A Case of Criminal Justice & the Right to Petition
The Case of Ethel Margaret SelfDangerous Driving — Clemency Petitions to the King & Parliament
A school teacher of Long Stratton, Norfolk, who maintained she was never the driver of the car, fights for three years to clear a 1936 dangerous-driving conviction — taking her petition from the magistrates and the Home Secretary to the King, and to the floor of the House of Commons.
The Case at a Glance
Miss Ethel Margaret Self, then aged 45, a school teacher of Long Stratton, Norfolk, was convicted of dangerous driving at Lowestoft in 1936. From the moment of conviction she maintained that she was not the driver of the car involved, and that her conviction rested on wilfully false evidence and police suppression of evidence. For the next three years she pressed every constitutional avenue open to a private citizen seeking redress.
- 1936Conviction. Ethel Margaret Self is convicted of dangerous driving at Lowestoft. She maintains from the outset that she was not the driver of the car in the case.
- 1936–39The campaign. A three-year protest campaign follows, at a personal cost reported variously at £100–£150, seeking to have the conviction quashed.
- 7 Mar 39Petition to Parliament. A petition “for redress of grievances” in the name of Ethel Margaret Self is presented to the House of Commons (by Mr. Christie), signed by the petitioner herself.
- 5 Apr 39Ordered to be printed. The Commons Committee on Public Petitions records the petition in its First Report and directs its printing “in extenso.”
- 13–14 Aug 39Letter to the Home Secretary. Miss Self travels with her brother to Sir Samuel Hoare’s residence, Templewood, Cromer, to press her case in person; she is turned away at the door and leaves a letter.
- Sun 13 Aug 39Public distribution. More than 5,000 copies of the petition are distributed in Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Gorleston; copies go to every magistrates’ bench in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
- 18–21 Aug 39Petition to the King fails. Miss Self is told no action is being taken on her petition to the King. She vows to press on: “my case being thrashed out on the floor of Parliament.”
“It seems that it takes five minutes to be convicted and three years to be exonerated from an injustice.” — Miss Ethel Margaret Self, letter to the Home Secretary, August 1939.
The Campaign in the Press — August 1939
By the summer of 1939 Miss Self’s campaign was nationwide news. Several newspapers followed the campaign through the summer of 1939; the latest of these reports ran at the very end of August. Together they capture the campaign’s climax and its outcome. Where reports differ, each is reproduced with the detail it alone adds.
Facsimile of the Nottingham Journal report of 14 August 1939.
Parliament is on holiday, the Home Secretary is on holiday, but Miss Elsie Margaret Self (45), a school teacher, of Long Stratton (Norfolk), who maintains that she was falsely convicted of stealing during 1936 and has spent £100 to try and get the conviction quashed, contends that:
“Parliament has broken up without giving my case consideration,” and the Home Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, has “failed to give me any indication he is carrying out the commands of the King” — a reference to her petition to the King, who replied that the Home Secretary would make inquiries.
So to-day the schoolteacher means to interrupt the Home Secretary’s vacation with a holiday task, a letter setting out her complaints about it all. To-day she will be at Northreps, Cromer. Miss Self will call on him in the morning.
Yesterday Miss Self showed a Press Association reporter a copy of the letter which she intends to hand Sir Samuel personally. She and her brother distributed more than 5,000 copies of her petition in Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, and Gorleston yesterday, and copies were posted to every bench of justices in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
Unique to this report: it alone records that the King had replied that the Home Secretary would make inquiries in response to the petition; that the intended trip to Cromer was to-day, Monday 14 August; and the lower cost figure of £100. This paper garbles her first name (“Elsie”) and the offence (“stealing”) — every other report gives the conviction as dangerous driving at Lowestoft in 1936.
Facsimile of the report “Woman’s Three-Year Fight for ‘Justice’.”
WOMAN’S THREE-YEAR FIGHT FOR “JUSTICE”. Fails To See Home Secretary At Seaside Home.
Miss Ethel Margaret Self, the 45-year-old school teacher of Long Stratton, Norfolk, who is conducting a protest campaign against a conviction for dangerous driving recorded against her in 1936 at Lowestoft, sought yesterday to hand a letter personally to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Home Secretary.
When Miss Self arrived at Templewood, Northrepps, Cromer, the residence of Sir Samuel Hoare, a detective told her that he had received instructions that only Sir Samuel’s personal friends could see him, but that any letters handed in would be sure to be delivered. She, therefore, decided to leave her letter with the detective.
The letter stated:—
“Not being satisfied that you, as Home Secretary, have carried out your part to the satisfaction of the cause of British justice, I wish to point out that in April last you were requested to report to the House of Commons and last month commanded to report to his Majesty the King I have waited the result, and now produce to you personally that I am still debarred from receiving justice.
