The Lady Pethick-Lawrence | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Pethick-Lawrence, c. 1910s | |
| Born | Emmeline Pethick 21 October 1867 Clifton, Bristol, England |
| Died | 11 March 1954(1954-03-11) (aged 86) Gomshall, Surrey, England |
| Education | Greystone House |
| Employer | West London Methodist Mission |
| Organization(s) | Espérance Club,Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,No More War Movement,The Suffragette Fellowship,Women's Freedom League |
| Known for | Campaign forwomen's suffrage, co-founder ofVotes for Women. |
| Political party | Women's Social and Political Union,United Suffragists,Labour Party UK |
| Spouse | Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence (m. 1901) |
| Relatives | Dorothy Pethick (sister) Nellie Crocker (cousin) |
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence (née Pethick; 21 October 1867 – 11 March 1954[1]) was a Britishwomen's rights activist,suffragist and pacifist.
Pethick-Lawrence was born in 1867 in Clifton,Bristol asEmmeline Pethick. Her father, Henry Pethick of Cornish farming stock,[2] was a businessman and merchant of South American hide, who became owner of theWeston Gazette, and a Weston town commissioner. She was the second of 13 children, five who died in infancy,[3] and her younger sister, Dorothy Pethick (the tenth child), was also a suffragist.[4]
Pethick was sent away to theGreystone Houseboarding school l inDevizes at the age of eight.[3] She was reluctant to conform from an early age and got into trouble frequently at school.[5] She was then educated at private schools in England, France and Germany.[6]
From 1891 to 1895, Pethick worked as a "sister of the people" for theWest London Methodist Mission atCleveland Hall, nearFitzroy Square, having been inspired byWalter Besant's bookThe Children of Gibeon (1886).[2] She ran a girls' club at the mission withMary Neal and they became friends and lived together.[7]
In 1895, she and Neal left the mission to co-found theEspérance Club,[8] with support from the evangelical Christian socialistMark Guy Pearse.[2] The club for young women and girls would not be subject to the constraints of the mission, and could experiment with dance and drama.[9] Pethick also started Maison Espérance, a dressmaking cooperative with a minimum wage, aneight-hour day and a holiday scheme,[6] and was founder of the Social Settlement for Girls from the East End of London.[10]
Pethick met wealthy barristerFrederick William Lawrence in 1899[7] atPercy Alden's Mansfield House settlement inCanning Town.[2] She feared that a conventional marriage with him would curtail her independence and prevent her from her social service work, so turned down his first marriage proposal.[3] After a second proposal, they married on 2 October 1901 at Canning Town Hall,[2] three weeks before her 34th birthday.[3]
After the marriage, the couple took the hyphenated joint surname Pethick-Lawrence as a gesture of equality,[6] and kept separate bank accounts to give them financial autonomy.[2] They moved toHolmwood, nearDorking and also shared a London flat.[10] Between 1906 and 1912 Holmwood would become a central meeting place for leaders of the suffrage campaign and a refuge where suffragettes could recover from forcible feeding.[11] On their first wedding anniversary, Frederick gave her the key to a private flat on the roof ofClement's Inn for her own private use.[3]
During a visit to South Africa with her husband, Pethick-Lawrence read aboutChristabel Pankhurst andAnnie Kenney's protest and unfurling a banner declaring "Votes for Women" at theManchester Free Trade Hall in October 1905, and their subsequent arrest.[12] Back in Britain, Pethick-Lawrence became a member of the Suffrage Society and was introduced toEmmeline Pankhurst byKeir Hardie in 1906.[13][14] She became treasurer of theWomen's Social and Political Union (WSPU),[15] which Pankurst had founded in 1903, and raised £134,000 over six years.[16] Her husband and Keir Hardie also donated funds to pay off the organisations debts and she insisted that her friend and chartered accountant Alfred Sayers be appointed to audit the WSPU finances.[3]
