Emmeline
Pankhurst (1th July 1858 to 14th June 1928)
When I was a
boy I was so naive I thought most history happened in London and not much
happened down the streets and aisles in northern counties. I remember being a
bit glad and sitting up when I found out the suffragette Pankhursts
lived in Manchester. Manchester was only seven miles from my bedroom.
The Pankhurst’s home is still standing near Manchester University and
I went to have a quick look. I’d won some oil paints on ebay
and went to collect them one Sunday afternoon from a house near one of the
university buildings. I parked on a quiet backstreet, collected the paints and
crossed Oxford Street to go and look for former the Pankhursts
home. Here it is.
The Grade I-listed Victorian villa looks out of place alongside the
surrounding university buildings. It would have been demolished years ago but
for the bright bold Pankhursts who had bounded around
it in its heyday. Now it’s The Pankhurst Centre, the birthplace of the
suffragette movement which yanked the rug out from male-dominated life and
changed women’s lives. Emmeline Pankhurst lived here and I’d heard her name
before I was fifteen years old. She was the trailblazer leader of the British
suffragette movement who started it all. She was voted 27th of 100
Greatest Britons due to her political activism.
I stood across on the street across from the house and sat on a wall
having a KitKat. I took some photos and a man in a car didn’t once avert his
eyes away from of his phone. Didn’t his eyes lock onto blue plaques like mine
do? Wasn’t he interested in the story behind the plaque? At least some students
looked at the plaque as they passed by. There’ve been countless books written
about this family, painting’s painted, graves visited, films made and
commemorative plaques put on walls.
This must have been a frenetic household at one time. It was one of
many places Emmeline lived in and this one has survived. Her husband was
Richard, a 44-year-old barrister who advocated women’s suffrage and a former committed
bachelor. Emmeline was only 20 when she saw a “beautiful hand” opening the door
of a cab when he was attending a meeting. She threw herself at him, a romance ensued
and they married and had five children in ten years: three girls: Christabel,
Sylvia, Adela and two sons - Francis and Henry (Francis died.)
The Pankhurst’s propelled such a wave over the whole country
it’s difficult to quantify their effect now but so much plotting and planning
must have gone on in this house. I was a little disappointed to find Emmeline
had moved to and spent many years in London (her husband Richard had died many
years before.) She died there. As her
health failed from many years of hunger strikes she moved into a nursing home
in Hampstead in North London. Years before she had known a doctor who had
attended her while she was in prison on hunger strikes (his use of the stomach
pump had helped her feel better). She requested he visit the nursing home to
pump her stomach again but before this could be done she died aged 69. Soon
after women were giving voting rights (I’m sure she would like to have
witnessed this before her last breath.)
One sunny
autumn afternoon I found her grave in Brompton Cemetery in West London. I’ve
also found her husband’s grave in Sale, Greater Manchester.
The rear…
At Brompton
Cemetery, about to search out headstones…
Looking for
Richard Pankhurst’s grave in Sale Brooklands Cemetery in Greater Manchester…
Here he is…
