17 After census night
-
Jill Liddington
Abstract
Tabloid newspapers now splashed photographs of census evaders over their front pages. Tuesday's Daily Sketch even depicted slumbering bodies inside Manchester's ‘Census Lodge’. The broadsheets looked soberly at the broader picture. Tuesday's Times editorialized: ‘The Census: Failure of Suffragist Efforts at Evasion’. Thus two census narratives began to emerge, each claiming victory. John Burns stood up in the Commons on Wednesday and unperturbedly claimed that the number of census evaders ‘is altogether negligible’. At which the MPs cheered. Elsewhere, the WSPU and WFL waited anxiously for court summons and arrests. None came. The suffragettes celebrated their victory. The summer was indeed a time of suffrage optimism. In June, 40,000 women marched together in procession, constitutionalists and militants alike. Tax resisters seized propaganda opportunities. The highest-profile resister was modest but well-connected Clemence Housman. Imprisoned in Holloway, her case went right up to Asquith's office. Suddenly Clem was released early. However, in November Asquith unexpectedly announced a manhood suffrage measure ~ leaving women out once again. Suffrage organizations reacted furiously, the WSPU with window-smashing, and later arson attacks on empty buildings. The story of these last 2½ years of peace is told elsewhere.
Abstract
Tabloid newspapers now splashed photographs of census evaders over their front pages. Tuesday's Daily Sketch even depicted slumbering bodies inside Manchester's ‘Census Lodge’. The broadsheets looked soberly at the broader picture. Tuesday's Times editorialized: ‘The Census: Failure of Suffragist Efforts at Evasion’. Thus two census narratives began to emerge, each claiming victory. John Burns stood up in the Commons on Wednesday and unperturbedly claimed that the number of census evaders ‘is altogether negligible’. At which the MPs cheered. Elsewhere, the WSPU and WFL waited anxiously for court summons and arrests. None came. The suffragettes celebrated their victory. The summer was indeed a time of suffrage optimism. In June, 40,000 women marched together in procession, constitutionalists and militants alike. Tax resisters seized propaganda opportunities. The highest-profile resister was modest but well-connected Clemence Housman. Imprisoned in Holloway, her case went right up to Asquith's office. Suddenly Clem was released early. However, in November Asquith unexpectedly announced a manhood suffrage measure ~ leaving women out once again. Suffrage organizations reacted furiously, the WSPU with window-smashing, and later arson attacks on empty buildings. The story of these last 2½ years of peace is told elsewhere.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents 237
- List of maps vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- List of abbreviations xiii
- Chronology xiv
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Prelude: people and their politics
- 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
- 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
- 3 Propaganda culture 36
- 4 Parallel politics 48
-
Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
- 5 Plotting across central London 63
- 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
- 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
- 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
- 9 The King’s Speech 97
- 10 Battleground for democracy 108
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Part III Census night: places and spaces
- 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
- 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
- 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
- 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
- 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
- 16 English journey 183
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Part IV The census and beyond
- 17 After census night 197
- 18 Telling the story 209
- 19 Sources and their analysis 219
-
Front matter
- Contents 237
- Introduction 239
- Abbreviations 242
- Key mass evasions 243
- London boroughs and Middlesex 245
- Midlands 300
- Southern England 333
- Northern England 342
- Notes 363
- Select bibliography 389
- Index 395
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents 237
- List of maps vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- List of abbreviations xiii
- Chronology xiv
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Prelude: people and their politics
- 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
- 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
- 3 Propaganda culture 36
- 4 Parallel politics 48
-
Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
- 5 Plotting across central London 63
- 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
- 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
- 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
- 9 The King’s Speech 97
- 10 Battleground for democracy 108
-
Part III Census night: places and spaces
- 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
- 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
- 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
- 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
- 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
- 16 English journey 183
-
Part IV The census and beyond
- 17 After census night 197
- 18 Telling the story 209
- 19 Sources and their analysis 219
-
Front matter
- Contents 237
- Introduction 239
- Abbreviations 242
- Key mass evasions 243
- London boroughs and Middlesex 245
- Midlands 300
- Southern England 333
- Northern England 342
- Notes 363
- Select bibliography 389
- Index 395