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Christabel Pankhurst lived with the Pethick-Lawrences for five years in London and in Surrey.[10] Pethick-Lawrence attended a number of protests and events with the Pankhursts. In October 1906, she was arrested with Emmeline Pankhurst for "causing a disturbance" outside theHouse of Commons. As they both refused to pay the £10 fine they were sent toHM Holloway Prison.[17] She also participated in the aborted visit to the Prime Minister in late June 1908, along withJessie Stephenson,Florence Haig,Maud Joachim andMary Phillips, after which there was some violent treatment of women protestors, and a number of arrests.[13]
In 1908, together withBeatrice Sanders and Mrs Knight, Pethick-Lawrence organised WSPU's firstWeek of Self-Denial, where supporters of the suffragette movement were asked to go without certain necessities for a week, donating the money saved to the WSPU.[18] She chose the suffragette campaigning colours of purple, white and green.[19]
Pethick-Lawrence spoke at the Women's Sunday at Hyde Park on 21 June 1908, alongsideFlora Drummond,Gladice Keevil,Edith New, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst,Adela Pankhurst, and other activists.[8] In 1909, she spoke in support for women's suffrage at theRoyal Albert Hall.[19] She often visitedEagle House to recover her health after periods in prison,[20] and on 23 April 1909 she planted a tree at "Annie’s Arboretum."[21]Emily Blathwayt wrote in her diary that "it was a beautiful day for tree planting."[21]
In 1911, Pethick-Lawrence took part in the suffrage boycott of the government's census survey by graffitiing votes for women on her enumeration form.[22] She was arrested again in November 1911.[17]
Pethick-Lawrence founded and edited the publicationVotes for Women with her husband from 1907.[23] It was adopted as the official newspaper of theWomen's Social and Political Union (WSPU), already the leading militantsuffragette organisation in the country.[24] The couple was arrested and imprisoned in 1912 for conspiracy following demonstrations that involved breaking windows, even though they had disagreed with that form of action. She was force fed during this period of imprisonment.[2]
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In April 1913, Frederick Pethick-Lawrence was made bankrupt after he refused to pay the £900 costs of the prosecutions of Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, himself and Emmeline Pankhurst in theOld Bailey for conspiracy to commit property damage.[25]The Irish Times noted that "this step does not mean that Mr Pethick-Lawrence is insolvent, because he is a wealthy man.[26]The government sent bailiffs to the Pethick-Lawrence's homes and when their belongings were auctioned most of their possessions were bought back by friends and supporters.[11] Whilst the Pethick-Lawrences were imprisoned,Evelyn Sharp briefly assumed the editorship of theVotes for Women newspaper.[27]After being released from prison, the Pethick-Lawrences recuperated with Emmeline’s brother in Canada.[10] They were then ousted from theWSPU by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughterChristabel Pankhurst, because of their ongoing disagreement over the more radical forms of activism that the Pethick-Lawrences opposed.[28] Her sister Dorothy Pethick also left the WSPU in protest at their treatment, having previously taken part and been imprisoned for militant action.[4]
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The Pethick-Lawrences then joinedAgnes Harben and others starting theUnited Suffragists,[16] which took over the publication ofVotes for Women and was open to women and men, militants and non-militants alike.[24]The Suffragette replacedVotes for Women as the paper of the WSPU.[29]
The Pethick-Lawrences and the Pankhurts also had opposing views on war.[30] Pethick-Lawrence described peace as "the highest effort of the human brain applied to the organisation of the life and being of the peoples of the world on the basis of cooperation."[31] In 1914, she embarked on a speaking tour in America, speaking on the outbreak ofWorld War I, the impact of war on women and feministpacifism.[32]
In April 1915,Aletta Jacobs, a suffragist in theNetherlands, invited suffrage members from around the world to an International Congress of Women inThe Hague. Pethick-Lawrence was one of the three female British attendees.[19] At the conference, theWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was formed and Pethick-Lawrence became a member.[15][33] As a pacifist, Pethwick-Lawrence was amongst the women who encouragedJane Addams to take leadership over the peace movement in America, along withCarrie Champan Catt andRosika Schwimmer.[34]
