The Truth Behind the Fiction Of
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The truth behind the fiction of: Lloyd George’s Daughter and the Suffragettes Performed at Haga Församlingshem, 12th Oct. 2018 & Great Glen, Leicester, 27th Dec 2018 Written by John Chaplin, Chairman of the Anglo-Swedish Society, Gothenburg 2018 ANGLO-SWEDISH SOCIETY, LONDON 1918 The Anglo-Swedish Society in London began life in 1918 at the initiative of Sir Henry Penson and the British Ambassador to Sweden, Sir Esmé Howard. The Society set up an office with clubroom and library at 10 Staple Inn, High Holborn (not far from the Tea Cup Inn, where our play starts). Its first patrons were HRH the Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, the Duke of Connaught, HE Count H Wrangel, Sir Esme Howard and Baron E. Palmstierna. Sir Henry Penson explained that the Society had been formed “to promote intellectual intercourse between the peoples of the British Empire and Sweden, assistance in arranging an interchange in educational facilities and the encouragement of reciprocal travel”. In the two years after the establishment of the Anglo-Swedish Society in London, sister organisations were set up in Sweden: the British-Swedish Society in Stockholm in 1919 and the Anglo- Swedish Society in Gothenburg in 1920. During the First World War, Henry Penson was chairman of the War Trade Intelligence Department in the Ministry of Blockade (1916-1919). The Ministry of Blockade restricted commercial shipping to the Central Powers and to the neutral powers such as Sweden, thus putting pressure on Germany and Austria to end the war quickly. The Intelligence Dept. had to study every kind of War Trade problem from all possible sources, questions affecting the policy and operations of the Blockade, and economic resources, conditions and developments in various parts of the world. Sir Esme Howard, who was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty the King of Sweden (1913–19), observed that Sweden learned towards a pro-German neutrality. His time in Stockholm was spent counteracting the pro-German sympathies of the Swedish elite. The Anglo-Swedish Society emerged as an instrument to promote a better understanding between the two countries and to promote the expansion of trade. 1 | P a g e THE CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY MEGAN LLOYD GEORGE The play has as its focus the 16-year-old Megan Lloyd George (1902- 1966), who was the fifth child of David and Margaret Lloyd George. She enjoyed a quite unique childhood at 11 and 10 Downing Street, and accompanied her father to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Widely regarded as her father's natural political heir, she was elected Liberal MP for Anglesey at the age of 27 in May 1929, one year after the lower age limit for women’s suffrage was reduced from 30 to 21 years. Megan attended her first Suffragette meeting at the age of 8 years. Lloyd George walked with her from 11 Downing Street to a rally at Trafalgar Square because ‘she wanted to see the crowds’. At that rally, Christabel Pankhurst incited the crowd to ‘rush’ parliament. She was arrested and charged with inciting violence but in court she claimed that this could not possibly have been a criminal offence because the Chancellor of the Exchequer had himself attended the meeting. She was found guilty and sentenced to prison. Christina Viktoria Rosa Fredrika (Stina) Bildt, was born in 1885. She was not a school friend of Megan’s but she was ‘a relation of Mrs Penson’ studying economics at Oxford. She married Carl Rudolf Eskil Henningsson Ridderstad in 1909. Stina Ridderstad wrote an account of Fredrika Bremer who was a Swedish writer and feminist reformer. There is also a photo of Stina Bildt presenting flowers to speakers at the Swedish rural women’s day celebrations. So, she remained an activist. Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline, was a campaigner for equal rights. She was a member of the WSPU group and an active militant. She was sent to prison on several occasions and went on hunger strike multiple times. She became increasingly active within the socialist movement and was forced out of the WSPU in 1914 by her older sister Christabel, who wanted to maintain a single focus on women’s suffrage. Sylvia felt her and her father’s principles were being ignored and never spoke to her older sister or mother again. In 1913, Sylvia visited Gothenburg at the request of Frigga Carlberg (see below). Sylvia worked in the East End of London and was a peace campaigner; she continued to be so during the war, attending international peace conferences on the continent whenever possible. In 1918, Sylvia was invited to Moscow by Lenin, and could have travelled via Gothenburg. 2 | P a g e Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and one of the main leaders of the British suffrage movement. She 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. Born in Moss Side, Manchester, to politically active parents, Emmeline was introduced at the age of 14 to the women's suffrage movement. She married Richard Pankhurst, a barrister (known as the Red Doctor); they had five children: Christabel, Sylvia, Adela, Henry & Francis. On 10 October 1903 she founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), an organisation open only to women and focused on direct action to win the vote. "Deeds," she wrote, "not words, was to be our permanent motto." She went to prison several times and went on hunger strike. She described her first incarceration as "like a human being in the process of being turned into a wild beast." When the First World War began, Emmeline and Christabel halted all militant suffrage activities and became supporters of the war. Frigga Carlberg from Falkenberg was a social worker and started several children's homes; she was an author and journalist and one of the leading persons in the women’s movement. She founded the Association for Women's Political Voting Rights in Gothenburg as a branch of the Women's Political Voting Right (LKPR), the main organisation for the struggle for women’s suffrage. Frigga Carlberg fought for almost 20 years for women to become politically empowered on the same terms as men. She was one of the most radical activists in the early 20th century debate in Sweden. She also wrote plays and articles. In 1916 one of her most well received plays was: The Prime Minister’s Daughters (Statsministerns döttrar). She invited Sylvia Pankhurst to speak in Gothenburg in 1913. In 1921, Frigga was awarded the ‘Illis Quorum’ a gold medal awarded for outstanding contributions to Swedish culture, science or society. Christabel Pankhurst was known as the ‘Queen of the Mob’ for her militant speeches in favour of direct action to win women’s suffrage. Trained in the law she became the leading figure of the WSPU alongside her mother. Women could enter the legal profession after the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act in 1919. In 1918 Christabel put herself forward for election as a member of the Women’s Party and received a ‘coupon’ from Lloyd George. Despite being a popular figure, she was not elected and did not stand again. A persistent issue in party politics is ‘how should feminists organise politically?’ The same problem is faced today by the Feminist Initiative (F!), a radical feminist political party in Sweden, founded by Gudrun Schyman in 2005. 3 | P a g e David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor From humble origins (a croft-bred man) he became a solicitor and eventually an MP for Wales. English was his second language and a good deal of government business was conducted in Welsh. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908–1915), Lloyd George was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. He was largely responsible for the introduction of state financial support for the sick and infirm (known colloquially as "going on the Lloyd George" for decades afterwards). In 1914 he moved the manufacture of munitions into Government hands, streamlined the production of munitions and allowed women workers to fill the factories. Without his input in 1915, the war would have ended in a victory for Germany. His most important role came as Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government (1916–1922). In 1918 he was considered to be ‘the man who won the war’. Winston Churchill Churchill was opposed to women’s suffrage. His election speeches were regularly disrupted by suffragettes and their support for his opponents led to him losing at least one election. In 1909, Churchill was almost pushed under a train by an angry suffragette and had to be rescued by his wife. There are many accounts of his arguments with Nancy Astor in Parliament. Churchill enjoyed the war, in 1919, he wrote to a friend, “I think a curse should rest on me — because I loved this war. I enjoyed every second of it”. Churchill received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 with the motivation: “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values”. The award was criticised at the time because Churchill’s literary contribution was not conventional literature. In WW2 he would insist on experimental weapons being repeatedly fired, not for scientific inquiry, but because he simply “liked the bangs”. Thomas Jones (TJ) Thomas Jones, civil servant and educationalist, once described as a "man of a thousand secrets". His family was Welsh speaking so English was his second language.