Home History 9 The King’s Speech
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

9 The King’s Speech

Jessie Stephenson parachutes into Manchester
  • Jill Liddington
View more publications by Manchester University Press
To Publisher Page
Vanishing for the vote
This chapter is in the book Vanishing for the vote

Abstract

Manchester remained ‘suffrage city’, and needed a regional WSPU organizer. Jessie Stephenson, a great admirer of Emmeline Pankhurst, was dispatched north. Her job included looking after the stellar suffrage speakers who arrived in Manchester ~ like Laurence Housman. She also had to persuade one of the city's most influential men, C. P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian, to cover WSPU activities in his newspaper. Not an easy job. Then on 6 February 1911, the King's Speech was read to the House of Commons. Its omission of women's suffrage was the trigger for the WFL to publicize its census boycott plans. Speakers and writers like Laurence Housman were now even more in demand. But the boycott publicity quickly provoked fierce opposition. Professor Michael Sadler of Manchester University lambasted the WFL: ‘to boycott the Census would be a crime against science’ ~ that is, against social science and the accurate collection of data on which to base future reforms. Battle was joined.

Abstract

Manchester remained ‘suffrage city’, and needed a regional WSPU organizer. Jessie Stephenson, a great admirer of Emmeline Pankhurst, was dispatched north. Her job included looking after the stellar suffrage speakers who arrived in Manchester ~ like Laurence Housman. She also had to persuade one of the city's most influential men, C. P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian, to cover WSPU activities in his newspaper. Not an easy job. Then on 6 February 1911, the King's Speech was read to the House of Commons. Its omission of women's suffrage was the trigger for the WFL to publicize its census boycott plans. Speakers and writers like Laurence Housman were now even more in demand. But the boycott publicity quickly provoked fierce opposition. Professor Michael Sadler of Manchester University lambasted the WFL: ‘to boycott the Census would be a crime against science’ ~ that is, against social science and the accurate collection of data on which to base future reforms. Battle was joined.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents 237
  3. List of maps vii
  4. List of figures viii
  5. Acknowledgements xi
  6. List of abbreviations xiii
  7. Chronology xiv
  8. Introduction 1
  9. Part I Prelude: people and their politics
  10. 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
  11. 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
  12. 3 Propaganda culture 36
  13. 4 Parallel politics 48
  14. Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
  15. 5 Plotting across central London 63
  16. 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
  17. 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
  18. 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
  19. 9 The King’s Speech 97
  20. 10 Battleground for democracy 108
  21. Part III Census night: places and spaces
  22. 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
  23. 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
  24. 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
  25. 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
  26. 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
  27. 16 English journey 183
  28. Part IV The census and beyond
  29. 17 After census night 197
  30. 18 Telling the story 209
  31. 19 Sources and their analysis 219
  32. Front matter
  33. Contents 237
  34. Introduction 239
  35. Abbreviations 242
  36. Key mass evasions 243
  37. London boroughs and Middlesex 245
  38. Midlands 300
  39. Southern England 333
  40. Northern England 342
  41. Notes 363
  42. Select bibliography 389
  43. Index 395
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781847798947.00019

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents 237
  3. List of maps vii
  4. List of figures viii
  5. Acknowledgements xi
  6. List of abbreviations xiii
  7. Chronology xiv
  8. Introduction 1
  9. Part I Prelude: people and their politics
  10. 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
  11. 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
  12. 3 Propaganda culture 36
  13. 4 Parallel politics 48
  14. Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
  15. 5 Plotting across central London 63
  16. 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
  17. 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
  18. 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
  19. 9 The King’s Speech 97
  20. 10 Battleground for democracy 108
  21. Part III Census night: places and spaces
  22. 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
  23. 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
  24. 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
  25. 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
  26. 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
  27. 16 English journey 183
  28. Part IV The census and beyond
  29. 17 After census night 197
  30. 18 Telling the story 209
  31. 19 Sources and their analysis 219
  32. Front matter
  33. Contents 237
  34. Introduction 239
  35. Abbreviations 242
  36. Key mass evasions 243
  37. London boroughs and Middlesex 245
  38. Midlands 300
  39. Southern England 333
  40. Northern England 342
  41. Notes 363
  42. Select bibliography 389
  43. Index 395
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 19.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.7765/9781847798947.00019/html
Scroll to top button