| Women's Coronation Procession | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part offirst-wave feminism | |||
.jpg) The 'Prison to Citizenship' pageant | |||
| Date | 17 June 1911 | ||
| Location | 51°30′03.40″N00°10′38.77″W / 51.5009444°N 0.1774361°W /51.5009444; -0.1774361 | ||
| Caused by | Fight forwomen's suffrage | ||
| Methods | Demonstrations, marches[1] | ||
| Parties | |||
| Lead figures | |||
Emmeline Pankhurst (WSPU) Prime MinisterH. H. Asquith[1] | |||
TheWomen's Coronation Procession was asuffragette march through London, England, on 17 June 1911, just before theCoronation of George V and Mary, demandingwomen's suffrage in the coronation year. The march was organised by theWomen's Social and Political Union (WSPU). It was "the largest women’s suffrage march ever held in Britain and one of the few to draw together the full range of suffrage organisations".[2]
Some 40,000 people marched from Westminster to theAlbert Hall inSouth Kensington.[3]Charlotte Despard andFlora Drummond on horseback led the march, which includedMarjery Bryce dressed asJoan of Arc and 700 women and girls clothed in white to represent suffragette prisoners.
Kate Harvey,Edith Downing andMarion Wallace-Dunlop were among the organisers, andLolita Roy is believed to have been as well.[1][4]Jane Cobden organised theIndian women's delegation.[5]
The presence of a substantial number of marchers, both clergymen and lay women, under the banner of theChurch League for Women's Suffrage was remarked upon by theChurch Times.[6] There was also a contingency of male and femaletheosophists, marching under the banner ofUniversal Co-Freemasonry in full Masonic regalia, led byAnnie Besant.[7]
Elsie Hooper and other members of theNational Association of Women Pharmacists joined the march. In June 1911 theChemist and Druggist carried photographs of women pharmacists in the march and reported "MissElsie Hooper, B.Sc., was in the Science Section, and several other women pharmacists did the two-and-a-half hours’ march.”[8]
