Christabel Pankhurst

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Standard Name: Pankhurst, Christabel
Birth Name: Christabel Harriette Pankhurst
CP 's early writing career was devoted to advancing the cause of militant suffragism; the second half of her career marked a shift to religious radicalism formed in part by her experience of the first world war.
Black and white photograph of young Christabel Pankhurst, standing in a garden with roses and other flowering plants behind her. She has her hands behind her back and one knee bent under a long flowing dress with draped skirt over pleated under-skirt, and a thick dark waistband. She has jaw-length wavy hair and her face is turned up as if to look at the sky.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
politics Natalie Clifford Barney
NCB kept the salon going through the First World War. In 1917 she organised a meeting of women committed to pacifism which included a gentle, white-haired little woman who turned out to be Mrs [Emmeline] Pankhurst
politics Clara Codd
CC took part in the rush on the House of Commons led by Christabel Pankhurst . She was then arrested and sentenced to time in prison, which she served at Holloway Gaol , becoming the...
politics Clara Codd
Around 1903 when CC joined the Theosophists, she also became a member of the Social Democratic Federation .
Crawford, Elizabeth. The Women’s Suffrage Movement. the Taylor & Francis Group.
134
On her return from Ireland to Bath, where her family had moved, she became involved...
politics Clara Codd
At a breakfast held to celebrate her release, along with the release of seven other suffragists, CC spoke in praise of the work done by prison wardresses. In their treatment of non-political prisoners, she said...
Textual Features Clara Codd
It provides a detailed history of her life so far. Focusing on her work with Theosophy, she also gives details about her upbringing in North Devon and her aversion to the fear-inducing side of Christianity...
Education Margaret Forster
She found Girton unexpectedly ugly, vast and chilling and gloomy.
Forster, Margaret. Hidden Lives. Viking.
233
It felt like a prison, whereas Somerville was merely disappointingly modern-looking but at least quite unthreatening.
Forster, Margaret. Hidden Lives. Viking.
234
Her interview with the Principal, Dame Janet Vaughan
Textual Features Margaret Forster
The story is narrated by Isobel, a non-central character who hesitates to involve herself too deeply in the action and is mercilessly relegated by extreme events to the condition of bystander. Nevertheless her voice (that...
politics Mary Gawthorpe
The Women's Social and Political Union was only just spreading from Manchester, its birthplace in Lancashire, across the Pennines into Yorkshire. MG worked with Christabel Pankhurst in Glamorgan, Wales, to mobilize mining...
Friends, Associates Mary Gawthorpe
During her time with the WSPU, MG worked with Christabel Pankhurst (who was twenty-four when Gawthorpe first met her, before she had yet met Isabella Ford ), whom, like Ethel Snowden , she knew from...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Mary Gawthorpe
She questions the escalation (under the influence of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst in particular) from attacking property to the kind of violence which she feared would lead to attacks on individuals or even to a...
politics Mary Gawthorpe
MG (inspired by the notorious arrest of Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst in Manchester on 13 October 1905) worked with Isabella Ford to launch and run the LeedsWomen's Suffrage Society .
“Guide to the Papers of Mary E. Gawthorpe, 1881-1990”. The Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford.
politics Katharine Bruce Glasier
After their marriage, KBG and her husband, John Bruce Glasier , formed an effective socialist partnership very much like that of Sidney and Beatrice Webb . They maintained their involvement in the Independent Labour Party
Friends, Associates Eva Gore-Booth
In 1901 future suffrage leader Christabel Pankhurst met Esther Roper at a meeting of the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage (NESWS ). Roper introduced Pankhurst to EGB immediately after this, and the...
politics Eva Gore-Booth
EGB and Esther Roper again offered some support to Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney after their landmark protest at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester on 13 October 1905. But in 1906, they and other...
politics Eva Gore-Booth
The women formed this committee (a break-away group from the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage ) after backing Labour candidate David Shackleton in a by-election. In exchange for the support of EGB ...

