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Charlotte Despard was born in Edinburgh but brought up with her siblings in Ripple. She was the daughter of Royal Naval Captain John Tracey French and his wife Margaret (née Eccles), the sister of Katherine Mary Harley and the Captain of Deal Castle Field Marshal John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres.
After falling out with Emmiline Pankhurst, Mrs Despard, as she was always known, founded the Women’s Freedom League. The WFL was to become one of the three main campaign organisations fighting for women to gain the right to vote.
In September 1908 Mrs Despard, with a fellow WFL member, arrived in Deal in the purposely fitted out horse drawn caravan. Here they held several large open air ‘Votes for Women’ meetings on the beaches of Deal and Walmer before travelling to other towns.