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100 years ago women took to the Streets
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of London demonstrating and Wrecking
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property all over the
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city the suffragettes are the only
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protest movement in the history of Great
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Britain that actually succeeded by
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violence for the BBC's History of the
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World season I'm going to explore these
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events through objects from their daring
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campaign
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several hundreds of women would have
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rampaged down the West End smashing all
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these windows through the relatives of
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women who made enormous personal
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sacrifices for the
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cause this tube was pushed down the
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mouth through the throat and then this
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was poured down straight into
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the and the places that still resonate
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with their presence as they pulled her
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away the spur became broken so this is a
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symbol of the public campaign for women
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to get the
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vote who were these women who became
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known as the suffer jets in this program
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we're going to trace the story of their
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activity in London and try and find out
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more about this extraordinary political
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upheaval that helped to transform
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women's lives and our democracy
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I've lived most of my life in London and
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I've always been passionate about
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women's rights
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I want to discover what this city its
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people and Parliament can reveal about
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an incredible moment of
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history 100 years ago London was still a
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very traditional
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Society but it was also becoming the
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stage for some remarkable
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scenes a group of determined women were
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taking London by
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storm hide Park was the setting for a
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major spectacle created to stun
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Edwardian
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Society they organized the most
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incredible occasion called women's
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Sunday and they brought women from all
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over the country on specially chartered
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trains to this Monster ranh High Park
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they had 20 platforms with about half a
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dozen speakers talking about what a good
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idea it would be for women to have the
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vote and it was a a defining moment
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really in the suffragette campaign in
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London refined women were not supposed
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to demonstrate in public
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spaces but Emily panker and her
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daughters cristabel and Sylvia thought
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differently their movement the women's
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social and political union wanted to
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stir up a 30-year-old quest for women's
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suffrage they wanted to do something
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they wanted to make small actions um and
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a transform public opinion and to
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influence Parliament through Deeds and
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not words on women's Sunday they also
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launched something very important which
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is their color scheme and their color
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scheme was purple white and green purple
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for dignity white for Purity and green
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for fertility and hope for the
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future the colors were used on their new
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uniform presented for the first time in
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Hyde Park complete with military sash
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they deliberately went out to make a
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spectacle of eles and it's a brilliant
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idea of marketing and Merchandising and
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it really took
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off I've come to the Museum of London
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whose collection of memorabilia helps
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bring this story to
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life Beverly cook is a curator here
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follow me Lovely isn't it this is
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presumably one of the sashes is yes the
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regalia that was introduced in 1908 yes
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of course and uh in the votes for women
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magazine which was the weekly suff
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newspaper um the women were always
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encouraged to wear their sashes in
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public women want to be seen wearing
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purple white and green and that says
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quite a lot about those women because
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you had to be brave to be walking around
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in that color scheme even a little bit
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of it drew attention to the fact that
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you were a suffragette what what is this
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this is a motoring scarf actually
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motoring scar scar and motoring scares
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were of course very popular at the time
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anyway so they were just sort of
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literally adapting something that was
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popular to sort of help promote and
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enhance and Market the campaign a bit
