Suffragettes try to storm House of Commons

‘Rush’ arranged by Pankhurst and WSPU results in 36 arrests

Women’s Social and Political “W

7nion,q began the ʚyer. pVOT'S FOR WOM'N. Men and women – help the suʘragettes to rush the *ouse of Commons on Tuesday evening, 1 October 1908, at : 0.q

After years of escalating suʘragette protests, the idea of a nrush’ on the Commons had been devised by WSP7 leaders 'mmeline Pankhurst, her daughter Christabel and their friend Flora Drummond. There was nothing secret about the plan: not only had Christabel shown the ʚyer to a policeman, but on Sunday 11 October, they addressed a rally in Trafalgar SSuare, urging their listeners to Loin them in storming the Commons chamber.

The neZt day, the three leaders were served with a court summons, demanding that they report to Bow Street police station. But they did not respond to the summons when they returned to the WSP7 oʛces at 6pm on the Tuesday, police arrested them.

The nrush’ itself was Lust as dramatic as its architects had hoped. pRiotous Scenes at Westminster,q gasped the neZt day’s Times.

As the press reported, some 60,000 people had assembled in Parliament SSuare, with pdetermined bands of womenq leading the charge against the police lines guarding the Palace of Westminster. Not all the crowd were militant suʘragettes. One observer wrote that there were plenty of male hecklers too, as well as pcuriosity-mongers who were fascinated by the fight although without interest for its causeq.

In the chaos, some 24 women and 12 men were arrested, while another 10 were taken to hospital. But the crowd never managed to break through into the Commons as the Pankhursts had hoped. Only one woman made it into the chamber: the Labour MP -eir *ardie’s secretary, Margaret Travers Symons. She shouted: pLeave oʘ discussing the children’s Suestion and give votes to women first q before the attendants ushered her away.