Suffragette (12 page)

23rd November 1911

At the Savoy Hotel this evening, Christabel publicly defended the violence of two days ago. She claims that men won their right to vote through riot and rebellion and we must do
the same.

Flora interrogated me about my bandaged hand, and I lied to her. Oh, Lord. I think fibbing to her – she who is practically my sister – hurts more than anything. But what choice do I
have?

28th November 1911

Many feel that the “vandalism” was inappropriate because it was carried out against
private
property, not public. The movement has never previously targeted
personal possessions.

Christabel maintains that such acts may need to be repeated.

Flora is absolutely furious. She made me promise not to get involved. It was awful, making a promise I knew I would be obliged to break. I am in full support of more extreme acts, but I hate the
deceit this is forcing me into.

4th December 1911

Mr Lloyd George has been publicly boasting that he has “torpedoed the Conciliation Bill”. Horrid man. I want to torpedo him. It is no wonder that women’s anger
is reaching such a pitch of violence. The government betrays us and then gloats about it publicly. Mrs Pankhurst might cut short her trip and sail back to fight with us, though we are well led by
Christabel.

15th December 1911

Emily Wilding Davison soaked strips of linen with paraffin, lit them and then thrust them into various pillar-boxes today. Some of us found this all a bit shocking. I
don’t think her actions were sanctioned by the WSPU leaders. She was arrested near the Parliament Street post office and has been committed to trial at the Old Bailey.

Emily is convinced that the publicity will bring us new supporters. She believes that only once we express the depth of our commitment will the government and the country really take heed and
fully comprehend what we are fighting for, and how profoundly important to mankind our cause is.

I spoke to Flora about Emily’s thoughts. “She goes too far,” was her response, “and that is why she is no longer employed by the WSPU.”

“She is still a Union member,” I retorted.

“But she acts alone. She is a renegade and that is dangerous.”

I did not dare reply that I think Emily and others of a like mind will go to even greater lengths if they deem it necessary. Am I one of those? I cannot be sure, but I think so and that scares
me.

13th January 1912

Emily Wilding Davison has been sentenced to SIX months’ imprisonment. We are all reeling with shock at the severity of such a sentence.

22nd January 1912

Mrs Pankhurst has returned from the States. She spoke at the London Pavilion, declaring that she will support nothing less than a government bill of full sexual equality. She
applauded us window-breakers of last November. If we are not given the opportunity to be heard then we must find other means to express our discontent.

We will fight this government and every succeeding one if it does not take up our cause, was her message.

1st March 1912

“Why should women go to Parliament Square and be battered about and insulted and, most important of all, produce less effect than when they throw stones? The argument
of the broken pane of glass is the most valuable argument in modern politics.”

Emmeline recently made this statement.

Today, led by her in Downing Street, women broke windows all over London.

Charlotte Marsh, Emily Wilding Davison’s friend, who prefers to be called Charlie, and I shattered an entire row of shop windows in the Strand. Shards of glass lay like hundreds of puddles
on the street behind us. We kept our hammers hidden in our muffs and walked fast. It was scary.

Approximately 150 women smashed 400 shop windows today. Mrs Pankhurst has been arrested for inciting violence. The total number arrested was around 120.

2nd March 1912

At Bow Street Magistrates’ Court today Mrs Pankhurst was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in the THIRD DIVISION.

Her speech was amazing:

“
If you send me to prison, as soon as I come out I will go further, to show that women who have to pay the salaries of Cabinet Ministers and who pay your salary too, Sir, are going to
have some voice in the making of the laws which they have to obey.
”

3rd March 1912

Skipped school again – I haven’t been in since last Thursday.

Both yesterday and today, groups of us have been out smashing windows again as a protest against Mrs Pankhurst’s sentence. Many of the windows at Liberty’s were broken.

Millicent Garret Fawcett spoke out against our militant acts and declared that the NUWSS stands where it has always stood.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson has also condemned our violent behaviour and criticized Mrs Pankhurst.