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further so they knew that these would
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sell what about the workingclass women
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that supported the cause what would they
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have W they would have been able to
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afford button badges some of these
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button badges were very cheap that one
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shows a design by Sylvia panker oh
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really and she gave the campaign much of
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its visual imagery its logos symbols and
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that became one of the sort of most um
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iconic visions of what about this that
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shows um emiline Pankhurst it was a
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Celluloid uh portrait button badge they
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were mass produced so would have been
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sold very cheaply possibly for a penny
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so very affordable by
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everyone women of all different classes
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joined the campaign the women who were
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active in the suffrage movement were
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white collar workers they were Factory
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workers writers teachers actresses the
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first generations of women educated in
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universities and young
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radicals by 1908 the pankhurst's
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followers had already owned themselves a
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nickname the Del male um invented the
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term sof jet uh with the idea that it
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was diminutive it was patronizing it was
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like ladet but like many other things in
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history what was originally terms of
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abuse became a term that they
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embraced mil worker Annie Kenny joined
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the bankers and became a leading
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suffragette her great niece anesi and
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her daughter Stephanie cherish Annie's
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commitment to the cause who here's a
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lovely one of Annie oh yes that's
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beautiful that's a really beautiful one
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of her yeah my great aunt came from a
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big family in the north of England they
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were Working Class People certain
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certainly that generation the great
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aunts were definitely
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expected that their job would be to be
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married and stay in the
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home in the early Edwardian era the male
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aristocracy still assumed a natural
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entitlement to
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power only 60% of men those who owned
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property could vote in general elections
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criminals the poor the insane and women
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could not
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many people including women felt it was
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unfeminine and unnatural to even want to
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do
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so this series of postcards here just
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show how the suff Jetts were being
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portrayed in the popular press very
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unsympathetically typical
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anti-suffrage now what's this one these
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are meant to represent two um
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suffragette here and again fairly
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typical representations this one here is
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wearing a pork pie hat and and the PK by
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hat at wardian period was associated
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with lesbianism oh really yes 100 years
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ago men did believe themselves to be a
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superior sex there's no doubt at all
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that there was a very great force within
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every class of society which said women
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were somewhere different it was thought
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that there must be part of life which
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should be uncontaminated by the scramble
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and Rough and Tumble of parliamentary
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politics there was a fear that if women
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got vote in Britain that they'd stop
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getting married stop having children and
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the British race would just die
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out but Society was changing women could
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now go to university and were starting
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to demand a voice in this exciting new
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Society the panker aimed to build mass
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support So politicians would be forced
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to take
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notice their magazine votes for women
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was sold on street corners and over 20
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wspu shops in London sold their branded
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Goods followers lobbied cabinet
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Ministers of the liberal government
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elected in 1906 including Herbert aswith
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who would soon become Prime
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Minister to aswith the women were just
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irritants but the panker found creative
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ways to keep up the pressure the panker
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squi ball game was produced uh
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specifically to promote the campaign
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sagett were really good at producing
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material like this that tapped into sort
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of the Edwardian ideas of what was
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already popular the counters were
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actually little AED figures of
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suffragette and the idea of the game was