Timeline

1866: The Royal Society of Arts established a scheme...

National or international item

1866

The Royal Society of Arts established a scheme (believed to be the first in the world) for setting up commemorative plaques on buildings associated with famous people.
Quinn, Ben. “Plaque blues. Cuts hit heritage scheme”. Guardian Weekly, p. 16.

11 December 1906: Millicent Garrett Fawcett gave a banquet...

Building item

11 December 1906

Millicent Garrett Fawcett gave a banquet at the Savoy Hotel in London to celebrate the release from Holloway Prison of suffragists arrested on 23 October.

27 June 1907: The Women's Franchise began weekly publication...

Building item

27 June 1907

The Women's Franchise began weekly publication in London; it featured contributions from major societies within the suffrage movement and from individuals.

October 1907: Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline...

National or international item

October 1907

Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence , wanting to maintain control over the Women's Social and Political Union agenda, removed by fiat dissident members of the executive and cancelled the forthcoming annual conference.

November 1907: Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington Greig...

National or international item

November 1907

Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington Greig left the Women's Social and Political Union to form the Women's Freedom League .

21 June 1908: The Women's Social and Political Union organised...

National or international item

21 June 1908

The Women's Social and Political Union organised a Woman's Sunday which involved (according to the Times estimate) between 250,000 and 500,000 people, mostly women. The WSPU called it Britain's largest-ever political meeting.

27 July 1911: The Women's Franchise, which featured contributions...

Building item

27 July 1911

The Women's Franchise, which featured contributions from major societies within the suffrage movement and from individuals, ceased publication in London.

Earlier 1913: The Report of the Royal Commission on Venereal...

Building item

Earlier 1913

The Report of the Royal Commission on Venereal Diseases was published.

9 October 1915: Christabel Pankhurst, Emmeline Pankhurst,...

Building item

9 October 1915

Christabel Pankhurst , Emmeline Pankhurst , Flora Drummond , and Annie Kenney edited the first issue of Britannia, a weekly suffragette periodical and organ of the Women's Social and Political Union formerly known as The Suffragette.

20 December 1918: Britannia, a suffragette magazine which had...

National or international item

20 December 1918

Britannia, a suffragette magazine which had opted to support Britain's military efforts during the First World War, ended publication in London.

July 1945: Journalist Barbara Castle was elected a Labour...

National or international item

July 1945

Journalist Barbara Castle was elected a Labour member of the British Parliament , where she served for thirty-four years.

15 October 1964: The Labour Party came to precarious power...

National or international item

15 October 1964

The Labour Party came to precarious power in the general election by a majority of four seats; next day Harold Wilson became Prime Minister.

14 July 2006: The Bow Street Magistrates Court, one of...

Building item

14 July 2006

The Bow Street Magistrates Court , one of London's most famous courts, closed after dispensing justice for 267 years.

Texts

Pankhurst, Christabel. Some Modern Problems in the Light of Bible Prophecy. Fleming H. Revell, 1924.
Pankhurst, Christabel. “The Great Scourge and How to End It”. Suffrage and the Pankhursts, edited by Jane Marcus, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987, pp. 187-40.
Pankhurst, Christabel. “The Legal Disabilities of Women”. The Case for Women’s Suffrage, edited by Frederick John Shaw, T. F. Unwin, 1907, pp. 84-98.
Pankhurst, Christabel. “The Militant Methods of the N. W. S. P. U”. Suffrage and the Pankhursts, edited by Jane Marcus, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987, pp. 34-50.
Pankhurst, Christabel, editor. The Suffragette.
Pankhurst, Christabel. The World’s Unrest: Visions of the Dawn. Morgan and Scott, 1926.
Pankhurst, Christabel. Unshackled: The Story of How We Won the Vote. Editor Pethick-Lawrence, Frederick William, Hutchinson, 1959.