| Main Performers | Mrs Pethick Lawrence (Chair),
Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst,
Miss Christabel Pankhurst,
Miss Annie Kenny,
Mary Gawthorpe - speakers |
| Secondary Performers | Recipients of the Holloway brooch:
Dora Beedham;
Sarah Benett;
Violet Ann Bland;
Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton;
Mabel Capper;
Joan Cather;
Leonora Cohen;
Louie (Louisa) Cullen;
Emily Davison;
Kate Williams Evans;
Theresa Garnett;
Clara Giveen;
Katie Edith Gliddon;
Laura Geraldine Lennox;
Anna Lewis;
Selina Martin;
Edith Bessie New;
Annie Seymour Pearson;
Pleasance Pendred;
Grace Roe;
Amy Sanderson;
Janie Terrero;
Minnie Turner;
Julia Varley |
| Performance Notes | This meeting was designed as a special presentation to ex-prisoners of the WSPU. Prison dress had been specially commissioned for the occasion and a special presentation 'Holloway' brooch had been designed to present for the first time to ex-prisoners at the meeting, which is shown below. The brooch comprised a portcullis symbol of the House of Commons, with the gate and hanging chains in silver and the superimposed broad arrow in purple, white and green. Mrs Pethick Lawrence, the Treasurer of the WSPU, had been released from prison on 16 April, 1909. Speakers were Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst, Annie Kenney and Mrs Pethick Lawrence.
The 'Holloway' or Portcullis brooch was designed by Sylvia Pankhurst. All the members of the WSPU were presented with the 'Victoria Cross ' of the union, along with an illuminated address, also designed by Sylvia Pankhurst, to commemorate 'their bravery and sacrifice'. The illuminated address was first presented to five women released in September 1908. The brooch, whose design was adapted from the portcullis symbol of the House of Commons, featured a prison gate on which was superimposed an enameled 'prisoners arrow on purple, green and white. The Albert Hall gathering was designed to coincide with a meeting in London of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and to draw world attention to the struggles of suffrage prisoners.
Sylvia Pankhurst, one of Emmeline's three daughters, trained at the Royal College of Art from 1904-1906. f rom 1903, her artistic ability was channeled towards the suffragette movement. Her designs appeared on badges, banners and other propaganda material and gave the suffragette movement its visual identity. Imprisoned in Holloway in 1907 for suffragette militancy, Sylvia was shocked by the conditions endured by women prisoners. On her release, she exposed the realities of prison life in the press.
'The long lines of ex-prisoners, women clad in white and carrying flags of purple, white and green, filed on to the platform to the sound of the organ. Mrs Pethick Lawrence was in the chair, and the other speakers were Mrs Pankhurst, Miss Pankhurst, Miss Kenney, and Miss Gawthrope.
The first thing that Mrs Lawrence did was to call for three cries of shame " upon the Government for imprisoning and these were heartily given. When the speeches were made had been made by the Chairman and by Mrs Pankhurst, the ceremony of presenting each ex-prisoner with a commemorative badge was gone through, the women filing by to the sound of the organ, and the speakers being the last to receive a badge. The women were of all classes and ages, and one who wore a nurses uniform was especially cheered.
To Miss Pankhurst fell most of the justifcation of militant methods, and she hurled defiance at the Goverment in no measured terms. An appeal for money raised over £800, the names of the donors including Mrs Garrett Anderson, the Princess Dhuleep Singh, Miss Flora MacDonald, and Mrs Walter Bird. A pretty feature of Miss Gawthorpe's short but stirring speech was her reference to the veteran lady Mrs Wolstenhouse Elmy, who was seated in the arean and who rose to bow acknowledgment in the cheers that greeted her.' (The Common Cause, 6 May 1909) |
| Related Archival Material | Presscutting (Advertisement - Adelphi Theatre Programme) |
| Ticket Prices | 5s, 2s, 1s, 6d (Men were allowed to sit in the 5s seats) |