“It seems that it takes five minutes to be convicted and three years to be exonerated from an injustice.”
Miss Self, who was accompanied by her brother, then continued to distribute copies of her petition in the Cromer district. On Sunday they distributed more than 5,000 copies in Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Gorleston. Copies of the petition were also posted to all the benches of magistrates in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex.
Unique to this report: it gives the fullest text of the letter left for the Home Secretary, the name of the residence (Templewood, Northrepps, Cromer), the detail that she was turned away by a detective to whom she left the letter, and that distribution continued in the Cromer district as well as the coastal towns.
Facsimile of the Lincolnshire Free Press report of 21 August 1939.
WOMAN MOTORIST’S PETITION. £150 SPENT IN VAIN.
‘Miss Ethel Margaret Self, 45, school teacher, of Long Stratton, Norfolk, who is conducting a protest campaign against a conviction for dangerous driving recorded against her at Lowestoft in 1936, was informed on Friday that no action was being taken on the petition she recently presented to the King that his Majesty should instruct the Home Secretary to review the case.
“I am not surprised,” Miss Self said. “My petition to the King created a precedent and to have acceded to it would mean overwhelming his Majesty with petitions. When Parliament re-assembles my campaign will be extended to London.”
Miss Self maintains she was not the driver of the car involved in the case. She has spent over £150 during the past two and a half years in seeking to get her conviction quashed.
Unique to this report: it defines precisely what the petition asked — that His Majesty should instruct the Home Secretary to review the case — records her public response that acceding would “overwhelm His Majesty with petitions,” her declared intention to extend the campaign to London when Parliament reassembled, and the higher figure of £150 spent.
Facsimile of the Leicester Evening Mail report of 18 August 1939.
Woman’s Petition to the King Fails
Miss Ethel Margaret Self, aged 45, school teacher, of Long Stratton, Norfolk, who is conducting a protest campaign against a conviction for dangerous driving recorded against her at Lowestoft in 1936, was informed to-day that no action was being taken on the petition she recently presented to the King.
“I shall now insist upon my case being thrashed out on the floor of Parliament, which ordered my petition to be printed in April last,” said Miss Self to-day.
Miss Self maintains she was not the driver of the car involved in the case.
Unique to this report: the dated confirmation (18 August) that no action was being taken on the petition to the King, together with her resolve to have the case “thrashed out on the floor of Parliament,” which she notes had already ordered her petition to be printed the previous April.
Low-resolution preview of the Daily Mail page.
Woman’s Petition To The King Fails
This low-resolution preview shows a Daily Mail page under the same headline. The fine body text is not legible at this size; it appears to illustrate the same ground as the other August 1939 reports — that a direct petition to the King was not acted upon.
A fuller scan of this page can be transcribed if a higher-resolution copy is made available.
Afterword — a Case Decided on the Eve of War
Miss Self’s campaign was followed across several newspapers through the summer of 1939, and the latest of these reports appeared at the very end of August — within about a week of the Second World War beginning. Within days of that final coverage the world around her case changed beyond recognition:
- 1 September 1939 — Germany invades Poland. Blackout regulations are imposed, and that same day the Ayrton Light — the lamp at the top of Big Ben’s Elizabeth Tower, lit on every night that Parliament is sitting — is switched off for the blackout.
- 3 September 1939 — Britain declares war on Germany. Parliament turns its attention from private grievances to the national emergency.
- 1945 — Only at the end of the war is the Ayrton Light switched on again, restored as Parliament resumed its ordinary sitting. For six years it had remained dark.
Her petition had asked for the King’s and Parliament’s attention at the very last moment of peace — a woman still seeking justice in one hand while, in the other, Europe was turning the lights out on a generation.
The Ayrton Light atop the Elizabeth Tower (Clock Tower / “Big Ben”) is lit whenever either House is sitting after dark. It was installed in 1885, extinguished under wartime blackout regulations on 1 September 1939, and relit after the war ended. Parliament records that it was switched off when blackout regulations were imposed on 1 September 1939.
The Petition in Parliament — First Report of the Committee on Public Petitions
Miss Self’s grievance reached the House of Commons and was formally recorded and ordered to be printed. The pages below are from the First Report from the Committee on Public Petitions of the 1938–39 Session, ordered by the House to be printed on 5 April 1939.
Facsimile of the First Report title page (printed 5 April 1939).
FIRST REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC PETITIONS
Ordered by The House of Commons to be Printed, 5th April, 1939.
Printed, by Order of the House of Commons, by JOHN CRADOCK MORGAN NICHOLS, for THE CONTROLLER OF HIS MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, Printer of the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Commons.
The page of the First Report recording the petition of Ethel Margaret Self (item no. 3).