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to move a suffragette from her home and
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eventually she ends up in the House of
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Commons so it's like a spiral game but
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obviously the way she meets quite a few
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obstacles um like inspector Jarvis for
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example who would obviously stop her
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progress and members of the
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government in Westminster none of these
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tactics were cutting any ice and prime
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minister aswith refused all the panker
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requests to meet there was never any
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question of the Liberals caving in the
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demands of the panker which was to give
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women votes on the same terms as they
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were given to men because to do that to
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give votes to women who were Property
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Owners was to reinforce a conservative
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vote in the face of this resistance
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suffragettes repeatedly targeted the
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nerve center of British power zette's
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motto was Deeds not words and one of the
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actions that they took to grab attention
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was to chain themselves to the railings
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here at number 10 Downing Street was a
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first time that anybody had done
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anything like that and it became a sort
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of iconic image for the whole
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campaign they used to use those belts um
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to chain themselves to
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railings and they were actually adapted
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from belts that were previously used in
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lunatic asylums I cannot get over the
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tininess of all these women and one of
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the reasons that they liked wearing
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those suff Jets was because um they knew
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that the only way that the police could
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really release them was by manhandling
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them and um going under their clothing
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and of course that was something that
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the police were very reluctant to
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do some activists became more aggressive
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in their
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protests I suppose they saw themselves
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as thinking that you know the suffrage
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had never been won without a fight there
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had always been militancy and women just
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had to go the whole hog and push the
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issue this here is a a toffee hammer and
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toffee hammers were traditionally used
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by suffragettes for window smashing they
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were very keen to attack property from
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that period because they felt that would
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be a way of um getting the public
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businesses and the government to sit up
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and take notice and toffee hammers we
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particularly used because they were very
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light and they were very easy to
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conceal Emily Wilding Davidson took to
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militant action with gusto she had a
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degree in English and had worked as a
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govern for a liberal MP she was quite an
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extremist she invented a whole new type
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of protest which was creating um letter
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bombs putting them into pillar boxes so
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she pioneered that strategy and was
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responsible for destroying um hundreds
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of letters and bits of
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post the best place to cause a
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disturbance was at
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Parliament the House of Commons for the
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Saget was a sacred place it was always
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known as the mother of parliaments the
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queen of parliaments for them it was a
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very important uh focus of their
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thinking and their
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activities I've come to meet
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parliamentary Legend and former labor MP
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Tony Ben who's passionate about the
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history of our democracy and has taken a
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personal interest in suffragette actions
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inside this formidable seat of power now
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this is the oldest part of the building
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and way all the great debates occurred
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here the house of common sat here until
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1834 when there was a huge fire now
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apparently there's some significance in
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this particular stat yes well what
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happened here was in April
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199 a woman came with three other people
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and she had a handcuff and one uh part
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was attached to herself and locked and
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the other part she put on the
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spur and as they pulled her away the
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spur became broken so so this is a
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symbol of the public campaign for women
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to get the vote and also I see that
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faulon sword was broken oh gosh so uh
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somebody had handcuffed themselves to
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the sword and women were not allowed
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Beyond this point this moves into the
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central Lobby where people Lobby their
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MPS what about that statue over there
