Major John Cann from Ascot agrees. In a letter published the same day he argues: "In the majority of the animal world the male species protects the female species, and in the army in the frontline this is bound to apply."

Even as colonies around the globe were denied the ballot and MPs in Northern Ireland were left to die on hunger strike, the vote was hailed as an inalienable right. It was our passport to modernity and civilisation; the cornerstone of democracy; like death, the great leveller.