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

'Lost' in this instance means moved 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

Laurence Housman

Laurence Housman

Radical playwright, writer, illustrator, socialist, pacifist and founding member of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage. The photo shows Housman in 1914. Brother to A. E. Housman. Studied art an...

Person, Art, Gender Issues, Theatre

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
Priss Fotheringham

Priss Fotheringham

Some details of Priss's sorry life are given at HistoryWeird: Born in Scotland, she was in London by 1656 and had married Edmund Fotheringham.  "In the late 1650s Priss took up residence in a taver...

Person, Gender Issues, Scotland

1 memorial
Sophia Duleep Singh

Sophia Duleep Singh

Princess Sophia Alexandrovna Duleep Singh was a prominent suffragette in the UK. Her father was Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, who had been taken from his kingdom of Punjab to the British Raj, and was ...

Person, Gender Issues, Royalty, India

1 memorial
Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley

American writer who was the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Her name can also be given as Phillis Wheatley Peters or Phyllis or Wheatly. Born in West Africa, she was s...

Person, Gender Issues, Poetry, Race Issues, Africa, USA

1 memorial