‘Now that I have to earn an independence for my old age and also to provide for
the infants’, she wrote to Ethel Smyth, ‘I’m only too thankful I can do it, and in
doing it help a little to keep the Empire together and defeat the Bolshevists and
defaitistswho are hard at work here trying to destroy the victory our armies won
in the war.’ The incentive to avoid living on the breadline was strong. ‘This
much is certain’, she continued. ‘I cannot reduce my standard of comfort to one
of constant pinch and save, and I intend to carry out my plans for the children.’
Some of the bitter-sweet news about the election of Nancy Astor was now seen
in a different light. ‘I and Christabel intend to return to the plough like
Cincinnatus and see what other women will do with the power we won for
them. We kept our noses to the grindstone for a long time because some one
had to do it, not because, as people (even you) think sometimes, we are women
of one idea, obsessed by it.’ Reflecting on her life, Emmeline wistfully
commented, ‘Speaking for myself, there are many things I would have liked to
be and to do, but I had to stick to my job.’ Such a comment was undoubtedly
tempered by her disillusionment with having so little money and being ‘forced
to work summer and winter’ to support the children. Nevertheless, despite these
moments almost of regret, Emmeline expressed a great enthusiasm for the
Canadians and for Canada.^12
This enthusiasm did not wane so that, after completing a lucrative
Chautauqua tour of the West, where she addressed crowds of 70,000, she
decided to make Victoria, a small city of about 38,000 inhabitants on
Vancouver Island, her headquarters, at least for the summer holiday. Victoria,
with its English-looking homes set close to the sea, complete with tennis courts
and neatly tended gardens, was considered the most British of all Canadian
cities. It had been founded as a fort by the Hudson Bay Company in 1843 and
then developed in the 1860s as a naval base. Its garrison atmosphere had been
further enhanced by the presence of Royal Engineers who, in its days as a crown
colony, had built roads and policed the area, many later staying to settle there.^13
Emmeline was enchanted with the place and, at long last, had accumulated
enough money to bring her adopted children from England. Kathleen was nearly
six years old, and Mary and Joan about six months younger. In great excitement,
Emmeline and Catherine Pine travelled to New York to meet the children and
the French governess (she spoke little English) who had travelled with them on
the ship. The little group stayed together in New York for a few days before
Emmeline departed to give a talk, and Catherine and the French governess took
the children on the long train journey across the Rockies, to British Columbia.
It was a great adventure for the girls who felt very grown up when they had their
meals in the dining car, although the evening meal – usually the boiled eggs
they liked so much – was brought to their cabin. They took little notice of
Emmeline’s much loved Pomeranian dog, Tiny, who travelled with them, and
was placed in quarantine once they crossed the mainland to Vancouver Island.^14
On 19 August 1920, the Victoria Daily Colonistreported that the girls had
finally reached Victoria and were staying with their adoptive mother at the St.
LECTURER IN NORTH AMERICA