4th March 1912

I was working at Clements Inn today when the police arrived, armed with a bunch of warrants. Both Mr and Mrs Pethwick-Lawrence were arrested. It was upsetting because Mrs P-L
was only recently released from Holloway. Emmeline Pankhurst could not be arrested because she is already in prison, as is her comrade, Mabel Tuke. This left Christabel. A warrant was issued for
her arrest, but she escaped.

Flora was telephoned. She agreed to give Christabel some contact addresses in Paris. The good news is that with Christabel still at liberty there is someone to direct the movement, even if it
will be from a distance.

Annie Kenney, a great friend of Christabel’s and the only working-class member of the WSPU leadership, says that we can continue to operate effectively. We must find a means of staying in
contact with Christabel.

But the mood here is desperate. We feel cheated and betrayed.

7th March 1912

Flora is monumentally furious. The headmistress at St Paul’s contacted her to find out where I have been. When she confronted me, I was forced to admit the truth. I
can’t keep deceiving her. Besides, I believe that what I am doing is right. VIOLENT PROTEST HAS TO BE MADE if we are to change the government’s thinking.

“Why are you risking your future, which is so bright?” she shouted at me.

“Because without equal opportunities for women there is no future.”

“But nothing justifies this violence, Dollie, nothing.”

“It does, but you cannot understand because your life is comfortable and secure. You can work. You have money for food, even without the vote,” I screamed back at her.

She was aghast. “Your fury reminds me of your mother when she turned up at our home during the dockers’ strike.

She was angry and abrasive, and refused to discuss anything with me and it got her nowhere.” How could I begin to explain to Flora about my mother’s life or my early childhood
memories? Never in a million years will she see my point of view. She has also forgotten that if my mother had not arrived unannounced at the Bonnington door Lady Violet would never have known
about us, and I would not be here today, living this privileged life. So my mother’s courage
did
make a difference.

“How far can you go for an ideal, Dollie? Think about it carefully, I beg you. What you have done is illegal. You could end up in prison, and then what will you have achieved?”

I left her and went to bed. I had no stamina left to fight with her, and besides it hurts me because I love her so much.

28th March 1912

A second reading was given to a barely revised Conciliation Bill and it has been rejected. I don’t think our case has been served by an article in this morning’s
Times
, which stated that our revolutionary acts prove that we are all mentally unstable and not worthy of the vote.

Mrs Pankhurst and Mr and Mrs Pethwick-Lawrence have been committed for trial on charges of conspiracy, which means they are being charged with plotting to pervert the course of justice.
That’s really serious. Those who are left at Clements Inn are depressed. Our dreams of the vote for this year have been destroyed.

A massive turn-out tonight at the Albert Hall rally to support our leaders and to show our defiance at the decisions taken by this turncoat Liberal government.

30th March 1912

Mrs Pankhurst has contracted bronchitis in her cell at Holloway and an appeal for bail has been refused. We fear for her fading health.

4th April 1912

Mrs Pankhurst has finally been released on medical grounds. Thank Heaven.

14th April 1912

Christabel is continuing to write columns for our paper,
Votes for Women
, but they are published anonymously. Annie Kenney makes weekly journeys across the Channel to get
instructions for us from Christabel.

I am channelling my energies into my neglected school work and am deep in history and English essays. I have so much to catch up on!

15th May 1912

The conspiracy trial began at the Old Bailey today. All the newspapers are reporting on it, which gives a very high profile to our cause, even though the thought of Mrs
Pankhurst being committed to prison for a long term makes me miserable.

22nd May 1912

Mrs Pankhurst made a very moving speech from the dock yesterday in which she pointed out again that we have been fighting for the vote since before the Reform Bill of 1867. It
is despair and frustration that have driven women to such acts of militancy, she argued. She also talked of the appalling conditions in which so many women and children live. It stabbed at my
heart.

