Group    From 10/10/1903  To 1917

Women's Social and Political Union

The leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage, founded in 1903, was known from 1906 as the suffragettes. These were the women who set fire to post boxes, broke windows in prominent buildings, chained themselves to the railings, etc.

Founded at the Pankhurst family home in Manchester. The headquarters was relocated to 4 Clement's Inn in 1906. Moved to Lincoln’s Inn House in Kingsway in 1912 - 17.

LSE History gives: "... the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) general office was at 4 Clement’s Inn, and had been since 1906.... In 1912, Emmeline Pankhurst moved the WSPU office to Lincoln’s Inn House on Kingsway and ousted the Pethwick-Lawrence’s. ... Emmeline Pankhurst founded the WSPU in 1903, and she, Christabel Pankhurst and Flora Drummond were famously pictured being arrested from Clement’s Inn in 1908. Clement’s Inn now contains LSE offices..."

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Women's Social and Political Union

Commemorated ati

Suffragettes - WC2 - new building

We first saw this plaque when it was on the building that used to occupy this...

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Suffragettes - WC2 - previous building

Relocated to a different building.

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Votes for Women campaign hommage

The mural was due to be completed in 2018, to mark the centenary of votes for...

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Women's Social and Political Union - prisoners' badge

The sculpture shows a WSPU prisoners' badge. This was designed by Sylvia Pan...

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Other Subjects

Noël Barclay

Noël Barclay

Central President of the Mothers' Union in 1925. We found reference to a publication probably authored by her: Barclay, E. Noel, Marriage and Divorce (1936).

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Isabella Ford

Isabella Ford

Isabella Ormston Ford was a social reformer, suffragist and writer. She became a public speaker and wrote pamphlets on issues related to socialism, feminism and worker's rights. After becoming conc...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial
Norah Lyle-Smyth, Norah Smyth

Norah Lyle-Smyth, Norah Smyth

Painter, sculptor, photographer and suffragette. Born Norah Veronica Lyle-Smyth in Cheshire. She was befriended by Sylvia Pankhurst and accompanied her on a speaking tour around Europe. She finance...

Person, Art, Gender Issues, Photography, Politics & Administration, Sculpture, Ireland

2 memorials
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington

Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington

Irish nationalist and suffragist. Founder of the Irish Women’s Franchise League. Along with her husband Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Margaret Cousins and James Cousins, she founded the Irish Women'...

Person, Gender Issues, Ireland

1 memorial
Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy

Secretary of Married Women’s Property Committee, Secularist and sexual radical, lived in ‘free love’ union with Benjamin John Elmy (1838 - 1906) who worked closely with her on the campaigns. Only w...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial