Empire seemed out of touch with the recession of the late 1920s, especially the
rapidly rising rate of unemployment, and were not particularly welcome.
Emmeline did not fit ‘into’ the Conservative Party any more than some of its
sexist, patronising propaganda suited her taste. ‘When you put on your very best
pair of artificial silk stockings with extra-strong toes and double cotton tops’,
ran one pamphlet, ‘does it ever occur to you that not only are you clothing your
shapely legs in beautiful silk stockings, but that you have also found one of the
many things for which you should say thank you to the Conservative
Government?’^36 The strained and uneasy relationship between Central Office
and the once militant suffragette extended to the local branch office. ‘The staff
may have been devoted Conservatives’, continued Nellie, ‘but they were not
devoted to Mrs. Pankhurst, her candidacy or me. ... In the end, we only dealt
with them when it was necessary, officially.’^37
The pea soup fog of that December did not make Emmeline’s work any easier
nor improve her health; since she was so tired most of the time, she worried
about whether she was eating sensibly. Dr. May Williams, an ex-suffragette,
advised both Emmeline and Nellie that they must eat ‘proper meals’.^38 The
Christmas break offered little chance of rest. Nellie, who telephoned Emmeline
every morning, heard her in tears one day. Dashing around to Gloucester Road,
she found Emmeline fretting; the Pomeranian dog that Christabel had given her
as a Christmas present was ill and Emmeline was afraid her daughter would
think she had neglected the highly bred animal. The dog died and Nellie,
instead of enjoying the Christmas festivities, wandered around Hammersmith,
carrying the little body to where it could be decently interred, while her
husband waited for her in a West End restaurant, wondering why she had not
turned up for dinner.^39
Such devotion to the increasingly frail Emmeline, and the desire to look
after and protect her, was not unusual. And there was some family news that
was being kept from her – and most of the public – in order to shield Emmeline
from what her friends feared could be fatal consequences. The unmarried
Sylvia, cohabiting with Corio, had become pregnant earlier in the year and on
3 December 1927, a son had been born. Ada took careful steps to keep the news
secret, fearful of its effect upon Emmeline’s health. Usually Nellie would arrive
at 35 Gloucester Road at nine o’clock each morning, and while Emmeline sat in
her dressing gown by the fire, eating her breakfast, the two would go through
the post. Now, while Emmeline was away campaigning, Ada vetted her post,
looking for a envelope addressed in Sylvia’s hand; when it arrived she hastily
took it away. Nellie, who was not taken into Ada’s confidence and could not
understand what all the cloak and dagger mystery was about, was told that it
was all for the best.^40 The secret was kept for some time longer, until April
- Meanwhile, on 29 March, when the second reading of the Representation
of the People (Equal Franchise) Act was passed, Emmeline was sitting in the
Ladies’ Gallery. Her presence evoked much nostalgic comment in the press,
which published pictures of her on the front page together with that of the
CONSERVATIVE PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE