Who was Christabel Pankhurst?
Suffragette Leader.
Date and Place of Birth:
22nd September 1880, Manchester, England.
Family Background:
Eldest daughter of Dr Richard Pankhurst a radical
lawyer and Emmeline, a prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the
Independent Labour Party in the 1895 General Election.
Education:
Manchester High School.
Chronology/Biography of Christabel Pankhurst:
1882: Sister Sylvia
is born.
1889: Death of her
father Richard of a perforated ulcer.
1901: Meets Eva
Gore-Booth who was trying to encourage working women in Manchester
to join the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and is
so impressed with her work that she joins the movement also, closely
followed by her mother Emmeline
and her sister Slyvia.
1903: Foundation
of the Women’s Social and Political Union in Manchester as a breakaway
to the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
1905: (October)
Christabel and Annie Kenney are eventually jailed after being thrown
out for disturbing a Liberal Party meeting and “assaulting” police
officers. They refused to pay their fines.
1906: Mother Emmeline
now organises the WSPU activities from London. Many marches and
rallies are held and the Liberal Candidates are targeted during
the elections. The women disturb Cabinet Meetings. The Daily Mail
newspaper sneeringly described them as Suffragettes but the movement
adopted the title with pride.
1907: (13th February)
Christabel amongst Suffragettes arrested in Parliament Square in
London.
1908: Christabel
becomes known as "Queen of the Mob" and makes protests
at the Peckham By-Election.
1909: Receives her
third and last prison sentence, ten weeks in Holloway Women's Prison
after the so called "Rush Trial" at Bow Street in London.She
is such a celebrity that she is sculpted for Madame Tussaud's waxworks
museum.
1910: (18th November)
Pankhurst's and their followers try to get into the House of Commons
to see the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith to protest against the
dropping of the Conciliation Bill, which would have given votes
to women. The meeting breaks out into a riot as the women charge
police lines and over 100 are arrested.
1911: Takes part
in a deputation to see Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.
1912: The WPSU becomes
increasingly more militant under the influence of Christabel who
flees to Paris to avoid arrest, and arson attacks, window smashing
and vandalising works of art take place. Emmeline is arrested twelve
times during the year and serves a total of 30 days in jail.
1913: The so called
“Cat and Mouse Act is brought in. The Prisoners (Temporary) Discharge
for Ill-Health Act which means that hunger-striking prisoners can
be released until they are well enough to serve the rest of their
sentences to avoid the problem of force feeding.
1914: At the beginning
of the First World War Emmeline and Christabel call off their Campaign
to support the War effort and all suffragettes are released from
prison. She tours the United States, Canada and Russia to encourage
the mobilisation of women.
1915: The WPSU changes
the name of its newspaper from "The Suffragette" to "Britannia".
1917: The WSPU changes
its name to the Women’s Party.
1918: The representation
of the People Act gives the vote to Women over 30. Christabel stands
for Parliament in Smethwick, near Birmingham and is narrowly defeated
by the Labour Candidate.
1919: Becomes the
prospective parliamentary candidate for Westminster Abbey Division
but the campaign comes to nothing. Nancy Viscountess Astor becomes
the first woman to be elected to parliament in the constituency
of Plymouth after her husband moves up to the House of Lords. The
Pankhursts go on a lecture tour of America.
1920: Writes a series
of articles for the "Weekly Dispatch" Newspaper. She begins
to turn towards religion.
1921: (August) Goes
to Canada with Betty and Grace Roe. Starts to preach as an Adventist.
1922: Preaches at
the John Knox Presbyterian Church in Toronto. Publishes her first
religious book in New York, "The Lord Cometh". Starts
her second book "Pressing Problems".
1925: (January)
Predicts that the nations of Europe will be ruled by a Dictator
who will be the forerunner of the Antichrist at the Ascension Mercurial
Church in New York. Spends periods of time in Bermuda writing works
such as "The Worlds's Unrest" "God's Remedy for Human
Failure".
1926: Returns to
London and addresses meetings in Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham. Manchester,
Liverpool, Dublin Edinburgh and Glasgow.
1928: The amended
"Representation of the People Act" is passed a few weeks
after the death of her mother Emmeline which gives the same voting
rights to women as to men.
1929: Begins six
month tour of the USA and Canada. (8th December) Attends a memorial
service for her mother in Washington.
1930: She is not
present at the unveiling of the statue of her mother in London by
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.
1931: She preaches
in the same service as David Lloyd George
at the Welsh Baptist Chapel in London. (September) Visits Winston
Churchill at his home at Chartwell in
Kent.
1932-39: Spends
most of her time in England with occasional tours to the United
States.
1936: (1st January)
Appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire. Lives a comfortable
existence from her income from her books and lectures and from money
from wealthy friends. She is the principal beneficiary in at least
three wills over the next few years from some of her admirers.
1939: Spends the
last years of her life in or around Los Angeles and withdraws from
public life.
Marriage:
Never married.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
Womens Library, Old Castle Street, E1 7NT.
MANCHESTER:
Pankhurst Centre, 60-62 Nelson Street, Manchester,
M13 9WP.
Date and Place of Death:
13th February 1958, Los Angeles, United States
of America, found dead of heart failure in her chair by her landlady
after giving a speech on her essay about her mother Emmeline
Pankhurst. (Rumours persisted that she had committed suicide).
Age at Death:
77.
Site of Grave:
Buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Santa Monica, United
States. A memorial service was held at the church of St. Martin's
in the Field, London.
