24 Facts About Hannah Mitchell

Hannah Mitchell was an English suffragette and socialist.

Hannah Mitchell worked for many years in organisations related to socialism, women's suffrage and pacifism.

Hannah Mitchell Webster was born on 11 February 1872 to Benjamin and Ann Webster in a farmhouse named after and just below Alport Castles in Hope Woodlands, in the Derbyshire Peak District.

Hannah Mitchell's mother had a temper especially with her last three children, Hannah, Sarah and Benjamin.

Hannah Mitchell stayed at home performing domestic duties with her mother, with whom she did not get on.

Hannah Mitchell was expected to look after her father and brothers, which she resented.

Early on Hannah Mitchell became acutely aware of gender inequality in the domestic sphere.

Hannah Mitchell observed the seemingly inevitable early marriages of girls around her to "farm lads", to avoid having children out of wedlock, and was keen to avoid the same fate.

Hannah Mitchell later said in her autobiography that her mother was a bad-tempered and violent woman who sometimes made her children sleep in the barn.

In Bolton, Hannah Mitchell started improving her education, originally hoping to become a teacher.

Hannah Mitchell was particularly influenced by Robert Blatchford's newspaper The Clarion.

Hannah Mitchell continued to work as a seamstress to supplement Gibbon's meagre earnings, and found the rest of her time taken up with household chores.

Hannah Mitchell herself began to speak publicly at meetings of the Independent Labour Party.

Hannah Mitchell was appointed by the party as Poor Law Guardian for their town in 1904.

Hannah Mitchell then joined, and worked as a part-time organiser for, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union.

Hannah Mitchell toured the country including the working class villages in Colne Valley making speeches, herself, and 'had no difficulty' including 'dealing with hecklers' as she campaigned for women's suffrage at by-elections.

In 1905, Hannah Mitchell joined Emmeline Pankhurst, Annie Kenney, Keir Hardie, Theresa Billington and Mrs Elmy at the prison gates when Christabel Pankhurst was released after a week of imprisonment for the first assault in the cause, spitting at a policeman.

Hannah Mitchell was again with the 150 women who tried in October 1905, to enter the House of Commons, and only 20 were allowed in, including Mitchell.

Hannah Mitchell was then campaigning in Huddersfield by-election where 'Yorkshire women heard the call and followed us in hundreds'.

Hannah Mitchell was involved with the Liverpool branch started up by Alice Morrissey.

In 1907 Hannah Mitchell suffered a nervous breakdown which her doctor put down to overwork and malnourishment.

Hannah Mitchell became a magistrate in 1926, and served in that capacity for the next 20 years.

On 9 May 1939, Hannah Mitchell helped to organise a meeting of 40 ex-suffragettes in Manchester.

Hannah Mitchell died on 22 October 1956 at home in Manchester.