DEFENDING MRS PANKHURST: THE BODYGUARD

By Lesley Griffiths, Member of Canterbury U3a

2nd September 2018

783 words

The Cat & Mouse Act1 in 1913 established what was to be, in effect, a revolving door policy: who went on hunger strike in prison could be released temporarily for a few days to recover their health, after which they would be re-arrested to finish their sentences in full. Given the determination of women like , who adopted both hunger and thirst strike when in jail, it was inevitable some could find themselves in and out of prison time after time. The response of the WSPU2 – the formation of a Bodyguard of women to protect Mrs Pankhurst from arrest. Thereafter WSPU leaders did their utmost to stay at large once released, attracting considerable publicity as they addressed packed audiences of supporters whilst on the run.

Gertrude Harding, the Bodyguard’s organiser, made a careful selection of about 30 volunteers3, ensuring they were “trustworthy, in good physical shape, and to be ready at a moment’s notice to do battle with the police in defence of Mrs Pankhurst”. For some time martial arts instructor, Edith Garrud, had been offering suffragettes self-defence classes in ju-jitsu and, with the escalation of police violence, these were becoming increasing popular. Edith was the obvious choice to train the Bodyguard in secret. They were drilled as a military unit, required to report regularly for her classes, and supplied with Indian clubs as defensive weapons. Gertrude recounts4 how after training session police officers followed each , hoping to establish their addresses.

One of the few descriptions of the type of women who joined the Bodyguard is given by Gladys Schütze5 who met them in 1914 when providing shelter to Mrs Pankhurst: 2 shop assistants, 2 teachers, a dressmaker, a mill worker, a children’s nurse, 3 servants, a society lady, 2 clerks, and the rest being middle-class women of no occupation, they seem not to have been the “Amazons” that they had been dubbed by the Press.

Gladys Griffiths6 (nėe Dewar), describes her mother’s role. Ellen Dewar7, 44 in 1913, lived at 16 Spring Street, Paddington, London, with husband, Fred8, and children, Gladys,16, and Madge, 8. Ellen had duties as a decoy, helping leading , Norah Dacre Fox, to evade arrest. With Fred’s encouragement she also participated in theatre protests and, together with the teenage Gladys, church protests and processions.

Hating violence, nevertheless Ellen was thrilled to be invited to join the Bodyguard, aware of all that might be required. Her identity and address must have become known to the police because Gladys

1 The Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act 1913, and nicknamed the Cat & Mouse Act by the analogy of a cat (the police officer) hunting its prey (the suffragette) 2 Women’s Social & Political Union 3 Gretchen Wilson “With All Her Might, The Life of Gertrude Harding: Militant Suffragette” p131 4 Gretchen Wilson ibid. p131 5 Henriette Leslie (Gladys Schütze) “More Ha’pence than Kicks: Being Some Things Remembered”, p103-104 referred to and quoted by Diane Atkinson in “The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes” p461 6 Gladys Griffiths (nėe Dewar) unpublished manuscript “Life With Mother: A Militant Suffragette” 7 Ellen Eliza Dewar (nėe Pacey) 1869 - 1939 8 Frederick George Dewar 1868 – 1937

1 recalls that officers were sometimes stationed outside the premises, and that they were raided on two occasions. Ellen often delighted in buying skewers of cat meat and ostentatiously presenting them to the so-called “cats” keeping watch, much to the amusement of passers-by.

Contemporary accounts provide a colourful description of the Bodyguard’s activities. For example, a meeting at St Andrews Hall in Glasgow in February 1914 resulted in mayhem. Shortly after Mrs Pankhurst, a much wanted “mouse”, rose to speak, police officers rushed in from all sides, drawing their truncheons and “met by a fusillade of flower-pots, tables, chairs and other missiles.”9 Attempting to climb onto the platform they discovered that it was protected by barbed wire cleverly concealed by garlands. “The bodyguard and members of the audience vigorously repelled the attack, wielding clubs, batons, poles, planks, or anything they could seize, while the police laid about right and left with their batons, their violence being far the greater.”10 At one point a woman fired a revolver loaded with blanks to keep the police away. Despite the Bodyguard’s protection Mrs Pankhurst was roughly seized by officers and dragged outside to be thrown on the floor of a waiting vehicle enroute for prison.

One cannot overestimate the courage and strength it must have taken for these Edwardian women to challenge the views of the day and to behave in a manner that was probably as foreign to them as it was to their critics in pursuit of their desire for the vote.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Diane Atkinson “Rise Up Women! The Remarkable Lives of The Suffragettes” (Bloomsbury 2018)

Gladys Griffiths “Life With Mother: A Militant Suffragette” (Unpublished manuscript date c 1972 G.N.O. Griffiths family papers)

Midge Mackenzie “” (Penguin Books Ltd 1975)

Susan McPherson and Angela McPherson “Mosley’s Old Suffragette: A Biography of Norah Dacre Fox” (McPherson and McPherson 2011)

Emmeline Pankhurst “My Own Story” (Vintage 2015 though first published by Eveleigh Nash 1914)

Christabel Pankhurst “Unshackled” (Hutchinson & Co (Publishers) Ltd 1959)

Antonia Raeburn “The Militant Suffragettes” (Michael Joseph Ltd 1973)

Jane Robinson “Hearts and Minds: The Untold Story of The Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote” (Doubleday 2018)

Gretchen Wilson “With All Her Might: The Life of Gertrude Harding Militant Suffragette” (Goose Lane Editions 1996

9 Emmeline Pankhurst “My Own Story” p307 10 Emmeline Pankhurst ibid. p307

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