| Main Performers | Mrs Mabel Tuke (Chair),
Mr Tim Healy KC MP,
Miss Annie Kenny,
Mrs Mansell-Moulin,
Miss Elizabeth Robins - speakers |
| Set List | 19:30-20:00 Organ Recital (Mrs Mary Layton),
20:00 Procession,
Resolution (Mrs Mabel Tuke),
Speakers (Mr Healy KC MP, Annie Kenny, Mrs Mansell-Moulin, Miss Elizabeth Robins) |
| Performance Notes | "Mrs Tuke opened the proceedings by reading the resolution as follows:
'That this meeting calls upon the Government to set at liberty the 78 Suffragist prisoners who have already suffered heavy punishment for acts which according to a jury of their countrymen were prompted by pure motives.
The meeting further demands that pending their release these prisoners of conscience shall all be placed in the first division, and given every privilege due to them as political offenders.'
Further:- This meeting indignantly condemns the proposal of the Government to extend the parliamentary franchise for the benefit of men only.
The meeting regards the Government's suggestion that women shall depend for enfranchisement upon a private members amendment as insulting and dishonest.
'And finally, the meeting demands that the Government shall abandon the Manhood Suffrage Bill and shall in its stead introduce on Monday next a measure giving equal voting rights to men and women."
(Votes for Women, 14 June 1912)
"HUNGER STRIKE
Suffragists Threat if Prisoners are not Transferred.
A great demonstration of Suffragists was held uder the auspices of the Women's Social and Political Union, in the Albert Hall, on Saturday night. The huge building was crowded, and great enthusiasm prevailed during the proceedings...
The subscription announced frmo the platform amounted to upwards of £6,000, one "sympathiser with the cause" sending £500, prisoners in Holloway promising £340 when they were released, and contributions of £200, £100, and £50 being quite numerous."
(Dail Herald, 17 June 1912)
"The hall was decorated with the colours of the Union and banners bearing the names of local branches. A procession numbering upwards of 200 women, each one of whom carried a staff furnished with a silver gauze flag, marched onto the platform to the strains of the 'Marseillaise', rendered on the organ by Mrs Layton. All of the women had been imprisoned. The principal speaker was Mr Healy KC MP, who supported a resolution moved by Miss Annie Kenny, calling upon the Government to set at liberty the 78 suffragist prisoners, now undergoing sentence and demanding that pending their release they should be placed in the first division. They also demanded that the Government abandon the Manhood Suffrage Bill, as it did not include women. If the concession was not granted for prisoners by Wednesday 19 June 1909, then a hunger strike would be entered into."
(The Times, 17 June 1912)
Emmeline Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence were in Holloway Jail at the time of the meeting as was Frederick Pethick Lawrence who had been imprisoned in Brixton Jail.
"At the conclusion of the meeting the collection amounted to £5,929, and a ring, sent by a lady in the audience, to e sold for the funds of the cause.'
(The Daily Telegraph, 17 June 1912) |
| Related Archival Material | Handbills (RAHE/6/1912/1-2) |