WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE AND GOVERNMENT CONTROL, 1906-1922

Papers from the Cabinet, Home Office and Metropolitan Police Files in the Public Record Office (CAB 41, HO 45, HO 144, MEPO 2 & MEPO 3)

REEL 1

AR 1/38: Reopening of galleries against suffragists (1913-1914)
AR 1/39: Suffragists: outrage at National Gallery (1914)
AR 1/528: Suffragists: descriptions and photographs (1914)
CAB 41/32/29: Suffragette prisoners in Holloway (1909)
CAB 41/32/44: Suffragettes (16 December 1909)
CAB 41/32/61: Women’s Suffrage (8 June 1909)
CAB 41/32/62: Women’s Suffrage Bill (15 June 1909)
CAB 41/32/63: Women’s Suffrage Bill (23 June 1909)
CAB 41/32/73: Prorogation Speech (24 November 1910)
CAB 41/33/13: Women’s Suffrage Bill (4 May 1911)
CAB 41/33/15: Women’s Suffrage Bill (17 May 1911)
CAB 41/34/4: Women’s Suffrage Amendments to the Franchise Bill
(25 January [24 January] 1913)
CAB 41/34/5: Withdrawal of Franchise Bill (28 January [27 January] 1913)
CAB 41/34/7: Suffrage Disorders (12 February [11 February] 1913)
CAB 41/34/8: Treatment of Suffrage Prisoners (7 March [6 March] 1913)
CAB 41/34/9: Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Bill
(13 March [12 March] 1913)
CAB 41/34/16: Women’s Suffrage Bill (30 April 1913)
HO 45 10338/139199: Dawson, A. Women’s Freedom League: Gonne, C M: Petitions to HM concerning Women’s Suffrage (1906-1909)
HO 45/10389/170808: Criminal: Suffragettes Treatment in prison, including the Pankhursts, following convictions in connection with the "rush" on the House of Commons (1908)
HO 45/10597/187632: Protection of Polling Stations and ballot boxes from Suffragettes
(1910-1912)
HO 45/10612/194095: Representation of the People Bill, 1912 (Women’s Suffrage Bill)
(1910-1912)
HO 45/10645/209446: Speech of Mr Cecil Chapman, Metropolitan Magistrate, in favour of Women’s Suffrage (1911)
HO 45/10678/219337: Women’s Social and Political Union (Suffragettes) meeting on
23 January 1912
HO 45/10679/220365: Suffragette charged with damaging Home Office window. Discharged on medical grounds
HO 45/10689/228470: Meeting in Wales attended by Lloyd George. Suffragettes’ assaulted by crowd (1912-1913)

REEL 2

HO 45/10695/231366: Suffragettes’ activities and meetings. Reports 1912-1913
HO 45/10699/234800: Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Bill (1913)
HO 45/10700/236680: Suffragette Anne Kenney convicted at Central Criminal Court of conspiracy (1913-1914)
HO 45/10700/236973: Suffragettes’ meetings, outrages, etc. (1913)

REEL 3

HO 45/10701/236973: Suffragettes’ meetings, outrages, etc. (1913-1914)
HO 45/10712/245464: Suffragettes’ death resulting from injuries when ejected from a meeting (1913)
HO 45/10720/249187: Attempted Suffragette deputation to the King (1914)
HO 45/10725/252949: Civil proceedings against certain subscribers to the Women’s Social and Political Union (1914)
HO 45/10726/254037: Forcible Feeding Committee (Medical) Deputation (1914)
HO 45/10796/303883: ‘Britannia’ edited by Christabel Pankhurst (1915-1917)
HO 45/11057/234294: Complaints by Suffragettes of the conditions under which they were conveyed to prison in police vans (1913-1922)
HO 45/11088/437465: Suffragettes - Memorandum. Treatment in prison and remission of sentences (1922)

REEL 4

HO 45/11574/419359: Women’s Enfranchisement Bill, 1922. Representation of the People’s Bills, 1922-1924
HO 45/12915/154602: Finger-printing of prisoners: amendment of instructions to Governors; taking photographs and fingerprints of suffragette prisoners (1907-1922)
HO 45/24612/210756: Conversations between prisoners and solicitors reported in the press: Phyllis Brady, Suffragette (1914-1922)
HO 45/24624/221252: Suffragettes: separation from ordinary criminal population at Aylesbury Inebriate Reformatory (1912)
HO 45/24630/223849: Imprisonment of Mrs Pankhurst and Mr and Mrs Pethick-Lawrence
(1912-1913)

REEL 5

HO 45/24650/241480: Petition to HM: presentation in person; whether Miss Hope and Captain Gonne are committing an offence (1913)
HO 45/24665/253239: Amnesty of August 1914: index of women suffragists arrested 1906-1914 (1914-1935)
HO 144/538/186626: Nellie Godfrey: Suffragette: discharged from Manchester prison on
medical grounds (1909)
HO 144/552/185732: Suffragettes: treatment in Bristol Prison (1909)
HO 144/837/145641: Complaints of treatment in prison by Suffragettes (1906)
HO 144/847/149245: Suffragettes’ prosecution at Westminster in connection with procession to House of Commons (1907)
HO 144/891/171424: Mrs Eleanor Penn Gaskell and Miss Annie Smith, Suffragists: treatment at Police Court (1908)
HO 144/891/171454: 13 Suffragettes convicted on 29 August 1908: prison treatment
HO 144/904/176114: Mrs Pethick-Lawrence and suffragette prisoners in Holloway Prison (1909)
HO 144/1032/175314: Use of books etc., by Suffragettes (1909)
HO 144/1033/175378: Suffragettes: prison treatment (1909)
HO 144/1033/175878: Macdonald, Mrs Meredith, (Suffragette) awarded five hundred pounds compensation for treatment in prison hospital (1909-1910)

REEL 6

HO 144/1038/180782: Prison treatment of Suffragettes (1908-1910)
HO 144/1038/180965: Suffragettes medically unfit for forcible feeding, released when further detention endangered life (1909)
HO 144/1038/181250: Suffragettes picketing Downing Street convicted of obstruction (1909)
HO 144/1039/182085: Magistrates deliberately commit suffragettes to Third Division, but on
Home Office orders they were treated as if in Second Division (1909)
HO 144/1040/182086: Disturbance and obstruction of Police by suffragettes meeting at
Limehouse (1909)

REEL 7

HO 144/1041/182749: Suffragettes in Liverpool prison (1909-1910)
HO 144/1041/183189: Release of hunger striking suffragettes from a Manchester prison (1909)
HO 144/1043/183461: Suffragettes: Prevention of annoyance to Cabinet Ministers (1909)
HO 144/1045/184808: Treatment of Women Suffrage prisoners at Manchester prison (1909-1910)
HO 144/1047/185574: Treatment in Holloway prison of Alice Chaplin and Alison Neilsan, Suffragettes (1909-1910)
HO 144/1047/185589: Prison treatment of Suffragettes convicted of window-breaking at Guildhall (1909)
HO 144/1049/186216: Treatment of Suffragettes convicted at Preston and Haslingden (1909-1910)

REEL 8

HO 144/1052/187234: Suffragettes: treatment in Liverpool prison (1909-1910)
HO 144/1054/187986: Treatment of Lady Constance Lytton, Suffragette (1910-1912)
(Alias Jane Warton)
HO 144/1106/200455: Suffragette disturbances at Westminster (1910-1911)
HO 144/1107/200655: The Suffragette Disturbances, 1910 (1910-1911)

REEL 9

HO 144/1119/203651: Suffragist Disturbances (1911-1913)
HO 144/1148/210238: Metropolitan Magistrate forced to withdraw from Men’s League for
Women’s Suffrage (1911)
HO 144/1150/210696: Miss Emily Wilding Davison (Suffragette) killed when she threw herself under the King’s horse at the Derby in 1913 (1912-1914)
HO 144/1169/214572: Imprisonment of a Suffragette who refused to pay taxes so long as women were unrepresented (1911)
HO 144/1183/218081: William Ball of Men’s Society for Women’s Rights – damage at Home Office – two months hard labour treatment in prison – certificate of insanity – medical inquiry (1911-1913)

REEL 10

HO 144/1193/220196: Suffragette’s demonstration, imprisonment, and forcible feeding
HO 144/1194/220196: Suffragette’s demonstration, imprisonment, and forcible feeding
HO 144/1204/221826: Clara Giveen, Suffragette, sentenced to three years penal servitude for setting fire to the Grandstand at Hurst Park. Refused food in prison, released on medical grounds and escaped police observation (1912-1914)
HO 144/1205/221862: Suffragette: damage to a "Romney" picture (1912-1914)
HO 144/1205/221873: Suffragette, arson of Tea Pavilion, Kew Gardens. Hunger striker (1912-1914) (Phyllis North)
HO 144/1205/221999: Hunger strikes at Aylesbury prison. Four Suffragette prisoners unfit for forcible feeding discharged (1912)

