This is a page from the 1918 Register of Electors, listing residents of Hanslope who were eligible to vote in Parliamentary and Local Government elections. The significance of this document lies in the names of the women listed. The Representation of the People Act 1918 extended for the first time the franchise, wholesale to women. Even so this new right to vote was not without conditions: women had to be aged thirty or over, and a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register, a property owner, or a graduate voting in a University constituency.
Throughout the country about 8.4 million were included for the first time on Registers of Electors, creating a valuable local and family history resource—along with the individual’s name, their address is also recorded.
In Hanslope you will see that many of the women listed live on farms (Tathal End Farm, Manor Farm to name two), reflecting what a rural area this part of what was then North Buckinghamshire was.
Our ref: R-E 61
Our collection of Registers of Electors covers the whole area of Buckinghamshire, and what is now Milton Keynes, consistently from 1918-2001, we also have some earlier and later material.
Milton Keynes in Fifty Historic Records 