mannish and de-sexed. By insisting that suffragettes were womanly, Emmeline
was not only showing that women did not have to become like men in order to
be worthy of the vote but also developing a strategy whereby feminine women
could undertake militant acts.^56 When the Peckham poll was declared,
Emmeline heard that the Liberal majority of 2,339 had been wiped out and
converted into a Conservative majority of 2,494, a change of nearly 5,000
votes. All the newspapers attributed the Liberal defeat to the ‘Lady Suffragists’,
as the Pall Mall Gazette called them. The WSPU regarded the Peckham
campaign as ‘one of the most inspiring’ in its history.^57
Emmeline and her militants were now an effective force in exposing the
Liberal government as an anti-women’s suffrage government and could no
longer, as Mary Phillips put it, be compared ‘to the chirping of sparrows’.^58 The
anti-government strategy came into full force after Easter 1908 when the ailing
Campbell-Bannerman resigned and Henry Asquith, a well-known opponent of
women’s enfranchisement, became Prime Minister. Asquith’s succession
brought about a number of changes in the Cabinet necessitating a crop of by-
elections in which, Emmeline proudly recalled, the WSPU succeeded in pulling
down the Liberal vote by 6,663.^59 As expected, Asquith refused to give the
required facilities for the Stanger Bill but did say that the government intended
to bring in a reform bill that would be worded in such a way as to admit a
woman suffrage amendment, if any member of the Commons chose to move
one, provided the amendment was on democratic lines and had the support of
the women of the country, as well as the electorate. Although Liberal suffragists
were joyous about Asquith’s ‘promise’, the WSPU denounced it as a ‘trick’,
seeing it as a way to neutralise their by-election work.^60 Nevertheless, the
WSPU now eagerly took up the challenge of Gladstone and Asquith to show
the extent of support for women’s suffrage by advertising the demonstration to
be held on Sunday, 21 June. They chalked pavements, distributed handbills,
canvassed from house to house, advertised by posters and sandwich boards
carried through the streets, and even hired and decorated a boat to sail up the
Thames to the Houses of Parliament when MPs were having tea on the terrace.
On 21 June 1908, Emmeline, accompanied by the aged Elizabeth
Wolstenholme Elmy, led the seven colourful processions that converged in
Hyde Park, attracting crowds of probably half a million.^61 There were several
bands and 700 banners fluttering in the breeze on this brilliantly sunny day,
including a banner with a picture of the WSPU leader declaring her to be a
‘Champion of Womanhood Famed Far For Deeds of Daring Rectitude’.
Although the Pethick Lawrences had been in charge of the arrangements, it
was Flora Drummond who had organised the march with military precision,
each of the processions being under the direction of a Chief Marshal who was
aided by a Group Marshal, a Banner Marshal, and a Group Captain. Aware of
the impact of spectacle and pageantry, Emmeline Pethick Lawrence had devised
the WSPU colours of white (for purity), green (for hope) and purple (for
dignity) and had asked women from all over the country to wear white dresses
AUTOCRAT OF THE WSPU?