REEL 11

HO 144/1205/222030: Suffragette sentenced to two years imprisonment for arson (1912-1914)
HO 144/1206/222067: Suffragette: sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment for possessing explosives (1912-1915) (Irene Casey)
HO 144/1223/227166: Arson at Theatre Royal, Dublin. Two Suffragettes sent to prison for five years, but released after hunger striking (1912-1914)
HO 144/1232/229179: Rachel Peace and Jane Short, Suffragettes, forcibly fed (1912-1914)
HO 144/1236/230251: Ella Stevenson and Ethel Slade, subject to the conditions of the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act, 1913 (1912-1914)

REEL 12

HO 144/1254/234646: Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, Suffragette leader (1913-1917)
HO 144/1255/234788: Lilian Lenton, Suffragette, charged on various occasions with arson, etc (1913-1914)

REEL 13

HO 144/1255/239582: Agnes Lake, Suffragette, charged with conspiracy, and sentenced to six months. Released under "Cat and Mouse" Act (1913)
HO 144/1257/235545: Mary Richardson, Suffragette outrages (1913-1914)
HO 144/1261/236533: Phyllis Brady, Suffragette, charged and convicted on various occasions of committing arson etc. (1913-1914)
HO 144/1264/237169: George Lansbury (ex M.P.) Suffragette supporter, released temporarily
from prison, asks the King to release Sylvia Pankhurst or to order his own re-arrest (1913-1914)
HO 144/1267/237954: Beatrice Helen Saunders, Suffragette, charged with conspiracy at Central Criminal Court, sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment, Third Division (1913)
HO 144/1268/238215: Sydney Granville Drew found guilty of publishing articles for suffragettes enticing them to commit arson (1913-1914)
HO 144/1274/239318: Harriet Johnson, Militant Suffragist, temporary discharge from prison (1913)
HO 144/1275/239581: Harriet R Kerr, Suffragette. Released under Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act 1913

REEL 14

HO 144/1305/248506: Forcible feeding: objections by the Bishop of London (1914)
HO 144/1318/252288: Police raid on head quarters of Women’s Social and Political Union; stoppage of letters (1914)
HO 144/1320/252950: Drugs illegally conveyed to Suffragettes in Holloway Prison (1914)
HO 144/1490/356124: Forcible feeding (1918)
HO 144/13338: Alice Wheelson convicted at CCC on 27 February 1917 for conspiracy to murder (plot to kill Lloyd George and Arthur Henderson) and sentenced to 10 years penal servitude NOTE previously closed for 100 years. Opened in 1997 following review (1917-1931)

REEL 15

MEPO 2/1016: The Suffragette movement: disturbances and convictions (1906-1907)
MEPO 2/1145: Suffragettes: legal opinion as to appropriate charge (1908)
MEPO 2/1222: Suffragettes: disturbances (1908)
MEPO 2/1223: Suffragettes: wilful and persistent obstruction (1908)
MEPO 2/1308: Suffragette disturbances: instructions to police (1910)
MEPO 2/1310: Suffragette disturbances: augmentation of Special Branch (1909)
MEPO 2/1410: Suffragette movement: prosecution of Emmeline Pankhurst and others (1910)
MEPO 2/1438: Suffragette demonstrations: police procedure (1911)
MEPO 2/1488: Suffragettes: arrest of two hundred for assaults on police and other offences (1911-1912)
MEPO 2/1527: Suffragettes: aids to check interference at borough elections (1912)
MEPO 2/1551: Suffragettes: accident involving His Majesty’s horse and jockey (1913)
MEPO 2/1560: Suffragettes: meetings at ‘London Pavilion Music Hall’ (1913)
MEPO 2/1566: Suffragettes: supervision of movements by police sergeant on motor cycle (1913-1914)
MEPO 2/1567: Suffragette demonstration: House of Commons (1913)
MEPO 2/1568: Suffragettes: supervision of Westminster Hall entrance (1913)
MEPO 3/203: Suffragettes: complaints against Police (1911)
MEPO 3/1787: Claims for damage caused by suffragettes (1912)
MEPO 3/2407: Applications for return of property seized at office of Women’s Social and Political Union, a suffragette organisation (1913-1915)
PCOM 7/178: Women’s Social and Political Union facilities refused for facsimile cell exhibit in London (1909)
PCOM 8/228: Suffragettes: Instructions to Governors (1912)
WORK 11/117: Houses of Parliament: damage etc by Suffragettes (1910-1911)