year to set up a home for fifty illegitimate female children. But, probably more
significantly, her long years of experience as a Poor Law Guardian and Registrar
of Births and Deaths in Manchester, when she saw first hand the stigma and
sufferings of orphan girls and unmarried mothers, still haunted her. Emmeline’s
fervent desire to do something practical for the oppressed of her sex was fired
during the early months of 1915 by frequent discussions in the press about the
alleged problem of ‘war babies’, that is children born to unmarried mothers who
had been made pregnant by soldiers.^61 Early in May she explained her scheme
to a sceptical Nancy Astor, stressing that she had no desire to relieve women or
men from responsibility for their sexual behaviour but simply wanted to do
something ‘for illegitimate children. ... There is among them an appalling
death rate & of those who survive I should think the majority become criminals
& prostitutes. I want these children saved & made useful citizens.’^62
Emmeline similarly tried to convert Ethel Smyth to her project but Ethel was
antagonistic to the idea, feeling it was a mistake in war time to underline the
‘delinquencies’ of soldiers whose illegitimate children were taken care of in
orphanages. ‘She did not like her ideas being adversely judged’, recollected the
musician, ‘what autocrat does?’ Emmeline sarcastically told Ethel that such a
scheme would not appeal to someone who ‘preferred dogs to babies’ but Ethel
was worried that her fifty-seven-year-old friend, without a steady income and no
capital, was taking on too much responsibility. ‘However, as well as try to hold
up an avalanche with a child’s spade as persuade Mrs. Pankhurst out of any idea
that had once taken root in her mind.’^63
In the 14 May issue of The Suffragettea determined Emmeline outlined her
plans and called upon WSPU members for financial support for the scheme.^64
But few were enthusiastic. On the afternoon of 3 June, Emmeline held a public
meeting at the London Palladium, during which she deplored the ‘lamentable
lack of public spirit’ for her project and announced that she herself would adopt
four little orphan girls if four ladies of means would offer a modest sum to main-
tain each child, trusting to her to bring up the children and to give them a fair
start in life. She favoured the Montessori system of schooling which, she
believed, would give a sound preparation for entry into the new world she saw
opening up to women.^65
Emmeline, accompanied by Kitty Marshall, visited a home for unwanted and
homeless children and selected four female babies who were eventually brought
back to her London address, namely Nurse Pine’s nursing home. The birth
certificates of the girls were destroyed, and they were given new names –
Kathleen King, Flora Mary Gordon, Joan Pembridge and Elizabeth Tudor – and
also new birth dates. When someone asked Emmeline why she was taking on
such an awesome task, having long since brought up her own family, Emmeline,
who adored small children, replied, ‘My dear, I wonder I didn’t take forty.’^66
Financial support from WSPU members, however, was sparse, the few offers of
help soon dwindling to nothing. A group of ‘Ex-prisoners and Active Members
of the W.S.P.U.’, angry about the autocratic way in which Emmeline was
WAR WORK AND A SECOND FAMILY