91 Facts About Emmeline Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote.

Emmeline Pankhurst was widely criticised for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.

Emmeline Pankhurst founded and became involved with the Women's Franchise League, which advocated suffrage for both married and unmarried women.

In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union, an all-women suffrage advocacy organisation dedicated to "deeds, not words".

Emmeline Pankhurst organised and led a massive procession called the Women's Right to Serve demonstration to illustrate women's contribution to the war effort.

Emmeline Pankhurst transformed the WSPU machinery into the Women's Party, which was dedicated to promoting women's equality in public life.

Emmeline Pankhurst was selected as the Conservative candidate for Whitechapel and St Georges in 1927.

Emmeline Pankhurst died on 14 June 1928, only weeks before the Conservative government's Representation of the People Act 1928 extended the vote to all women over 21 years of age on 2 July 1928.

Emmeline Pankhurst was commemorated two years later with a statue in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Houses of Parliament.

Emmeline Pankhurst Goulden was born on Sloan Street in the Moss Side district of Manchester on 15 July 1858.

The Gouldens' first son died at the age of three, but they had 10 other children; Emmeline Pankhurst was the eldest of five daughters.

Emmeline Pankhurst was active in local politics, serving for several years on the Salford town council.

Emmeline Pankhurst was an enthusiastic supporter of dramatic organisations including the Manchester Athenaeum and the Dramatic Reading Society.

Emmeline Pankhurst owned a theatre in Salford for several years, where he played the leads in several Shakespeare plays.

Emmeline Pankhurst began to read books when she was very young, with one source claiming that she was reading as early as the age of three.

Emmeline Pankhurst read the Odyssey at the age of nine and enjoyed the works of John Bunyan, especially his 1678 story The Pilgrim's Progress.

Emmeline Pankhurst's mother received and read the Women's Suffrage Journal, and Goulden grew fond of its editor Lydia Becker.

Emmeline Pankhurst's roommate was Noemie, the daughter of Victor Henri Rochefort, who had been imprisoned in New Caledonia for his support of the Paris Commune.

Emmeline Pankhurst suggested to Richard that they avoid the legal formalities of marriage by entering into a free union; he objected on the grounds that she would be excluded from political life as an unmarried woman.

Emmeline Pankhurst noted that his colleague Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy had faced social condemnation before she formalised her marriage to Ben Elmy.

Emmeline Pankhurst Goulden agreed, and they had their wedding in St Luke's Church, Pendleton on 18 December 1879.

Emmeline Pankhurst gave birth to another daughter, Estelle Sylvia, in 1882, and their son Henry Francis Robert, nicknamed Frank, in 1884.

Emmeline Pankhurst began expressing more radical socialist views and argued a case in court against several wealthy businessmen.

Overwhelmed with grief, Emmeline Pankhurst commissioned two portraits of the dead boy but was unable to look at them and hid them in a bedroom cupboard.

Emmeline Pankhurst blamed the poor conditions of the neighbourhood, and the family moved to a more affluent middle class district at Russell Square.

Emmeline Pankhurst was pregnant once more and declared that the child was "Frank coming again".

Emmeline Pankhurst gave birth to a son on 7 July 1889 and named him Henry Francis in honour of his deceased brother.

Emmeline Pankhurst aligned herself with the "new rules" group, which became known as the Parliament Street Society.

Emmeline Pankhurst began to work with several political organisations, distinguishing herself for the first time as an activist in her own right and gaining respect in the community.

Emmeline Pankhurst quickly grew disenchanted with the group's moderate positions especially its unwillingness to support Irish Home Rule and the aristocratic leadership of Archibald Primrose.

In 1888 Emmeline Pankhurst had met and befriended Keir Hardie, a socialist from Scotland.

Emmeline Pankhurst was elected to parliament in 1891 and two years later helped to create the Independent Labour Party.

Excited about the range of issues which the ILP pledged to confront, Emmeline Pankhurst resigned from the WFL and applied to join the ILP.

One of her first activities with the ILP found Emmeline Pankhurst distributing food to poor men and women through the Committee for the Relief of the Unemployed.

Emmeline Pankhurst was appalled by the conditions she witnessed first-hand in the Manchester workhouse:.

Emmeline Pankhurst immediately began to change these conditions, and established herself as a successful voice of reform on the Board of Guardians.

Emmeline Pankhurst's chief opponent was a passionate man named Mainwaring, known for his rudeness.

Emmeline Pankhurst had developed a gastric ulcer, and his health deteriorated in 1897.

Emmeline Pankhurst soon felt well again, and the family returned to Manchester in the autumn.

Emmeline Pankhurst had taken their oldest daughter Christabel to Corsier, Switzerland, to visit her old friend Noemie.

Emmeline Pankhurst moved the family to a smaller house at 62 Nelson Street, resigned from the Board of Guardians, and was given a paid position as Registrar of Births and Deaths in Chorlton.

The individual identities of the Emmeline Pankhurst children began to emerge around the time of their father's death.

Emmeline Pankhurst soon became involved with the suffrage movement and joined her mother at speaking events.

Emmeline Pankhurst went on to study art in Florence and Venice.

Emmeline Pankhurst doubted that political parties, with their many agenda items, would ever make women's suffrage a priority.

Emmeline Pankhurst even broke with the ILP when it refused to focus on Votes for Women.

Emmeline Pankhurst was charged with obstruction and sentenced to six weeks in prison.