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now here this statue of Russell Emily
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panker came and demanded uh the vote and
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shouted and jumped I think on
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on the chair and and moved here and it
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was one of the reasons why women were
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kept out because they were not prepared
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to have demonstrations so that must have
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caused a bit of a stir in
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here by 1910 things had reached boiling
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point despite years of lobbying
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Parliament the wspu was still being
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stonewalled on November the 18th a mass
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protest in Parliament square degenerated
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into an event which became known as
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Black
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Friday the square behind me was a scene
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of unprecedented and terrible violence
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the police had been instructed to
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intimidate the women so that they would
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be afraid to ever come here
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again there were running battles with
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the police 150 women were physically and
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in some cases sexually assaulted by the
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police on that day and it was a very
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shocking event
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indeed in what became a riot that over a
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100 arrests were made all suffer Jetts
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for their first offense were offered the
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possibility of paying a fine but they
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would never do that they never paid a
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fine they always insisted on going to
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prison because that generated a great
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deal more publicity and that was exactly
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what they
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wanted women arrested in London were
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taken to Holloway
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prison Behind These Walls there were
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chilling consequences for the suff
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jett's ACT
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C these Griffins are all that's left of
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the original building the women would
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have gone past these through a Gateway
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into a far more intimidating
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place for the head of security escorting
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me there's little trace or memory of
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what occurred here a 100 years ago so
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these windows around here what are they
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that's that's all the cell windows new
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Association rooms it's because in the
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suffragette stage the in the old
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building the cells Overlook the exercise
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yard and there's a lovely story of
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Thomas beum the comp the conductor
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coming to see Ethel SMI who had written
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an Anthem for the women called women on
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the March I think it was called and he
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saw her conducting frantically with a
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toothbrush outside and the women were
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walking around singing this Anthem must
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have been a sight for S ey don't know
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what the other prisoners made of
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it Annie Kenny was repeatedly arrested
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and sent to
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Holloway this is an extract from Annie
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Kenny's book Memoirs of a militant and
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this is about her first night in
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Holloway
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prison after climbing what looked like
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Jacob's Ladder we reached a cell when I
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was safely in side the doors were shot
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with a
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bang I had many tips given me by old
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hands and when I became an old hand I
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passed the tips on to
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others never before had British prisons
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locked up so many women for a political
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cause over a thousand suffragettes were
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detained over the 5 years of the
00:17:52
campaign The Collection that we have
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here at the Museum was gathered together
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by women who had served terms of
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imprison imprisonment and because they
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were often split into different Wings
00:18:02
one of the ways they found to
00:18:04
communicate with each other was by
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writing illicitly on Prison toilet paper
00:18:09
but when did they pass it to one another
00:18:11
there is some thought that uh
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sympathetic wardens would pass it
00:18:15
between different wings and these look
00:18:18
as they're going to a party incredibly
00:18:20
elegant
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yes the suffragettes demanded the status
00:18:25
of political prisoners and when they
00:18:26
didn't get it they went on home hunger
00:18:30
strike the government's response was
00:18:32
force
00:18:34
feeding hunger strike and force feeding
00:18:36
is a really um defining moment in the
00:18:40
story of the suffragette struggle there
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we go I'm meeting the granddaughter of
00:18:45
violet Downey an Oxford graduate who
00:18:48
became a militant subet so what did she
00:18:51
do what were her activities viot um
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wrapped a metal weight with labels about
00:18:58
votes who
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and threw it through Reginald McKenna
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the then home circuit's res his dining
00:19:04
room window and was sentenced to two
00:19:06
months hard labor many women like violet
00:19:10
were
00:19:11
force-fed first they were strapped into
00:19:13
a chair to prevent them from
00:19:15
struggling once the mouth was forced
00:19:18
open this tube was pushed down the mouth
00:19:21
through the throat as far down as they
00:19:22
possibly could get it and then
00:19:26
this jug of VAR different liquids Brandy
00:19:31
