Now, after a chance meeting with Mrs. Pankhurst and a second long talk with her and with Annie Kenney, a new recruit had entered our movement. This was Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, the daughter of Mr. Henry Pethick, of Wesern Super-Mare, and a member of a Cornish family. As a child at school she had read the story of Hetty Sorrell in George Eliot’s “Adam Bede,” had seen “Faust,” and Marguerite in her prison cell. Later she had learnt from Sir Walter Besant’s Children of Gideon of the cheerless struggle to eke out an existence upon starvation wages, which falls to the lot of working-girls. Then and there she had resolved to spend her life in striving to alter these conditions. She determined that as soon as she left school she would go to “the East End,” and begin. When the time came she at once acted upon this decision. Without seeking help or advice from anyone, she wrote to Mrs. Hugh Price Hughes, of the West London Mission and asked that she might be received into her sisterhood. When her request had been granted she told her parents of what she had done, and they readily gave their full approval and sympathy.
After four years of useful training and varied experiences in the West London Mission, during which she had had at some times the charge of a Working-Girls’ Club and at others had been sent out at night on to the London Streets in order to save and succour the homeless and outcast women there, she and her friend, Miss Mary Neal, took rooms in a block of artisans’ dwellings and gathered round them a small colony of social workers. Together they founded the Esperance Working-Girls’ Club, to which was attached a co-operative dressmaking establishment, and a holiday hotel at Little-hampton called “The Green Lady.” Later on, after her marriage Mrs. Pethick Lawrence built a small cottage near her house at Holmwood called “The Sundial,” where the junior members of the Esperance Club were invited during the summer.
Writing of these early years, and of her own decision to take part in the Votes for Women Movement she says:
Out of that part of my life there stand out many memories. … I remember a little girl belonging to the Children’s Happy Evening Club, who went mad with grief because her widowed mother lost her work, and was in despair. The dread of being separated in the workhouse was upon the whole family, and the child was taken to the asylum, crying, “Poor, poor mother.” I remember a girl about twenty, alone in the world, earning a pittance as a waitress in a tea-shop. She was a quiet, gentle creature, who made no complaint. All the greater was the shock when the girl put an end to her life, leaving a little note, with the words, “I am tired out.” These two cries still ring out at times in my memory with their terrible indictment against life as men have made it. … We recognised the fact that we were only making in a great wilderness a tiny garden, enclosed by the wall of human fellowship. As we saw more and more of the evil plight of women, we realised ever more clearly that nothing could really lift them out of it until the power had been put into their hands to help themselves. … Suddenly a light flashed out. News came of the arrest and imprisonment of Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney. Here at last was action.
So it was that Mrs. Pethick Lawrence had prepared herself to take part in the great Votes for Women Movement.
We had now decided to organise our London Committee on a more formal basis. Mrs. Lawrence was asked to become one of its members and I well remember her coming to my little room in Park Walk to take part in the formation of the new Central Committee. It was the first time I had seen her, and I can never forget how much I was attracted by her dark expressive eyes, and the quiet business-like way in which she listened to what was being said, only interposing in the debate when she had something really valuable to suggest. It was later that I noticed the untrammelled carriage and the fine free lift of the head.
That first meeting was towards the end of February and it was arranged that Mrs. Lawrence, her friend, Miss Mary Neal, myself, Annie Kenney, my aunt, Mrs. Clarke, Mrs. Roe, Miss Irene Fenwick Miller, daughter of a well-known early suffragist, and Mrs. Martel, of Australia, should form the London Committee with my mother and Mrs. Drummond, who were returning to Manchester. It was decided that I was to become the Honorary Secretary, and Mrs. Lawrence was asked to be Honorary Treasurer.
We now felt that our next move must be to secure an interview with the Prime Minister, and we therefore wrote to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman asking him to receive a deputation from our Union. He replied that he could not spare the time to see us. Our answer was that, owing to the urgency of the question, we could take no refusal, and that a number of our members would call upon him at the Official Residence, No. 10 Downing Street, on the morning of March 2nd, 1906.
Downing Street is a short road opening out of Parliament Street and ending in a flight of steps leading into St. James’ Park. There are now only three houses left in the Street, the others having been pulled down to make way for Government Buildings. The Official Residence itself was not built for its present purpose and consists of two comfortable-looking Georgian houses knocked into one, each of which is three stories high with attics above, and has three windows along the front of the first and second floors and two windows and a door below. The door is dark green, almost black, and has a black iron knocker, a lion’s head with a ring in its mouth. Above this knocker is a small, circular, brass knob about half an inch in diameter and very highly polished and under the knocker is a brass plate, equally well polished, inscribed “First Lord of the Treasury.” There is one shallow, well whitened doorstep and on each side of it are black iron railings that protect the house from the street. The next house, No. 11, is a slightly more ornate building in the same style, which was then occupied by Mr. Herbert Gladstone.
On presenting themselves at the door of the Official Residence, the deputation from the Women’s Social and Political Union were told that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman could receive no one, as he had been ill and was still confined to his room. A request to see the Prime Minister’s secretary was also refused, and the door was shut. Then, deciding to wait there until they were attended to, the deputation sat down to rest on the doorstep and displayed a little white “Votes for Women” banner.
We had notified the various newspapers 1 that we intended to call on Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and by this time a number of Press photographers had collected. This greatly embarrassed the inhabitants of No. 10, and presently the hall porter opened the door again, and looking very uncomfortable, begged the women to go away. Annie Kenney assured him that she and her companions would remain all day if need be, and after arguing for some time, scratching his head and looking very much puzzled, he finally asked two members of the deputation to go inside, where they were received by Mr. Ponsonby, the secretary, who promised to give their message to his chief.
The same evening we held another Committee meeting and drafted a further letter to the Prime Minister asking for an early opportunity of laying our case before him. In response to this letter, he returned an evasive reply in which he stated that any representations that the Union wished to make to him must be put in writing.
We therefore decided that another attempt must be made to interview him and after waiting until he had made a complete recovery and was again able to take his part in the House of Commons debates, a larger deputation, consisting of several members of our Committee and some thirty other women, made their way to Downing Street about 10 o’clock on the morning of March 9th. They again asked to see the Prime Minister and the doorkeeper promised to give their message to the secretary. After they had been waiting for three-quarters of an hour two men came out and said to them, “You had better be off; you must not stand on this doorstep any longer.” The women explained that they were waiting for a reply but were abruptly told that there was no answer and the door was rudely shut in their faces.
Angered by this Miss Irene Miller immediately seized the knocker and rapped sharply at the door. Then the two men appeared again and one of them called to a policeman on the other side of the road, “Take this woman in charge.” The order was at once obeyed, and Miss Miller was marche
d away to Canon Row Police Station. Spurred on by this event Mrs. Drummond, exclaiming that nothing should prevent her from seeing the Prime Minister, darted forward and pulled at the little brass knob in the middle of the door. As she did so, she discovered that the little knob, instead of being a bell, as she had imagined, was something very different indeed, for suddenly the door opened wide. Without more ado she rushed in and headed straight for the Cabinet Council Chamber, but before she could get there she was caught, thrown out of the house and then taken in custody to the police station. Meanwhile Annie Kenney began to address the gathering crowd, but the man who had first called the policeman again looked out and said, “Why don’t you arrest that woman? She is one of the ringleaders. Take her in charge.” Then she was dragged away to join her companions.
The three women were detained at Canon Row for about an hour. Then a police inspector told them that a message to set them at liberty had been sent by the Prime Minister, who wished them to be informed that he would receive a deputation from the Women’s Social and Political Union, either individually or in conjunction with other women’s societies. Of course we published Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s promise broadcast. Shortly afterwards, two hundred Members of Parliament, drawn from every party, petitioned Sir Henry to fix an early date for receiving some of their number in order that they might urge upon him the necessity for an immediate extension of the franchise to women. He then formally announced that on May 19th he would receive a joint deputation both from Members of Parliament representing the signatories to this petition and all the organised bodies of women in the country who were desirous of obtaining the Suffrage.
All the women’s societies now began to make preparations for an effective Demonstration on May 19th. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies decided to hold a meeting in the Exeter Hall, but we of the Women’s Social and Political Union wished to do something very much more ambitious than that, and we resolved to organise a procession and a demonstration in Trafalgar Square. In view of the immense work that this would entail, we felt the necessity of engaging another organiser, and my mother now recommended that Miss Billington should be asked to undertake the work.
Born in Blackburn in 1877, Theresa Billington, the daughter of a shipping clerk, had been educated at a Roman Catholic convent school. Owing to financial difficulties at home, she had been set to learn millinery at thirteen years of age. At seventeen she had made up her mind to be a teacher, and having obtained one of the Queen’s Scholarships, she eventually became a teacher under the Manchester Education Committee. When she was first introduced to us she had come into conflict with the authorities because of her refusal to give the prescribed religious instruction to her pupils. My mother, who was then a member of the Education Committee, intervened to secure that she should be transferred to a Jewish school, where she would not be expected to teach religion, and thus prevented her dismissal. In 1904, at my mother’s request, she had been appointed as an organiser for the Independent Labour Party.
