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TheEmmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial is a memorial in London toEmmeline Pankhurst and her daughterChristabel, two of the foremost Britishsuffragettes. It stands at the entrance toVictoria Tower Gardens, south ofVictoria Tower at the southwest corner of thePalace of Westminster.[1] Its main feature is a bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst byArthur George Walker, unveiled in 1930. In 1958 the statue was relocated to its current site and the bronze reliefs commemorating Christabel Pankhurst were added.
An image of the statue appeared on a 9d UK postage stamp designed by Clive Abbott which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act, 1918 which gave some women the right to vote for the first time.
Shortly after Emmeline Pankhurst's death in 1928 a Pankhurst Memorial Fund was established, with her fellow suffragettesRosamund Massy andKatherine "Kitty" Marshall (Pankhurst's former bodyguard in theWomen's Social and Political Union) as joint secretaries.[2] The fund's objectives were to arrange a headstone for her grave, to acquireGeorgina Brakenbury's portrait of Pankhurst and to erect a public statue.[2] Some spectators, such asNancy Astor, believed the idea of a statue impractical, noting that Pankhurst herself did not believe she was "statuesque" and the fact that the British public were facing austere times, which would impose financial constraints on the project.[2] In reality raising the money, which was largely organised byThe Suffragette's editorRachel Barrett, was not the issue; finding a location for the statue was the real problem.[3][4] Although the Chief Commissioner of Public Works, SirLionel Earle, was sympathetic to their cause, he believed that it would be impractical to place the statue in Westminster.[4] After several locations were rejected Marshall secured permission to erect the statue in a corner ofVictoria Tower Gardens near the Houses of Parliament.[4] Though this required a special Parliamentary bill, theConservative MPWilliam Bull ensured its smooth passage.[4]
A bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, with arms outstretched as if addressing a rally, was sculpted byArthur George Walker; SirHerbert Baker was the architect of the plinth. As well as covering the cost of the plinth and statue the fund paid theMinistry of Works £160 to have the statue cleaned in perpetuity and a further £330 to always have a plant placed in a vase next to the statue.[4]
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The statue was unveiled by the Prime Minister,Stanley Baldwin, on 6 March 1930.[4] Marshall had arranged for two facing platforms to be erected near the statue, one for the three speakers, Baldwin,Lady Rhondda andFred Pethick-Lawrence, and the other for a band.[4] Loudspeakers were provided and the stages draped in the colours of the WSPU.[4] In Baldwin's speech he said: "I say with no fear of contradiction, that whatever view posterity may take, Mrs. Pankhurst has won for herself a niche in the Temple of Fame which will last for all time."[5] The composerEthel Smyth, a close friend of Pankhurst's, conducted theMetropolitan Police Band during the unveiling, playing an arrangement of her song "The March of the Women" and music from her operaThe Wreckers. Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, suffragette and daughter of the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, was President of the Committee tasked with providing flower decorations at the unveiling. "The March of the Women" was the anthem of thewomen's suffrage movement.[6]
In 1958 the statue was moved from its original position in the south of the gardens to a new site further north, and a low stone screen was built flanking the statue, terminating at either end with bronze medallions sculpted by Peter Hills. These depict, on the left, the "prison brooch" or "badge" of the WSPU,[7] and, on the right, a profile bust of Christabel Pankhurst, who died in 1958. The unveiling of this dual memorial was performed on 13 July 1959 by the Lord Chancellor,Lord Kilmuir.[8]Sylvia Pankhurst died in 1960; she is not commemorated. The statue was granted aGrade II listing in 1970.
In August 2018, a group called "The Emmeline Pankhurst Trust Limited"[9] led by former Conservative MPNeil Thorne[10] applied for planning permission to remove the statue from its site next to Parliament to the private grounds ofRegent's University London.[11] 889 objections were received, including from MPsCaroline Flint andVicky Ford, and campaignerCaroline Criado-Perez, and the application was withdrawn on 14 September.[12]
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51°29′52″N0°07′31″W / 51.49787°N 0.12537°W /51.49787; -0.12537
