she warned, ‘If the Bill, in spite of our efforts, is killed by the Government, then
... I have to say there is an end to the truce.’^101 Soon Christabel was informing
WSPU members that the date for the large demonstration had been changed to
Friday, 18 November, presumably to coincide with the opening of parliament.
When parliament reconvened that day, Asquith announced to the
Commons that as the conference with the House of Lords over its power of
veto had broken down, he had advised the King to dissolve parliament; in the
intervening days before the dissolution was due to take place, on 28 November,
precedence would be given to government business. Emmeline was speaking at
the Caxton Hall when the news filtered through that Asquith had made no
mention of the Conciliation Bill. Immediately she led to the Commons a depu-
tation of over 300 women, which divided into contingents of twelve, on a day
that was to become known as ‘Black Friday’. Emmeline’s group included some
well-known and aged suffragists, including Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the
pioneer woman doctor and twice mayor of Aldeburgh, Hertha Ayrton, the
distinguished scientist, Annie Cobden Sanderson, the Princess Sophia Dhuleep
Singh, Georgiana Soloman, the Hon. Evelina Haverfield, and Dorinda
Neligan. Despite some rough hustling and jostling from a few men, the crowd
was mainly friendly and made a clear pathway for the distinguished group
which reached the door of the Stranger’s Entrance about half past one, to the
cheers of the multitudes that filled the streets. ‘We stood there for hours’,
Emmeline recollected, ‘gazing down on a scene which I hope never to look
upon again.’^102 The small detachments of women that appeared every few
minutes in Parliament Square trying to join her, including her sister, Mary, were
treated with exceptional brutality by burly policemen who, acting under the
directions of the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, attempted to refrain
from making arrests and used a variety of means to force the women back. The
women were punched in the face and shoulders, their arms and thumbs twisted;
thrown from one policeman to another, many in plain clothes, the militants
were kicked and cast to the ground. Many of the assaults were sexual in nature
as skirts were lifted high and knees thrust between legs. When Henry Brailsford
and Dr. Jessie Murray later published a report about the violence on Black
Friday (and on 22 and 23 November, when smaller demonstrations were held),
based on testimonies of women who took part in the marches and on evidence
volunteered by eye-witnesses, the most frequently voiced complaint ‘was vari-
ously described as twisting round, pinching, screwing, nipping, or wringing the
breast ... often done in the most public way so as to inflict the utmost humilia-
tion’. This form of assault also had a more sinister aspect in that, as
Jorgensen-Earp points out, it was commonly believed at that time that physical
injury to a woman’s breast was the primary cause of breast cancer.^103 After two
stressful hours of watching the brutal way her followers were being treated, a
horrified Emmeline, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Hertha Aytron were
conducted to the Prime Minister’s room, only to be told that he would not see
them. Inside parliament, Asquith refused to listen to those MPs such as Keir
PERSONAL SORROW AND FORTITUDE