About the middle of April, a few weeks after the Prime Minister had given his promise to receive the deputation, a Parliamentary vacancy occurred in the Eye division of Suffolk, and Christabel wrote to our London Committee, saying that she thought it advisable that we should go down to the constituency and intimate to the Liberal candidate that, unless he could obtain a pledge from his Government to give Votes to women, we should oppose his return, and that we should take a similar course in the case of every future Government nominee. Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, Annie Kenney and Theresa Billington therefore went down to Eye and interviewed Mr. Harold Pearson, the Liberal candidate, but he treated the question of Votes for Women with contempt and ridiculed the idea that women could do anything to hinder his return. Owing to the size of that large county constituency and the pressure of work in London these three members of our Committee then decided to return to London. But at home in Manchester they were exceedingly anxious to see the policy of opposition to the Government at by-elections put into practice.
The funds of the Manchester branch of the Union were entirely depleted, but five pounds was got together, an address to the Electors of Eye from the Women’s Social and Political Union was printed and Mrs. Drummond set off to the constituency to fight the election single-handed. Five pounds to fight an election campaign with seems an absurdly small sum when one realises that the candidates spend many hundreds. Nevertheless, though she was entirely friendless and unknown in that part of the country, Mrs. Drummond succeeded in creating a wonderful impression. She could not afford to hire a carriage, it is true, but there was always a friendly farmer or tradesman who would give the cheery little Scotchwoman a lift in his cart, and so active was she that in a short time the impression was spread abroad that not one solitary Suffragette had gone to Eye, but that several were working from different centres. Before the end of the Election the Conservative candidate and even scornful Mr. Harold Pearson, the Liberal, had declared in favour of Votes for Women.
Meanwhile Mr. Keir Hardie had secured a place for a Women’s Suffrage Resolution which was to be discussed in the House of Commons on the evening of April 25th. Though a resolution is only an expression of opinion and can have no practical legislative effect, this was considered important because it was realised that if the new Parliament were to show a substantial majority in its support, the women’s claim that the Government should deal with the question would be greatly strengthened. Unfortunately only a second place had been obtained for the Resolution. Hence there was every reason to fear that, as so often before, our talkative opponents would succeed in preventing its being voted upon. The situation became more hopeful, however, when the Anti-Vivisectionists, who had obtained the first place for the evening, entered into a compromise by which they agreed to withdraw their resolution early. The way was thus left clear for the Votes for Women Resolution, but we ourselves still thought that the “talkers out” would probably have their way. We were determined not to allow this to happen without protest. Therefore, in order to be in readiness for any emergency, a large number of us had obtained tickets, for the Ladies’ Gallery.
Looking down through the brass grille, from behind which women are alone permitted to listen to the debates in Parliament, we saw that the House was crowded as is usual only at important crises, and that both the Government and Opposition front benches were fully occupied. The Resolution, “That in the opinion of this House it is desirable that sex should cease to be a bar to the exercise of the Parliamentary franchise” was moved and seconded in short speeches in order that the opponents should have no least excuse for urging that there had been no time for their own side to be fairly heard. Then Mr. Cremer rose to speak in opposition. His speech was grossly insulting to women and altogether unworthy of a Member of the People’s House of Representatives. Both by his words, his voice and gestures he plainly showed his entire view of women to be degraded and indeed revolting. Yet, though one was angry with him, he was an object for pity as he stood there, undersized and poorly made, obviously in bad health and with that narrow, grovelling and unimaginative point of view, flaunting his masculine superiority. The women found it very difficult to sit quietly listening to him, and, though my mother strove to check them, some subdued exclamations caught the Speaker’s ear. He immediately gave orders for the police to be in readiness to clear the Ladies’ Gallery if any further sounds should issue from it. But, once Mr. Cremer had finished speaking, absolute quiet was restored. Mr. Willie Redmond, brother of John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Party, then indignantly protested against the tone of Mr. Cremer’s speech, crying fervently that he himself had always believed in Women’s Suffrage because, all his life, he had been opposed to slavery in any form, and declaring that “any of God’s creatures who are denied a voice in the Government of their country are more or less slaves,” and that “men have no right to assume that they are so superior to women, that they alone have the right to govern.”
All through the debate everyo
ne was waiting for a declaration from the Government. At last Mr. Herbert Gladstone, the Home Secretary, rose to speak, but his words were vague and evasive, and whilst not absolutely excluding the possibility of the Government’s taking the matter up, he certainly made no promise on their behalf.
At ten minutes to eleven Mr. Samuel Evans rose with the obvious intention of talking the Resolution out and, as eleven o’clock, the hour for closing the debate, drew nearer, whilst spinning out his remarks by means of some very doubtful jokes, he kept turning round, every now and then, to look at the clock. Our eyes were also eagerly fixed upon the timepiece. Every moment one woman or another stretched across and asked Mrs. Pankhurst whether the demonstration of protest should begin, but her answer was always that there was “time yet,” and that we must wait.
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