When back in England, she led a campaign against the naval blockade on Germany.[10] She supported theSix Point Group andOpen Door Council.[22] Her husband Frederick worked on a farm inSussex as aconscientious objector and was a founding member of theUnion of Democratic Control (UDC).[25] At the end of the war, she deplored the terms of theTreaty of Versailles.[2]
When the American activistAlice Paul visited England in 1921, she met with Pethick-Lawrence and Lady Margaret Rhondda to form an Internal Advisory Committee for theNational Women's Party, before travelling on to France.[35]
In 1919, when women were first permitted to stand in elections, Pethick-Lawrence stood as aLabour candidate forRusholme in Manchester.[6] She called for "better houses, better food, pure milk, a public service of health, provision of midwives and also pensions for widowed mothers."[36] She was not elected,[6] winning a sixth of the vote.[5] Her husband was later electedMember of Parliament (MP) forLeicester West in 1923.[25]
When theRepresentation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act was passed into law in 1928, Pethick-Lawrence and her husband were invited to join a celebratory breakfast held atHotel Cecil in London. TheManchester Guardian reported that she gave a speech in tribute to four prominent women's suffrage activists who died before the vote was finally won on equal terms: Emmeline Pankhurst,Emily Davidson,Constance Lytton andAnne Cobden-Sanderson.[37]
In 1938, Pethick-Lawrence published her memoirs,My Part in a Changing World,[38] which discuss the radicalization of the suffrage movement just before theFirst World War[39] and how the women's and peace movements were closely allied in England.[40]
She was involved in the setting up ofthe Suffragette Fellowship withEdith How-Martyn to document the women's suffrage movement.[41] Pethick-Lawrence was also involved with the Women's League of Unity, alongsideFlora Drummond, which attempted to establish a women's newspaper in 1938-1939.[42] She became the president of theWomen's Freedom League (WFL) from 1926 to 1935,[8] and was elected its president in honour in 1953.[6] She was also involved in the campaign led byMarie Stopes to provide birth-control to working class women.[8]
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As well as campaigning, she travelled extensively with her husband, including to India when he was appointed asClement Attlee's Secretary of State for India.[19] Frederick became a long time friend ofMahatma Gandhi.[43] In 1945, she became Lady Pethick-Lawrence when her husband was made a baron.[44]
In 1950, she had a serious accident which ended her campaigning.[5] She was cared for by her husband.[5] Pethick-Lawrence died at home her in Fourways, Gomshall, Surrey, in 1954 following a heart attack.[2][45]
In 1976 the historian,Brian Harrison, conducted various interviews related to the Pethwick-Lawrence's as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titledOral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.[45] Elizabeth Kempster was employed as their housekeeper in 1945 following an interview at Lincoln's Inn, and worked at their home, Fourways, in Surrey, whereSylvia Pankhurst was a frequent visitor. She talks about Pethick-Lawrence's character, appearance, interests and frailty. Gladys Groom-Smith, interviewed in June and August 1976, was secretary to the Pethick-Lawrence's, working alongside Esther Knowles who trained her. She talks about Pethick-Lawrence's role as a speaker in theNo More War Movement, and the Pethick-Lawrence's work and marriage, lifestyle and friendships, including withHenry Harben andVictor Duval. Harrison also interviewed the niece of Esther Knowles, who recalled her Aunt's relationship with the Pethick-Lawrence's and her work for them.
Pethick-Lawrence's name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on theplinth of thestatue of Millicent Fawcett inParliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.[46][47][48]
In 2018, theLondon School of Economics renamed three of its key campus buildings after central figures in the British suffrage movement, including Pethick-Lawrence. The newly named buildings were unveiled in a ceremony by HRHSophie Windsor, then Countess of Wessex.[49]
Ablue plaque was unveiled in Pethick-Lawrence's honour byWeston-super-Mare Town Council and Weston Civic Society in March 2020. It was placed on a wall Lewisham House,Weston-super-Mare (known as 'Trewartha' when she lived there for fourteen years as a child).[50]
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