The Lady Pethick-Lawrence | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1888 Westminster, London, England |
| Died | 1969 (aged 80–81) |
| Education | Roedean School |
| Occupations |
|
| Organization | Women's Social and Political Union |
| Known for | Suffragette activism |
| Spouses | |
Helen Millar Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence (née Craggs; 1888–1969) was a suffragette and pharmacist.
Craggs was born in Westminster, London in 1888, daughter to Sir John Craggs, an accountant, who donate money for tropical medicine research, [1] and she had seven siblings. Craggs was educated at Roedean and wished to study medicine, but her father refused that idea [1] and Craggs went to teach science and physical exercise at her formed school for a time. [2] Although Craggs' mother supported suffragism and was a lead committee member in the national and Kensington Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association, she deplored activism.
Craggs used a pseudonym 'Helen Millar' (perhaps to protect her family and her teaching post) when she joined the Women's Social and Political Union activists during the Peckham election in 1908. [1] She was chalking pavements and handing out campaigning literature on the women's suffrage. [2] Craggs assisted Flora Drummond with the aim of ousting Winston Churchill in the successful campaign to wipe out his majority on this and other equality themes [1] during the election in Manchester. [2] Churchill was then put forward for the Dundee seat, where WSPU were ready to challenge him again [1]
Within two years, Craggs had to leave an unsympathetic home [1] [3] to become a full time WSPU organiser at 25 shillings per month, living in rented property in Bloomsbury. [2] Craggs was joined at the Women's Press shop by Mary Richardson who spoke about the obscene abuse whispered by male 'bystanders' and others who came in to tear up the suffrage materials. [1]
The Museum of London has an image of Craggs on a horsedrawn carriage for distributing the Votes for Women newspaper. [4]
Craggs was close to Emmeline Pankhurst's son Harry, who suffered from polio, and visited his nursing home throughout and was with him when he died in January 1910. [1] [2] Craggs became organiser, after Grace Roe, at Brixton WSPU branch, and later at Hampstead. [2] Within the movement, Craggs befriended Ethel Smyth, Evelyn Sharp and Beatrice Harraden. [2] Craggs also spent time with Marie Newby in Devon influencing the campaign there. [5] Craggs was also in Wales and identified as the protester who jumped out at the Home Secretary at Llandaff Cathedral [1] during a Royal Visit at Cathays Park saying 'it was a shame he was going about the country while suffragettes where starving in prison' [6]
In November 1910, Craggs went to the Paragon Theatre, Whitechapel at 2a.m. to hide in the freezing roofspace overnight before Lloyd George was due to speak. Craggs broke through the crowd from her hideout shouting at the Chancellor about women's rights, and was thrown down a stone staircase. A bystanding man who said, "women pay taxes too" was beaten. [1]
Cardiff University Archive has an image of Craggs from the Daily Sketch in 1912. [6]
In 1912, Craggs was imprisoned in Holloway Prison for smashing windows [2] and went on hunger strike. Later Craggs was arrested [7] for carrying materials for causing arson, near Nuneham Courtney, the home of Government Cabinet member, Lewis Harcourt. [2] WSPU insisted Craggs was acting alone, as this was the first threat to property. [2] The incident was described in detail in court about two women hiring a canoe, and surprise encounter with a policeman, to whom Craggs said they were camping nearby and had come to 'look around the house'. [1] The constable later identified Craggs, but the second woman (Norah Smyth) escaped and police found food and WSPU flag colours (white green and purple) and phone numbers of the property and the Oxford Fire Station. [8] Craggs wore "a striking costume prominently displaying the suffragist colours" when she appeared in Bullingdon Petty Sessions court the next day and admitted her intent would not give her name. [1] Craggs was held in remand due to the seriousness of the crime (as 8 people were in the house) and sentenced at the Assizes court in Oxford, [1] bailed at £1000, [2] half was provided by Ethel Smyth. [1] Craggs was sent for 9 months with hard labour in Oxford Prison, and wrote thanking Hugh Franklin for allegedly getting photographs of the property. Craggs was moved to Holloway Prison, again went on hunger strike and was force fed five times in two days [1] and suffered internal and external bruising for 11 days then released due to her health. [1] [2] Lewis Harcourt gave £1000 donation to the League for Opposing Women's Suffrage.
