| Main Performers | Hilaire Belloc,
J J Bisgood (Edinburgh Life Assurance Company),
Miss Eva Gore Booth,
Miss Roper,
Mrs Olive MacKirdy,
Miss Neal
Lady Desart (Chair) - speakers |
| Performance Notes | After the Budget of 1909 David Lloyd George did not rest and in 1911 he brought his National Insurance Bill before the House. It was a measure intended to establish compulsory health and unemployment insurance schemes. It attracted much opposition from those with vested interests, from some on the left, and especially from the right. One aspect of the protest was an anti-stamp licking campaign which reached its climax with a Mistresses and Maids rally at the Albert Hall. After shouting "We won't pay!" and "Taffy is a Welshman, Taffy is a thief!", the rally culminated in a speech by Lady Desart where she attacked Lloyd George violently and finished with her rallying cry, "England ... never did nor never shall lie at the proud foot of a conqueror." The measure was passed and became law and was implemented in the following years.
"It has been decided to hold a mass meeting of women at the Albert Hall to protest against the clauses of the Insurance Bill which affect domestic servants, on the grounds that while the benefit to servants is a matter of grave doubt, it is certain that, as framed, these clauses are vexatious and unsatisfactory to them and also to their employers - the majority of whom are women- and especially to small householders and those employing occasional help. A committee has been formed to organize the meeting, which will be held at the earliest date possible. Women of all views and parties have united for this purpose, those forming the committee being Ellen Countess of Desart, the Dowager Lady Arran, Lady Brassey, Lady Tweedy, the Hon Mrs Charles Elliot, Mrs Anstruther, Miss Eva Gore Booth, Miss Meresia Nevill and Mrs Spring Rice...
Miss Eva Gore-Booth and Miss Roper of the Women's Trade and Labour Council withdrew from the meeting at the last minute after Mr Lloyd George made concessions, "which relaxed the iron rigidity of the Bill and introduced the element of choice on the worker's side as to what kind of benefit he or she had to receive, they decided that the servant's cause, together with that of other workers, would be better served by the addition of certain other amendments than by the demand of their exclusion from the Bill."
(The Times, 30 November 1911)
Seated on the platform were Mrs James Gow, Mr Gibson Bowles, Lord Claude Hamilton, Mrs Humphrey Ward, Lady Murial Gore-Browne, Major Watkins (Manchester Unity of Oddfellows), Lady Portsmouth, Lady Coventry and Lady Stanley.
"One of the most amazing meetings ever held in London was that which filled every seat in the Albert Hall last night. Indeed, had the hall been as large again as it is, it could still have been crammed to its utmost extent with the crowds of women who failed to gain admission. It was a gathering, as everyone is aware, of women, organised by women, and designed to protest against the servant clauses of the Insurance Bill. Both mistresses and maids were there together, actuated by a single object, and united in a common anatgonism, and, though there were a number of men on the platform, and one of two of the speakers were men, it was essentially a women's gathering.
...Last night's gathering was not thought of a fortnight ago; yet once the movement was started it wa staken up with enthusiasm in all the great provincial towns, and the arrangements proceeded swiftly and smoothly."
(The Daily Telegraph, 30 November 1911) |