and milk was one raw eggs was another
00:19:33
was poured down straight into this so
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obviously this took quite a few people
00:19:39
to to do this and that's what my
00:19:41
grandmother went through so that people
00:19:44
like me could have the
00:19:47
vote the panker always expressed
00:19:50
gratitude for this commitment to the
00:19:51
struggle by issuing a personal
00:19:53
certificate of thanks this is it this is
00:19:56
the very thing as you can see got
00:19:59
Violet's name written in by syvia and
00:20:01
then signed by emine oh my goodness
00:20:04
that's a wonderful thing to have
00:20:07
absolutely
00:20:10
wonderful the strategy of force feeding
00:20:13
proved to be a catastrophe for the
00:20:15
government Society was deeply shocked by
00:20:18
force feeding but strangely enough
00:20:21
wasn't as shocked by that as it was by
00:20:23
what came to be called the cat and mouse
00:20:24
act the cat and mouse Act was introduced
00:20:27
to allow the prison authorities to let
00:20:30
women out rather than forcibly feed them
00:20:32
and then rearrested them when they went
00:20:35
on Hunger Strike again and hunger strike
00:20:38
in prison let out recover rearrested
00:20:41
back in prison again the horrors of
00:20:44
force feeding became a rallying point
00:20:46
for the suffragette
00:20:47
movement after she was forceed Emily
00:20:50
Davidson became more fanatical one of
00:20:53
her moments of Glory took place on the
00:20:55
night of the 1911 census deep in the
00:20:58
bowels of the houses of
00:21:01
Parliament this is a little broom
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cupboard or it was where people kept the
00:21:05
brushes and brooms and a very
00:21:08
imaginative suff called Emily Wilding
00:21:11
Davidson got into the House of Commons
00:21:14
somehow got down here and hid in there
00:21:16
and when they said to her what was your
00:21:18
address on the night of the House of the
00:21:20
census she said the House of Commons I
00:21:22
told the story in the House of Commons
00:21:24
and then I said I'm going to put up a
00:21:27
plaque to Emily Wilding day listen and I
00:21:29
didn't ask permission cuz I'm too old to
00:21:31
ask permission I simply had it made and
00:21:34
I got a photograph of her and I came
00:21:36
down with an electric drool and I put it
00:21:38
up on the wall and theyve nobody has
00:21:41
dared remove it it's quite interesting
00:21:43
and that is lovingly Polished by the
00:21:45
cleaners and uh it's it's much
00:21:48
appreciated it's wonderful I appreciate
00:21:50
it Tony that's a wonderful
00:21:53
gesture between 1910 and 1912 the
00:21:57
government could no longer ignore the
00:21:59
movement and the house discussed a
00:22:01
series of conciliation bills to give
00:22:04
votes to
00:22:05
women the idea was gaining ground among
00:22:08
liberal MPS but each time failed to get
00:22:12
full cabinet
00:22:14
support that's when nerves really Harden
00:22:17
and once you get to 1912 the third
00:22:19
failure of the bill it is all out War
00:22:23
there there's no going
00:22:25
back an army of women smashed the
00:22:28
windows of shops all over the West
00:22:31
End suffragettes firebombed politicians
00:22:35
houses and even set churches a
00:22:38
light women caught for such Deeds were
00:22:41
considered a threat to National
00:22:45
Security the museum holds some unusual
00:22:48
photos of convicted
00:22:50
suffragettes they were the first
00:22:52
surveillance images actually that were
00:22:55
um commissioned by the government when
00:22:57
the women were arrested they often
00:22:59
refuse to have their photograph taken as
00:23:01
like a mug shot so in the end um the
00:23:04
government decided to ask a photographer
00:23:07
to develop a long range lens and he was
00:23:11
positioned in a van an unmarked van in
00:23:13
the yard of holay jail and the reason
00:23:16
they felt this was so important was
00:23:18
because a lot of the women were
00:23:20
undertaking attacks of works of art
00:23:22
going into museums and so if any
00:23:26
security guards saw people who look like
00:23:29
these women trying to enter they would
00:23:30
sort of bar their way do we know who
00:23:32
these women are yeah this one I love cuz
00:23:34
it's got a big red cross against it and
00:23:37
on the reverse it says the woman who
00:23:39
slashed the r b Venus as if she was the
00:23:41
most dangerous woman suffet please do
00:23:45
never ever let her enter your premises
00:23:48
and her name was Mary Richardson oh good
00:23:52
Heavens I don't blame the suffragette
00:23:54
for behaving as they did the suffragette
00:23:57
violence not just physical violence not
00:24:00
just breaking the shop windows in region
00:24:02
Street and Ox Street but there's an
00:24:04
intellectual violence as well now these
00:24:07
were all
00:24:08
God-fearing nice ladies whose heads had
00:24:12
been turned by suffrage who had been
00:24:14
come completely politicized by this
00:24:17
extraordinary
00:24:20
campaign but the most extreme
00:24:23
suffragette protest was yet to come on
00:24:26
June the 4th 193
00:24:28
Emily Davidson arrived at the Epsom
00:24:31
Derby intent on making a dramatic public
00:24:35
protest this is a horse racing time the
00:24:37
king is a great horse racing man so
00:24:40
anything that disrupts a horse race is
00:24:41
going to make front page news in
00:24:46
newspapers as the king's horse
00:24:48
approached davidon broke out from the
00:24:50
railings and entered its
00:24:55
path there'll be very many people who
00:24:57
argue that you didn't expect to die she
00:24:59
expected to cause a disturbance my
00:25:03
personal feeling is was not a mistake it
00:25:05
was not an accident she'd certainly been
00:25:08
building up to something like that for
00:25:10
quite some
00:25:15
time the panks organized a funeral fit
00:25:18
to commemorate the life of the first
00:25:21
suffragette
00:25:23
Mar it was deeply deeply moving and of
00:25:27
course with would have secured a lot of
00:25:29
people who are
00:25:30
wavering um you know on the side of of
00:25:34
the
00:25:36
suffrages 6,000 women marched solemnly
00:25:40
to this church St George's in
00:25:53
Bloomsbury as the coffing came out of
00:25:55
the church leading suffragette formed
00:25:58
the guard of honor and saluted as it
00:26:00
went past thousands of supporters were
00:26:04
gathered below to pay their respects
00:26:06
that funeral was a seminal moment for
00:26:09
the
00:26:11
campaign in August 1914 the first world
00:26:15
war interrupted the suffragette battle
00:26:18
it would completely change women's role
00:26:21
in society the genie was let out of the
00:26:24
bottle a million women were involved in
00:26:26
producing Munitions by the end of the
00:26:27
wall their doing the jobs that normally
00:26:29
would be done by men they step into
00:26:31
men's
00:26:32
shoes after the war at last women over
00:26:36
30 won the vote extended to all women in
00:26:40
1928 by this time the commons also had
00:26:43
its first female
00:26:45
MPS so was all the violence really
00:26:49
necessary this is the most difficult
00:26:51
question you know was it militancy or
00:26:54
was it the long steady years of suffrage
00:26:57
campaigning and the answer must be both
00:27:00
I think that without the violence there
00:27:02
would not have been attention drawn to
00:27:04
their cause the suffragettes are the
00:27:07
only protest movement in the history of
00:27:09
Great Britain that actually succeeded by
00:27:13
violence the struggle to win the vote
00:27:16
has had a lasting impact on the
00:27:18
descendants of
00:27:20
suffragettes how did you feel about it
00:27:22
immensely proud immensely proud yeah
00:27:26
once you're 18 you can go along and you
00:27:28
can vote then every single time I have
00:27:30
the um the power to vote I do great even
00:27:34
if I'm abroad I make sure I've got a
00:27:36
postal vote it's just one of those
00:27:38
fundamental things that I've done ever
00:27:41
since the kind of legacy of Annie Kenny
00:27:44
is passed through the family I think she
00:27:45
gave us a kind of I wouldn't say
00:27:47
militant view of the world but
00:27:49
definitely a very feminist um view of
00:27:53
the world and I think that was
00:27:54
definitely passed down through the
00:27:55
female line I am extreme
00:27:58
proud that this is in the family and it
00:28:01
does make me angry when people
00:28:04
particularly women can't be bothered
00:28:08
voting because there's still parts of
00:28:10
the world where the women don't have the
00:28:14
vote and it was fought for and people
00:28:18
suffered to get
00:28:20
this even in Britain women still don't
00:28:23
have full equality but the objects and
00:28:26
locations I've seen are a testimony to
00:28:29
the bitter struggle that underpins our
00:28:37
democracy if you have an object which
00:28:40
shows what the people and places of the
00:28:42
UK have given the world then you can add
00:28:45
it to our digital