Craggs moved to Dublin where she trained at the Rotunda Hospital as a midwife, married a London East End [2] General practitioner, Duncan Alexander McCrombie, [9] [ non-primary source needed ] from Aberdeen. Her parents did not attend the wedding in 1914. [2] Craggs trained as a pharmacist to support her husband's practice. [2] Craggs was widowed in 1936, [1] at a young age, starting in business making jigsaws as a means of earning income for her two children, [2] Sarah (Sallie) (born in 1923) and John Alexander Somerville (born in 1925). [9]
After World War II, Craggs and her daughter emigrated to North America, [1] settling in Canada, and saw Christabel Pankhurst sometimes in Los Angeles. [2] Craggs returned to London and became private secretary [1] and then the second wife to Lord Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, [1] a long-standing suffrage movement leader and sponsor from Surrey, [10] three years after his first wife suffragette Emmeline had died, [11] on St. Valentine's Day, 14 February [9] 1957. [2]
In 1969, Craggs, then Baroness Helen Pethick-Lawrence, died on 15 January in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. [9] [2] [1]
Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating that "she shaped an idea of objects for our time" and "shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back". She was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Sylvia was eventually expelled.
Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence, PC was a British Labour politician who, among other things, campaigned for women's suffrage.
Ann "Annie" Kenney was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union. She co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie Baldock. Kenney attracted the attention of the press and public in 1905 when she and Christabel Pankhurst were imprisoned for several days for assault and obstruction related to the questioning of Sir Edward Grey at a Liberal rally in Manchester on the issue of votes for women. The incident is credited with inaugurating a new phase in the struggle for women's suffrage in the UK with the adoption of militant tactics. Annie had friendships with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence, Mary Blathwayt, Clara Codd, Adela Pankhurst, and Christabel Pankhurst.
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a British women's rights activist and suffragette.
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragistα, in order to belittle the women advocating women's suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.
Mary Jane Clarke was a British suffragette. She died on Christmas Day 1910, two days after being released from prison, where she had been force-fed. She was described in her obituary by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence as the suffragettes’ first martyr. She was the younger sister of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.
The Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial is a memorial in London to Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel, two of the foremost British suffragettes. It stands at the entrance to Victoria Tower Gardens, south of Victoria Tower at the southwest corner of the Palace of Westminster. Its main feature is a bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst by Arthur George Walker, unveiled in 1930. In 1958 the statue was relocated to its current site and the bronze reliefs commemorating Christabel Pankhurst were added.
Mary Elizabeth Phillips was an English suffragette, feminist and socialist. She was the longest prison serving suffragette. She worked for Christabel Pankhurst but was sacked; she then worked for Sylvia Pankhurst as Mary Pederson or Mary Paterson. In later life she supported women's and children's organisations.
Jessica "Jessie" Kenney (1887–1985) was an English suffragette who was jailed for assaulting the Prime Minister and Home Secretary in a protest to gain suffrage for women in the UK. Details of a bombing campaign to support their cause were discovered by the authorities in her flat when Kenney was sent abroad to convalesce. She later trained as a wireless operator but worked as a stewardess.
Mabel Kate Tuke, born Mabel Kate Lear was a British suffragette known for her role of honorary secretary of the militant Women's Social and Political Union.
Maud Joachim was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, one of the groups of suffragettes that fought for women to get the right to vote in the United Kingdom. She was jailed several times for her protests. Joachim was one of the first suffragettes to go on hunger strike when imprisoned, a protest at not being recognised as political prisoners.
Lucy Minnie Baldock was a British suffragette. Along with Annie Kenney, she co-founded the first branch in London of the Women's Social and Political Union.
Women's Sunday was a suffragette march and rally held in London on 21 June 1908. Organised by Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) to persuade the Liberal government to support votes for women, it is thought to have been the largest demonstration to be held until then in the country.
Eleanor Grace Watney Roe was Head of Suffragette operations for the Women's Social and Political Union. She was released from prison after the outbreak of World War I due to an amnesty for suffragettes negotiated with the government by the WSPU.
The Holloway brooch was presented by the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) to women who had been imprisoned at Holloway Prison for militant suffragette activity. It is also referred to as the "Portcullis badge", the "Holloway Prison brooch" and the "Victoria Cross of the Union".
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving their sentences in the prisons of the United Kingdom for acts of militancy in their campaign for women's suffrage. Many women were force-fed and their individual medals were created to reflect this.
Patricia Woodlock was a British artist and suffragette who was imprisoned seven times, including serving the longest suffragette prison sentence in 1908 ; she was awarded a Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) Hunger Strike Medal for Valour. Her harsh sentence caused outrage among supporters and inspired others to join the protests. Her release was celebrated in Liverpool and London and drawn as a dreadnought warship, on the cover of the WSPU Votes for Women newsletter.
Ellen Crocker (1872–1962) was a British suffragette, and a cousin of Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.
The WSPU Holloway Banner is a suffragette banner designed by Scottish artist Ann Macbeth.