Hugh Arthur Franklin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1889-05-27)27 May 1889 Kensington, London, England |
| Died | 21 October 1962(1962-10-21) (aged 73) |
| Other names | Henry Forster (alias as fugitive)[1] |
| Education |
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| Organization | Women's Social and Political Union |
| Known for | Activism for women's suffrage |
| Political party | Labour Party |
| Spouses | |
| Father | Arthur Ellis Franklin |
| Relatives |
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Hugh Arthur Franklin (27 May 1889 – 21 October 1962)[1] was a British suffragist and politician. Born into a wealthyAnglo-Jewish family, he rejected both his religious and social upbringing to protest forwomen's suffrage. Joining in with the militant suffragettes, he was sent to prison multiple times, making him one of the few men to be imprisoned for his part in the suffrage movement.[2] His crimes included an attempted attack onWinston Churchill and an act of arson on a train.[3] He was the first person to be released under thePrisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 (the so-called "Cat and Mouse law"), and he later married the second,Elsie Duval.[4] Following his release, he never returned to prison, but still campaigned for women's rights andpenal reform. He stood unsuccessfully for parliament on two occasions, but did win a seat onMiddlesex County Council and was a member of theLabour Party executive committee.[1]
Hugh Franklin was born toArthur Ellis Franklin and Caroline Franklin (née Jacob), the fourth of six children.[5] The Franklin family was a prominent member of the Anglo-Jewish "cousinhood", and the family was well-off and well-connected.[6] Hugh's uncles included theLiberal politicians SirLeonard Franklin, SirStuart Samuel andHerbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel.[1][7]
Hugh was educated atClifton College[8] and, on graduation in 1908, he moved toGonville and Caius College, Cambridge to read engineering. However, on finishing his first year of study, Hugh made several moves that would ultimately lead to his estrangement from his father. Firstly, he wrote his father a letter, declaring his agnosticism and rejecting the Jewish faith. Secondly, he attended a speech byEmmeline Pankhurst and her daughterChristabel on the topic of women's suffrage. Finally, he abandoned his studies in engineering and began to read economics and sociology instead. He became an active member of theWomen's Social and Political Union, the Young Purple White and Green Club and theMen’s Political Union for Women’s Enfranchisement. Hugh left Cambridge for a while to promote the WSPU in London – on his return, he did not put his heart into his studies and missed his examinations. By June 1910, he had abandoned university altogether.[3]
Although his religious views had led his father to disown him, the family ties were still strong enough that Herbert Samuel, at that pointPostmaster General, decided to offer Hugh a position as a private secretary toMatthew Nathan, Secretary of theGeneral Post Office. Hugh took the position reluctantly. It was not to last long, however.[1]
Hugh was one of the people present at the rally on Parliament on 18 November 1910 – the rally that was later to be known asBlack Friday.[1] When theConciliation Bill, which would have granted limited suffrage to female property owners, failed to pass, around 300 suffragettes descended on thePalace of Westminster. The protesters were driven back by police, and many reported being victims ofpolice brutality.[9]
Winston Churchill was at that pointHome Secretary, and he was widely blamed for the police excesses on display. Hugh Franklin, who was angered by what he had seen, began to follow Churchill to heckle him at public meetings. On the train back from a meeting in Bradford, Yorkshire,[10] Hugh met Churchill and set on him with a dogwhip, shouting "Take this, you cur, for the treatment of the suffragists!"[1]
The attack was widely reported, even reaching the headlines ofThe Times, and for the Franklin family, it was a great embarrassment.[6] Hugh was imprisoned for six weeks and dismissed as Sir Nathan's secretary. In March 1911, he was sentenced for another month for throwing rocks at Churchill's house. Hugh took part in thehunger strikes that were then being waged by the suffragettes, and wasforce fed repeatedly during his imprisonment. The force feeding turned him into an activist forpenal reform – not long after he was released, he began petitioning his uncle to investigate the case of William Ball, a prisoner supposedly driven insane by force feeding.[1][11]
Hugh's final militant act was setting fire to a railway carriage atHarrow on 25 October 1912. He then went on the run, spending two months at the famous radical book storeHenderson's, better known as "The Bomb Shop", before being caught and sentenced to six months in prison in February 1913.[3] He was force fed 114 times, and the ordeal left him so weak that he was released as soon as thePrisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 came into force, making him the first hunger striker to be temporarily released under the act.[4]
With his licence expiring in May,[12] he fled the country and stayed in Brussels under the assumed name of Henry Forster until the outbreak ofWorld War I. Due to poor eyesight, he was not called to military service. He took a job in a munitions factory and after the war he ceased his militant activities, although he kept close ties with the suffragettes, includingSylvia Pankhurst.[3]
Hugh joined theLabour Party in 1931 and attempted to become an MP, standing inHornsey in 1931 andSt Albans in 1935. Despite his lack of success here, he was prolific in local politics, and eventually won a seat onMiddlesex County Council, and he was ultimately able to join theLabour Party National Executive Committee. He died on 21 October 1962.[1][3]
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Hugh was the fourth of six siblings and had three brothers and two sisters; in order, Jacob,Alice,Cecil,Helen andEllis.[5] Hugh was not the only politically active one – Alice, a staunch socialist, would later become a leader of theTownswomen's Guild; Helen becameforewoman at theRoyal Arsenal, where she was forced to resign for supporting female workers and attempting to form a trade union, and Ellis became vice-principal of theWorking Men's College. Through Ellis, Hugh was also the uncle of the famouscrystallographerRosalind Franklin.[6]
In 1915, Hugh married fellow suffragistElsie Diederichs Duval (1893–1919), who he had been engaged to since their "Cat and Mouse" days in 1913 – Elsie was the second person to be released under the law, after Hugh.[13] Elsie converted to Judaism, and the couple married in the synagogue. Her mother Jane Emily née Hayes (c.1861–1924) was an active suffragette, as Emily Hayes Duval she was imprisoned for six weeks in 1908 following a demonstration atH. H. Asquith's house.
Hugh stayed with Elsie until, probably weakened by her own force feeding, she died in 1919 fromSpanish flu.[13] Hugh later married another non-Jewish Elsie in 1921, Elsie Constance Tuke. Tuke never converted to Judaism. This was the final straw for Arthur, who disinherited him.[6]
Brian Harrison recorded an oral history interview with Hugh's nephew, Norman Franklin (along with his wife Jill), in September 1979, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titledOral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews[14]. The first section of the interview centres around Hugh, including his activities for the suffrage movement, his lifestyle and the failure of his business. Another nephew, Colin Franklin (and his wife, Charlotte), were interviewed in June 1977, and their niece, Mrs Ursula Richley (and her husband Noel), were interviewed in September 1977. These interviews have a greater focus on Alice Franklin, but provide further information about Hugh, such as his life and career following his suffrage campaigning, his work for theMetropolitan Water Board during the Second World War, and his family relationships.