SELF, ETHEL MARGARET—For redress of grievances.
3. March 7. There-undersigned ETHEL MARGARET SELF (Mr. Christie) No. of Sigs. *1
The Petitioner alleges wrongful conviction on a charge of driving a motor car to the danger of the public as a result of wilful false evidence by witnesses for the prosecution, and suppression of evidence by the police concerned.
* Your Committee have not, in the case of this Petition, reported to the House the total number of names appended thereto, as the form of the Petition does not permit signatures other than that of the Petitioner. The additional signatures, therefore, have not been counted.
Why this matters: the entry confirms that the House of Commons formally received, catalogued and ordered the printing of Miss Self’s petition — the essential public record of her grievance under the right of petition. Only one signature is counted, her own, because the petition’s form carried no further signatures.
The Summary of Public Petitions table on page 6 of the Report.
| Subject. | Total Petitions. | Total Signatures. |
|---|---|---|
| Vivisection — For prohibition of | 2 | 216,389* |
| Self. Ethel Margaret — For redress of grievances | 1 | 1* |
| Police Pensions — For legislation to remove existing inequalities | 1 | 5,360* |
* See Report.
Facsimile of the Order of Reference establishing the Committee on Public Petitions.
[Monday, 21st November, 1938.] Public Petitions—Ordered, That a Select Committee be appointed to whom shall be referred all Petitions presented to the House… and that such Committee do classify and prepare abstracts of the same… and that the Reports of the Committee do set forth, in respect of each Petition, the number of signatures… and that such Committee have power to direct the printing in extenso of such Petitions… and that such Committee have power to report their opinion and observations thereupon to the House.
Committee nominated of— Colonel Acland-Troyte, Mr. Batey, Sir Edward Campbell, Mr. Cary, Sir Charles Cayzer, Mr. Chater, Mr. Daggar, Mr. Clement Davies, Captain Alan Graham, Sir Percy Hurd, Brigadier-General Sir Ernest Makins, Mr. Wilfrid Roberts, Mr. Marcus Samuel, Mr. Annesley Somerville and Mr. Viant.
Resolved, That every Member presenting a Petition to the House do affix his Name at the beginning thereof.
Page 5 of the First Report, showing the Report’s wider catalogue.
POLICE PENSIONS—For legislation to remove existing inequalities in the rates of pensions payable to members of the Police Forces and their widows.
4. March 8. There-undersigned POLICE PENSIONERS FROM LONDON and other places (Mr. Roland Robinson) … 5,360
The Petitioners pray for legislation to remove inequalities between the pensions of members of the Police Forces who retired before April 1st, 1919, and those who retired after that date…
Miss Self’s own petition (item no. 3) sits within this same First Report, catalogued alongside these other public petitions.
A mid-1930s female driver photographed beside her motor car (period illustration).
A Second Case — the Speeding Baronet
Alongside Miss Self’s campaign, this clipping records a separate motor-vehicle prosecution of the same period — noted here as a companion case on the record of road-traffic convictions.
Facsimile of the court report “Speeding Baronet Caught Twice by Same P.C.”
SPEEDING BARONET CAUGHT TWICE BY SAME P.C.
When “gonged” on the Great North road at Wyboston (Bedfordshire) on 24 July, and told that his car had travelled four-tenths of a mile in a built-up area at a speed of from 40 to 50 m.p.h., Sir Eric Ohlson, Bart., of Scarborough, told P.C. Broomfield: “You were about a mile behind me. You are only guessing.”
At Bedford police court on Saturday, Sir Eric was fined £3 and his licence endorsed for speeding. It was stated that on 29 March this year he was fined a similar sum at Biggleswade for a similar offence, when the same police officer figured in the case.
Detail unique to this clipping: it is an example of a defended “speeding” prosecution of the era — Sir Eric Ohlson, Bart., of Scarborough, fined £3 and licence endorsed, and caught on both occasions by the same police officer, P.C. Broomfield.
Sources
- First Report from the Committee on Public Petitions, Session 1938–39 — ordered to be printed 5 April 1939 (Parliamentary Papers).
- Leicester Evening Mail, Friday 18 August 1939 — “Woman’s Petition to the King Fails.”
- Lincolnshire Free Press, Monday 21 August 1939 — “Woman Motorist’s Petition / £150 Spent In Vain.”
- Nottingham Journal, Monday 14 August 1939 — “Teacher Sets Out With Letter For Home Secretary.”
- Press reports (Sunday edition, mid-August 1939) — “Woman’s Three-Year Fight for ‘Justice’.”
- The Daily Mail — “Woman’s Petition To The King Fails” (page preview).
- Court report, Bedford — “Speeding Baronet Caught Twice by Same P.C.”
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