I cannot write about my loss. You can understand can you not? Will
you come & see me soon both of you & the baby dear. He loved you
both.
There is much I should like to talk over with you. What to do with
books & papers & co. Can you help me? I am struggling with them for
I will have no strange hand touch them. You shared his tastes & he
would like you here. Am I asking too much. If so do tell me? I shall not
mind.^18The Glasiers and their baby visited Emmeline a week later and on 23 July Bruce
Glasier kindly accompanied her to a meeting in Manchester of the NAC of the
ILP.^19
Christabel, who remained in Switzerland, as her mother wished, communi-
cated with home by letter; as the eldest daughter in the family she expected that
her role would be to help her mother and waited to hear what Emmeline
thought she should do.^20 With her favourite daughter so far away, Emmeline
clung to Sylvia, who now became her mother’s closest confidante.^21 Since she
could not bear to sleep alone, Sylvia shared her bed; they spent many sleepless
nights together, talking about their sorrows into the small hours.^22 Above all
what worried Emmeline was how she could support herself and her four finan-
cially dependent children, and give her daughters, who were much older than
Harry, those opportunities whereby they could earn a living in a job of their
choice. Richard had left no will; he had little to leave anyway. A few share
certificates, of a face value of under £1,000, must have been worth very little
since they were not sold.^23 What he did leave his widow were the debts which
he had been struggling for years to liquidate and which Emmeline, with her
‘strong, self-reliant nature’,^24 was determined to settle. Rejecting a proposal
from her solicitor which would lighten her burden at the expense of the credi-
tors, she decided that the only way for the outstanding bills to be settled was by
moving to a smaller house, selling the furniture, paintings and books, and
economising generally. Her financial plight did not go unnoticed. Robert
Blatchford issued in the Clarionan appeal to his largely working-class readers for
donations to a special fund, a suggestion that Emmeline hastily rejected
pointing out that she did not wish working people to subscribe to the education
of her children when they could not afford to pay for their own. Instead she
urged that any money raised should go towards the cost of building a hall for
socialist meetings, in her husband’s name.^25 Suggestions by some wealthier
people for a ‘Dr. Pankhurst Fund’ that would perpetuate his memory by raising
‘a substantial sum of money and presenting it to Mrs. Pankhurst as a mark of the
high regard in which her worthy husband was held’ were more successful; a
committee was established for this sole purpose with W. H. Dixon and John J.
Graham as Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary, respectively.^26 By 17
August, nearly £935 had been collected, including £50 subscribed by Jacob and
Ursula Bright, £25 each by Alice Cliff Scatcherd and Mrs. Rose Hyland, ten
WIDOWHOOD AND EMPLOYMENT