in the margins of their brother’s military career. This essay brings their voices back to the centre, exploring how three sisters from a traditional family became the architects of their own liberation.
Part I: The Establishment Foundations (1842–1899)
The story of the MacMunn sisters begins in the heart of the British Establishment. Their mother, Charlotte Edith Mathias, was a woman of impeccable pedigree, the daughter of the Reverend George Mathias, Chaplain in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Charlotte married Dr. John Alexander MacMunn, an army surgeon fifteen years her senior and the Principal Medical Officer of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
In this sprawling institution for veteran pensioners, the MacMunns raised five children. While the two sons followed traditional paths—one to the pulpit and the other, George, to a distinguished military career—the three daughters received an elite education from private tutors. In 1896 the Macmunns and their three daughters—Gertrude, Lettice, and Nora—moved to St Leonards, where Dr MacMunn died. Financed by inheritance and fiercely independent, the MacMunn women of 1 Blomfield Road began to redefine their lives on the Sussex coast.
Part II: The Academic & Artistic Pioneers (1900–1910)
By the turn of the century, the sisters were forging professional identities that challenged the status quo. Nora, the youngest, set her sights on Oxford. Though she passed her final exams in 1903, the university withheld degrees from women. Undeterred, she specialised in Geography and, by 1906, became only the second woman to hold a teaching post at Oxford.
While Nora conquered the lecture hall, Lettice conquered the art studio. Around 1904 she opened the Vita Studio in the Royal Concert Hall, which became a rigorous centre for art education, hosting the Students’ Art Club and training future illustrators including Ruth Streatfeild, the sister of the famous novelist Noel. Lettice’s expertise was such that she eventually served as the Principal of the Teachers’ Training Department of the Royal Drawing Society.
Part III: The Militant Turn (1910–1914)
As the suffrage movement radicalised, three female MacMunns became central figures in the local struggle. Charlotte served as the Honorary Treasurer of the Propaganda League. In 1911, the family took their most daring stand against the National Census.
Lettice, in particular, leaned into the militancy of the WSPU. She was present at the violent “Black Friday” demonstrations in London and acted as a steward when Emmeline Pankhurst spoke at the Public Hall in 1912. Nora supported the cause intellectually, researching and presenting learned papers on women’s constitutional rights to the Propaganda League. Adopting the slogan “No Vote, No Information,” Nora and Lettice evaded the census by hiding with fellow activists at 5 Grand Parade.
Part IV: The Breaking of Glass Ceilings (1914–1935)
The post-war years brought the validation the sisters had long sought. In 1920, Oxford finally granted degrees to women, and Nora received her MA seventeen years after earning it. She rose to become a Lecturer in Regional Geography, and lived openly as a lesbian, eventually cohabiting with Ivy Williams, Britain’s first female barrister.
The eldest sister, Gertrude, chose to revolutionise the system from within. A tireless worker in parochial affairs, she became the first female churchwarden at St Paul’s in St Leonards in 1927 and was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1929. While her sisters had been “outlaws” for the vote, Gertrude became a pillar of the very law they fought to change.
Part V: The Whistler Secret & Final Legacies (1935–1967)
Even in their later years, the MacMunns continued to influence history. While acting as executrix for her aunt, Gertrude discovered a letter from Anna Whistler—the subject of the world-famous “Whistler’s Mother.” The letter proved the portrait was painted in Hastings, not Chelsea, debunking decades of art-historical assumption.
The sisters lived remarkably long lives; both Nora and Gertrude reached the age of 91. They outlived the Victorian era that sought to limit them and the Edwardian era they helped to radicalize. When Nora passed away in 1967, she left behind a world that had finally caught up to the MacMunn women.