But, despite her fine words, the all-male jury found Mrs Pankhurst, her friend Emmeline Pethwick-Lawrence and her husband Frederick guilty. They were sentenced to nine months in the Second
Division and ordered to pay the prosecution costs of the trial. The women were taken back to Holloway and Mr Pethwick-Lawrence to Brixton prison.

NINE months in the SECOND DIVISION. How unjust can a system be!

1st June 1912

The prisoners have threatened to go on hunger strike unless they are given political status. Several Labour politicians, including George Lansbury and Keir Hardie, and hundreds
of famous people, Flora and many of her friends included, are supporting this request.

It is encouraging to feel the public response.

10th June 1912

All three prisoners have been placed in the First Division. This is the first time the government has ever recognized our cause as a political one. It is a TRIUMPH!

14th June 1912

Our “triumph” was shortlived. It turns out that only the three leading suffrage prisoners are being granted political status. The others, some 78 prisoners, must
stay in the Second or even Third Division cells. So, after all, it is not that the government recognizes our status; it is simply that they wish to appease the public outcry.

19th June 1912

A hunger strike began today. Emmeline and the Pethwick-Lawrences are supporting the rest of the movement and striking with them.

22nd June 1912

Doctors and nine wardresses entered Mrs Pethwick-Lawrence’s cell today and forcibly fed her. Afterwards they flung open the door of Mrs Pankhurst’s cell armed with
force-feeding apparatus. Forewarned by the harrowing cries of Mrs Pethwick-Lawrence, she received them with all her anger and indignation, grabbed a large earthenware jug, held it above her head
and said, “If any of you dares take so much as one step inside this cell I shall defend myself.”

They fell back and left her. When she entered her friend’s cell, she found her in a state of collapse.

26th June 1912

Mrs Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethwick-Lawrence have been released from Holloway, for health reasons.

Mrs Pankhurst spoke of the prison scenes that took place around her as “sickening and violent”. She claims that “every hour of the day” she woke from nightmares and the
doctors had to be called to calm her. During her imprisonment, she was assured that she would not be force-fed, but there are many other women still behind bars who are being subjected to this foul
indignity.

Yesterday the Labour MP George Lansbury warned the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, “You will go down in history as the man who tortured innocent women.”

1st July 1912

Mrs Pankhurst has left for Paris to visit Christabel, travelling under the name of “Mrs Richards”. Before she left, Flora met her and gave her advice on various
French matters, including medical care.

Although Flora deeply disagrees with the violent tactics we have used this year, she remains a great friend of Christabel’s and holds Mrs Pankhurst in the highest esteem. When she returned
home, she said that Mrs Pankhurst looked very frail and must take time off to rest.

4th July 1912

Emily Wilding Davison threw herself down an iron staircase in Holloway Prison last night. She was protesting against the treatment the prisoners have been receiving. I was told,
but I don’t know how accurate this is, that her intention was to kill herself. She wants to become the martyr she passionately believes our cause needs. She did not succeed because she fell
upon some wire netting 30 feet below, but she was badly concussed and has severe injuries to her spine. She had to be seen by the prison doctors. Even so, today, she was forcibly fed again. I
travelled to North London, to Holloway, to see her but I was refused a visit. It looks so grim in there. I was glad to get back on the bus.

10th July 1912

The Pethwick-Lawrences left for France. They are travelling to the Hotel de Paris in Boulogne where they will meet up with Christabel and her mother who are arriving from Paris.
They intend to spend a few days together, recuperating. The hunger strikes have taken their toll.

17th July 1912

Confusing news has reached us at Clements Inn. It seems that there has been a disagreement between Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and the Pethwick-Lawrences. Mr and Mrs
Pethwick-Lawrence have criticized the excessive violence our Union has resorted to and they were distressed to learn that the Pankhursts feel we must intensify our campaign, or all our work will
have been to no avail. When they expressed their objections Mrs Pankhurst requested their
resignations
from the Union. This is incredible.