| Main Performers | Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst,
Mrs Pethick-Lawrence (Chair),
Mary Leigh,
Christabel Pankhurst - speakers |
| Set List | Organ Recital (Mrs Mary Layton),
Resolution and Speeches (Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, Mrs Pethick-Lawrence (Chair), Mary Leigh, Christabel Pankhurst),
INTERVAL - Collection and Organ Recital (Mrs Mary Layton),
Presentation by Emmeline Pankhurst of the Medal of Valour to women who in her absence in America had suffered imprisonment, carried through the Hunger Strike and as a consequence endured the "terrible ordeal of Feeding by Force"
Miss Laura Ainsworth *
Mrs Helen Archdale,
Miss Kathleen Brown *,
Miss Mabel Capper *
Mrs Corbett,
Miss Emily Wilding Davison *,
Lady Constance Lytton,
Miss E Gordon Liddle *,
Miss Mary Edwards *,
Miss Kitty Marion *,
Miss Ellen Pitfield *,
Miss Dorothy Pethick *,
Miss Dorothy Shallard *,
Miss Jessie Lawes *,
Miss Brown *,
Miss Paul *,
Miss Patricia Woodlock *,
Miss Leslie Hall *,
Miss Ellen Barnwell *,
Miss Hilda Burkitt *,
Miss Lily Asquith *,
Miss Hannah Shepherd *,
Miss Catherine Tolson *,
Miss Violet Bryant *,
Miss Rona Robinson,
Mrs Brailsford,
Miss C B Evans *,
Mrs Mary Leigh *,
Miss Ellen Pitman,
Miss Adela Pankhurst,
Miss Vera Wentworth *,
Miss Mary Allen *,
Miss Garnett **,
Miss C Marsh **,
Mrs Massey **,
Miss Catherine Worthington **,
Mrs Hesmondhalgh **
*The names of those who were fed by Force are starred; the others were released as the result of their Hunger Strike.
** Those still in prison are denoted by a double asterisk. |
| Performance Notes | This meeting was held to welcome Emmeline Pankhurst back from her lecture tour around America. A banner hung above the Hall's organ behind the stage with the words, 'No Surrender'. Mrs Pankhurst distributed medals to suffragette hunger strikers who had been force-fed and spoke alongside her daughter Christabel. The meeting also included a surprise appearance by Mary Leigh who had just been released from Winson Green Prison having been one of the first hunger-striking prisoners to be fed by force. The meeting raised £2000 for the WSPU which would go towards funding their 1910 general election campaign.
The resolution was 'That the action of the Liberal Government is refusing to women the right of voting for the representatives who decide the taxes which women have to pay is a breach of the Constitution.'
"The National Women's Social and Political Union held a demonstration last night at the Albert Hall at which Mrs Pankhurst received from a large audience an enthusiastic welcome on her return from America. Above the organ were the words, 'No surrender.'
'Miss Christabel Pankhurst, who was received with cheers, outlined the policy of the union in the forthcoming general election. She said they refused to take the personal pledges of private members seriously, because they knew how powerless they were to carry those pledges into effect. They looked to the leaders, and to the leaders alone for pledges. The members of the House were not only powerless, but faithless. Although pledged to the women's cause, the members of the House had allowed the Government to block the Women's Enfranchisement Bill and to inflict measures of cruel coercion. The policy of the Union would be to fight against the Liberal Government. (Cheers) Mr Asquith was the man in possession (hisses), and it was upon him that the responsibility rested of telling the country whether, if he were retained in office, he intended to give votes to women. He was unfit to remain in an office which he had persistently, painfully and shamelessly degraded. He was a wrecker of the constitution and the enemy of Popular liberty, because he denied to women who possessed qualifications entitling women to vote the right to decide how they should govern and what taxes they should pay. During his term of office 430 women had been imprisoned for demanding the vote, and had heaped upon them humiliation and degredation which was meant for common criminals. They were against the Government because they loathed the hypocrisy of a body which, after four years of unconstitutional mismanagement, had the impudence to claim to be uploaders of the Constitution."
(The Times, 10 December 1909)
Following the meeting several Suffragettes hid themselves around the Royal Albert Hall in the hope of remaining in the building overnight and into the next day so that they could interrupt the Liberal Party Meeting attended by Prime Minister Asquith which was being held. Due to previous disruptions by the Suffragettes, the Liberal Party meeting was highly guarded by both police and Liberal Party stewards and was strictly for men only.
"SUFFRAGISTS IN HIDING.
EJECTED FROM ALBERT HALL.
Another instance of woman's persistency was afforded yesterday in connection with the Liberal meeting in Albert Hall addressed by Mr Asquith. On Thursday night the Women's Social and Political Union [WSPU] met there to welcome Mrs Pankhurst on her return from America. It would appear that six at least of the Suffragists in attendance on that occassion bestowed themselves in varius dark corners and hiding-places in order to present at the Liberal demonstration and to interrupt proceedings by raising their particular war cries. However, after the women's meeting had terminated, and Mrs Pankhurst and her friends had gone away, the firemen and other custodians of the hall, on making their rounds to see that all was clear and safe, found them all. Two were brought out from behind pillars and curtains, and two others from near the organ, one having screened herself behind the pipes. Another was discovered near a trap-door in a slumber-room, and finally, towards morning, the sixth was found, owing to the sagacity of the watchman's dog, artfully ensconced behind a curtain.
In acordance with instructions, all the captured women were permitted to leave, no charge being preferred by the attendants. During the course of yesterday forenoon and afternoon a very careful and complete search was made from roof to basement of the hall, but evidently there were no more Suffragists in hiding.
The Liberal organisers charged with the preservation of order were early in attendance at the Albert Hall yesterday afternoon. Before four o'clock over 100 stewards had arrived and been "told off" to their respective posts. Later on others - in all about 400 - presented themselves, and, under Mr Rattey, or the Liberal Offices, Parliament-street, were assigned to their stations, and received their instructions. Until the specified hour no one except those in authority was permitted to enter the hall."
(The Daily Telegraph, 11 December 1909)
"At the Royal Albert Hall in 1908, walking behind Constance Lytton in a procession of all those who had fought against the government that year, Kitty felt an overwhelming sense of pride:
'It was a glorious reunion and a great triumph, honour and provilege to walk in that file of splendid fighters for Women's Emancipation, fromt he boxes at the back of that great crowded hall, down the centre aisle, onto the platform, to meet Mrs Pankhurst who made the presentations, to the cheers of that enthusiastic throng, while the organ pealed forth the 'Women's Marseillaise', 'To Freedom's Cause till death, we swear our fealty.'"
('Death in Ten Minutes: The Forgotten Life of Radical Suffragette Kitty Marion', Fern Riddel, 2018, page 138)
(Additional handbills held at the Museum of London ID No. NN23731, NN23732) |
| Related Archival Material | Handbill (RAHE/6/1909/1) |
| Ticket Prices | 3/- (stalls), 2/6 (arena), 1/- (balcony and orchestra), 6d (upper orchestra) |