Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst & Adela Pankhurst

Right click image to enlarge.
July 15, 1858 - Birth of Emmiline Goulden [1858-1928] in the suburb of Moss Side, Manchester (England). "Although her birth certificate states otherwise, she believed that her birthday was a day earlier, on Bastille Day. Most biographies, including those written by her daughters, repeat this claim. Feeling a kinship with the female revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille, she said in 1908: 'I have always thought that the fact that I was born on that day had some kind of influence over my life.' The reason for the discrepancy remains unclear." /// Emmeline Pankhurst [1858-1928] was a British political activist & leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, Time Magazine named Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating: "She shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back." Pankhurst was widely criticized for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognized as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain. She had five children: Christabel [1880-1958], Estelle Sylvia [1882-1960], Francis Henry nicknamed Frank [1884-1888], Adela [1885-1961] & Henry Francis [1889-?]. She is buried in London (England).

September 22, 1880 - Birth of Christabel Harriette Pankhurst [1880-1958] in Manchester (England). /// Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE [1880–1958], was a suffragette born in Manchester (England). A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914, she became a fervent supporter of the war against Germany. After the war she moved to the USA, where she worked as an evangelist for the Second Adventist movement. She is buried in California (USA).

May 5, 1882 - Birth of Sylvia Pankhurst [1882-1960] in Manchester (England), a daughter of Dr. Richard Pankhurst [1834-1898] & Emmeline Pankhurst [1858-1928], members of the Independent Labour Party & (especially Emmeline) much concerned with women's rights. Sylvia & her sisters attend the Manchester High School for Girls. Her sister Christabel Pankhurst [1880-1958] will also become an activist. Sylvia trained as an artist at the Manchester School of Art, and in 1900 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in South Kensington. /// Sylvia Pankhurst [1882-1960] an English campaigner for the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism. She is buried in Ethiopia.

June 19, 1885 - Birth of Adela Constantia Mary Pankhurst [1885–1961] in Manchester (England) into a politicized family: her father, Richard Pankhurst was a socialist and candidate for Parliament, and her mother Emmeline Pankhurst & sisters Sylvia & Christabel were leaders of the British suffragist movement. /// Adela Constantia Mary Pankhurst Walsh [1885–1961] was a British-Australian suffragette, political organizer & co-founder of both the Communist Party of Australia & the Australia First Movement. She is buried in Australia.

1924-1956 - Woodford Green, London (England). "Sylvia Pankhurst lived in Woodford Green from 1924 to 1956, originally in the High Road & from 1933 in Charteris Road." "She objected to entering into a marriage contract and taking a husband's name. At about the end of the First World War, she began living with Italian anarchist Silvo Corio and moved to Woodford Green for over 30 years. A blue plaque & Pankhurst Green opposite Woodford tube station commemorate her link to the area. In 1927 she gave birth to a son, Richard. As she refused to marry the child's father, her own mother, Emmeline Pankhurst, broke with her & did not speak to her again."

June 14, 1928 - Death of Emmiline Pankhurst [1858-1928]. She was interred in Brompton Cemetery, West Brompton, London (England).

March 6, 1930 - Statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, Victoria Tower Gardens, London (England). Emmiline Pankhurst [1858-1928] was a political activist & leader of the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU) which helped women win the right to vote [in 1918 & 1928]. "Shortly after her funeral, one of Pankhurst's bodyguards from her WSPU days, Katherine Marshall, began raising funds for a memorial statue. In spring 1930 her efforts bore fruit, and on 6 March her statue in Victoria Tower Gardens was unveiled. A crowd of radicals, former suffragettes & national dignitaries gathered as former Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin [1867-1947] presented the memorial to the public... As noted by the New York Times: 'While the transition from martyrdom to sculptured memorials is familiar, the process in Mrs Pankhurst's case has been unusually brief.'" /// Right image shows NUWT members visiting the statue

The statue is accompanied by two bronze medallions – one commemorating Mrs Pankhurst’s daughter & suffragette, Dame Christabel Pankhurst [1880-1958] & the other showing the badge of the Women’s Social Political Union (WSPU).

