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10 Battleground for democracy

Census versus women’s citizenship
  • Jill Liddington
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Vanishing for the vote
This chapter is in the book Vanishing for the vote

Abstract

On one side of the battleground stood Charlotte Despard's WFL, the Pankhursts’ WSPU, the Tax Resistance League and Laurence Housman. On the other lined up Sadler and Scott, John Burns and the progressive Liberal reformers. Alongside was the giant NUWSS, keenly supporting the new Conciliation Bill yet opposing the boycott as irresponsible & ineffective civil deisobedience. From the suffragette societies (notably WSPU, WFL) fizzed imaginative boycott propaganda: posters, postcards, cartoons. WSPU promised ‘a midnight promenade’ from Trafalgar Square to the Aldwych. Local branches urged members to fill in ‘promises cards’. A census resister's model schedule showed ‘No Vote No Census’ written across. Speakers like Emmeline Pankhurst, Charlotte Despard and Laurence Housman criss-crossed the country at dizzying speed. However, local suffragettes often encountered fierce opposition. In Halifax, Emmeline was accused by the local Unitarian minister of attempting something ‘grossly immmoral’. In Sheffield, a NUWSS woman doctor crossed swords with Adela Pankhurst, local WSPU organizer. Final boycott plans were laid. In Manchester, Jessie Stephenson rented a suburban mansion for census weekend. Meanwhile, at the Census Office in London, bundles of schedules were piled high, ready for delivery by an army of 35,000 local enumerators.

Abstract

On one side of the battleground stood Charlotte Despard's WFL, the Pankhursts’ WSPU, the Tax Resistance League and Laurence Housman. On the other lined up Sadler and Scott, John Burns and the progressive Liberal reformers. Alongside was the giant NUWSS, keenly supporting the new Conciliation Bill yet opposing the boycott as irresponsible & ineffective civil deisobedience. From the suffragette societies (notably WSPU, WFL) fizzed imaginative boycott propaganda: posters, postcards, cartoons. WSPU promised ‘a midnight promenade’ from Trafalgar Square to the Aldwych. Local branches urged members to fill in ‘promises cards’. A census resister's model schedule showed ‘No Vote No Census’ written across. Speakers like Emmeline Pankhurst, Charlotte Despard and Laurence Housman criss-crossed the country at dizzying speed. However, local suffragettes often encountered fierce opposition. In Halifax, Emmeline was accused by the local Unitarian minister of attempting something ‘grossly immmoral’. In Sheffield, a NUWSS woman doctor crossed swords with Adela Pankhurst, local WSPU organizer. Final boycott plans were laid. In Manchester, Jessie Stephenson rented a suburban mansion for census weekend. Meanwhile, at the Census Office in London, bundles of schedules were piled high, ready for delivery by an army of 35,000 local enumerators.

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/10.7765/9781847798947.00020

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
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