The following day, the two sisters appeared amongst the 159 women and
three men defendants at Bow Street Police Court. Emmeline was discharged
since no evidence was brought against her. Mary fared less well; pleading guilty
to breaking a window, judgment was deferred until a few days later when she
was one of 75 women sent to prison, in her case for one month.^110 In that
week’s Votes for Women, Emmeline published a special message of thanks to all
those who had taken part in the deputations for their ‘magnificent courage and
self-restraint ... I feel myself deeply honoured to be your leader.’ But she also
stressed the importance of winning mass support, of educating public opinion as
to their point of view, and so asked every WSPU member to secure, during the
ensuing week, at least one new permanent subscriber to the newspaper.^111
The women who suffered physical injuries at the hands of the police during
‘Black Friday’ later told Emmeline, ‘We cannot bear this.’ It was preferable to
engage in stone throwing, with its hasty arrest, than to participate in a legal
march that ended in prolonged struggle with the forces of the law.^112 Such
considerations had an important influence upon the future direction of mili-
tancy. For the present, Emmeline was concerned to offer some practical help to
Mrs. Hawkins, one of the imprisoned working women who had engaged in the
recent demonstrations and left her husband to look after their home and chil-
dren. Since Mr. Hawkins was now in hospital, suffering from a doubly fractured
leg after scuffles broke out when he asked Winston Churchill a question about
women’s suffrage, his wife wanted to be released so that she could go back home
to their children in Leicester. On the morning of 28 November, Emmeline went
to Holloway and paid her fine.^113
Later that day, at the Queen’s Hall meeting, at which both Emmeline and
Christabel gave stirring addresses, Emmeline spoke frequently about the ‘joy of
battle’ that militants experienced as they fought for the freedom of womanhood.
Praise was given too to that ‘little gallant band of men’ who, in their ‘new
chivalry’, were supporting the women’s cause. In the future, she hoped there
would be not a mere handful of men but ‘thousands upon thousands’ who would
insist on justice for women. ‘There have been times’, Emmeline reflected sadly,
‘when we have felt very inclined to be bitter about the men of this country ...
[but] I want as a woman to thank our men friends for having sweetened our
hearts about men, for having done something to take the stigma off their sex
where this movement is concerned.’^114 Such statements add credence to
Holton’s claim that the militant standpoint reflected an appeal ‘to an essentially
chivalrous conception’ of male–female relations, that although Mrs. Pankhurst
spoke often of the wrongs of women and children at the hands of men, she also
relied on men’s capacity ‘to rise above their lower natures when confronted with
the “sorrowful wrath” of women’.^115
At the same meeting, however, Christabel gave a different emphasis to the
role of men in the women’s movement. Although she spoke of our ‘men friends’
and of the ‘men who are prepared to fight with us’, she also stressed that the all-
male Conciliation Committee, with Lytton as its chair and Brailsford as its
PERSONAL SORROW AND FORTITUDE