THIS
IS THE PART ABOUT THE HISTORY OF GEORGE; NELLIE AND THE WHOLE
FAMILY AND MY RECOLLECTIONS AND THE STORIES I WAS TOLD
My
grandmother was on a teenager and so she wasn't allowed by her
parents to be actively involved in the sense of going on marches
or to meetings however she would sit at home in the house in Poplar
and sew. My grandmother was talented when it came to knitting,
crochet and sewing and she would help sew the banners with Auntie
Rosie and Auntie Violet. (I went with a friend to Tate Britain,
some twenty minutes walk from where I live near Vauxhall at the
end of last year. I walked around the gallery and suddenly entered
a room devoted to Sylvia Pankhurst and the suffragette movement.
Memories came flooding back especially when I looked up at the
wall and saw a banner hanging. I wonder if my grandmother and
her sisters had something to do with that one, especially when,
on closer examination, I saw the fine embroidery which was so
much a part of my grandmothers handiwork).
The
brothers were heavily involved in politics and would often meet
at the family home with arguments and challenges which my grandmother
recalled and a smile on her face.
Auntie
Nellie and Uncle George - Uncle George was the agent for George
Landsbury for over thirty years and was a leading labour councillor
along with his wife, Nellie. He was Major of Poplar in his own
right and then in 1943 Nellie was voted as Major in her own right.
Brief
History.
Arson
attacks
By
1911, the UK had witnessed the first act of suffragette arson
(orchestrated by Christabel) and two years later Emily Davison
died at the Derby as she rushed out to bring down the King's horse.
In
Parliament, pressure for change was led by some liberal MPs, who
were the leading figures in a suffrage committee.
But
away from the reasoned debate of Westminster, prisons filled with
women prepared to go to jail for the right to vote. The civil
disobedience continued behind bars, with many women force-fed
to prevent them hunger striking. While the authorities tried to
present them as insane, their families campaigned for the inmates
to be given political status, including the right to wear their
own clothes, study and prepare their own food.
War
effort. World War I proved to be the turning point for the campaign.
The
suffragettes effectively put on hold their campaign of civil direct
action in the interests of national unity. As men went to the
Western Front, women proved how indispensable they were in the
fields and armaments factories.
Leaders
taken into custody Many arrests were made By 1918, no government
could resist and the Representation of the Peoples Act allowed
women over 30 the right to vote. It would take a further 10 years
to abolish the age qualification and put men and women on an equal
footing.
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