Emmeline Pankhurst spoke out against the conditions of her confinement, including vermin, meagre food, and the "civilised torture of solitary confinement and absolute silence" to which she and others were ordered.

Emmeline Pankhurst saw imprisonment as a means to publicise the urgency of women's suffrage; in June 1909 she struck a police officer twice in the face to ensure she would be arrested.

Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested seven times before women's suffrage was approved.

The men threw clay, rotten eggs, and stones packed in snow; the women were beaten and Emmeline Pankhurst's ankle was severely bruised.

Emmeline Pankhurst insisted that a small committee chosen by the members in attendance be allowed to co-ordinate WSPU activities.

Emmeline Pankhurst stayed with friends and in hotels, carrying her few possessions in suitcases.

In 1909, as Emmeline Pankhurst planned a speaking tour of the United States, Henry was paralyzed after his spinal cord became inflamed.

Emmeline Pankhurst hesitated to leave the country while he was ill, but she needed money to pay for his treatment and the tour promised to be lucrative.

In March 1912, the second bill was in jeopardy and Emmeline Pankhurst joined a fresh outbreak of window-smashing.

Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence were tried at the Old Bailey and convicted of conspiracy to commit property damage.

Emmeline Pankhurst fled to Paris, where she directed WSPU strategy in exile.

Inside Holloway Prison, Emmeline Pankhurst staged her first hunger strike to improve conditions for other suffragettes in nearby cells; she was quickly joined by Pethick-Lawrence and other WSPU members.

Emmeline Pankhurst tried to evade police harassment by wearing disguises and eventually the WSPU established a jujutsu-trained female bodyguard squad to physically protect her against the police.

Emmeline Pankhurst's funeral drew 55,000 attendees along the streets and at the funeral.

Emmeline Pankhurst disapproved of WSPU endorsement of property destruction and felt that a heavier emphasis on socialism was necessary.

The deepest rift in the Emmeline Pankhurst family came in November 1913 when Sylvia spoke at a meeting of socialists and trade unionists in support of trade union organiser Jim Larkin.

Emmeline Pankhurst had been working with the East London Federation of Suffragettes, a local branch of the WSPU which had a close relationship with socialists and organised labour.

Emmeline Pankhurst tried to persuade the ELFS to remove the word "suffragettes" from its name, since it was inextricably linked to the WSPU.

Emmeline Pankhurst decided that Adela should move to Australia, and paid for her relocation.

Emmeline Pankhurst lobbied Prime Minister David Lloyd George to ensure Christabel would have coalition backing.

However, as these discussions were taking place the Emmeline Pankhurst's switched their attention to Smethwick in Staffordshire.

Emmeline Pankhurst tried to shame men in to volunteering for the front lines.

Emmeline Pankhurst put the same energy and determination she had previously applied to women's suffrage into patriotic advocacy of the war effort.

Emmeline Pankhurst organised rallies, toured constantly delivering speeches, and lobbied the government to help women enter the work force while men were overseas fighting.

Emmeline Pankhurst established an adoption home at Campden Hill designed to employ the Montessori method of childhood education.

Emmeline Pankhurst herself adopted four children, whom she renamed Kathleen King, Flora Mary Gordon, Joan Pembridge and Elizabeth Tudor.

Emmeline Pankhurst visited North America in 1916 together with the former Secretary of State for Serbia, Cedomilj Mijatovic, whose nation had been at the centre of fighting at the start of the war.

Emmeline Pankhurst spoke about her fears of communist insurgency, which she considered a grave threat to Russian democracy.

Emmeline Pankhurst's translated autobiography had been read widely in Russia, and she saw an opportunity to put pressure on the Russian people.

Emmeline Pankhurst hoped to convince them not to accept Germany's conditions for peace, which she saw as a potential defeat for Britain and Russia.

Emmeline Pankhurst concluded by telling her that English women had nothing to teach women in Russia.

When she returned from Russia, Emmeline Pankhurst was delighted to find that women's right to vote was finally on its way to becoming a reality.

Emmeline Pankhurst maintained a focus on women's empowerment, but her days of fighting with government officialdom were over.

Emmeline Pankhurst became active in political campaigning again when a bill was passed allowing women to run for the House of Commons.

Many Women's Party members urged Emmeline Pankhurst to stand for election, but she insisted that Christabel was a better choice.

Emmeline Pankhurst campaigned tirelessly for her daughter, lobbying Prime Minister Lloyd George for his support and at one point delivering a passionate speech in the rain.

Back in London Emmeline Pankhurst was visited by Sylvia, who had not seen her mother in years.

In 1926 Emmeline Pankhurst joined the Conservative Party and two years later ran as a candidate for Parliament in Whitechapel and St George's.

Emmeline Pankhurst had named the child Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst, in memory of her father, her ILP comrade, and her colleagues from the WSPU respectively.

Emmeline Pankhurst requested that she be treated by the doctor who attended to her during her hunger strikes.

On Thursday, 14 June 1928, Emmeline Pankhurst died at the age of 69.

News of Emmeline Pankhurst's death was announced around the country, and extensively in North America.

Recent biographies show that historians differ about whether Emmeline Pankhurst's militancy helped or hurt the movement; however, there is general agreement that the WSPU raised public awareness of the movement in ways that proved essential.

In 2002, Emmeline Pankhurst was placed at number 27 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.