1932 - Trafalgar Square, London (England). Sylvia Pankhurst [1882-1960] protesting against British policy in India, at Trafalgar Square, 1932.

M E M O R I A L

June 21, 1936 - "Anti-Air War Memorial," NW of Mornington Road & the High Road, Woodford Green, Essex, near London (England). Bottom image. Sculpted by Eric Benfield in the shape of a bomb for suffrigist (and onetime communist) Sylvia Pankhurst [1882-1960]. Rededicated on July 4, 1936, after being vandalized. "In October 1935, Pankhurst was outraged by Mussolini's assault on Ethiopia, the only part of Africa that remained independent and had joined the League of Nations. Unveiled that same month by a group that included Pankhurst and [Tesfaye] Zaphiro, the secretary of the Imperial Ethiopian Legation, the monument stood prominently outside Red Cottage [which Pankhurst shared with Italian anarchist Silvio Corio] along with a plaque dedicating it ironically to politicians who, at the World Disarmament Conference [which] opened in Geneva in February 1932, 'upheld the right to use bombing planes.'" One of 21 peace monuments named by the PPU website. Named in "A Peace Trail Through London" by Valerie Flessati (1998).

S H E L L

November 11, 1938 - Peace Monument, in front of Lyman's Hall, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida (USA). German artillery shell made into a monument by Hamilton Holt [1872-1951], president of Rollins College. Dedicated on Armistice Day 1938. "Vandalized on Aug. 23, 1943. It was suspected that servicemen from the US Army STAR (Specialized Training and Reassignment) unit stationed on campus were responsible for the act, but investigation did not support that conclusion. The German shell on the stone pedestal was destroyed, but the plaque survived, was put in storage, and was rediscovered in the 1980's under President Thaddeus Seymour, who rededicated it in 1988 by the stairway of the Mills Memorial Building next to Holt’s statue. [Information courtesy of college archivist Wenxian Zhang 10Jan11]" The Plaque bears this inscription: Pause, passerby and hang your head in shame. This Engine of Destruction, Torture and Death Symbolizes: The Prostitution of the Inventor, The Avarice of the Manufacturer, The Blood-guilt of the statesman, The Savagery of the Soldier, The Perverted Patriotism of the Citizen, The Debasement of the Human Race. That it can be Employed as an Instrument of Defense of Liberty, Justice and Right in Nowise Invalidates the Truth of the Words Here Graven. —Hamilton Holt. Compare 1936 monument of Sylvaia Pankhurst in London, England (UK). Did Holt know about Pankhurst's monument?

February 13, 1958 - Death of Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE in California (USA) "at the age of 77, sitting in a straight-backed chair. Her housekeeper found her body, & there was no indication of her cause of death. Before her death, she had never been sick or injured, except for one minor car accident. She was buried in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery, Santa Monica, California (USA)."

G R A V E

September 27, 1960 - Death of Sylvia Pankhurst in Ethiopia. Her grave is at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). "After the liberation of Ethiopia, Sylvia Pankhurst [1882-1960] became a strong supporter of union between Ethiopia & the former Italian Somaliland...In 1948, MI5 considered strategies for 'muzzling the tiresome Miss Sylvia Pankhurst.' She became a friend & adviser to Emperor Haile Selassie [1892-1975] and followed a consistently anti-British stance. She moved to Addis Ababa at Selassie's invitation in 1956, with her son Richard (who continues to live there) and founded a monthly journal, Ethiopia Observer, which reported on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development. She died on September 27, 1960, and was given a full state funeral at which Selassie named her 'an honorary Ethiopian.' She is the only foreigner buried in front of Holy Trinity Cathedral, in the area reserved for patriots of the Italian war."

May 23, 1961 - Death of Adela Constantia Mary Pankhurst Walsh [1885–1961] in hospital, Wahroonga (Australia). Buried with Catholic rites beside her husband. Survived by a son & two daughters.

1970 - Suffragette Memorial, Christchurch Gardens, London (England). Opposite New Scotland Yard in Victoria Street, St. James. /// Unveiled by former campaigner & hunger-striker Lillian Lenton [1891-1972]. Inscription: "This tribute is erected by the Suffragette Fellowship to commemorate the courage and perseverance of all those men and woman who in the long struggle for votes for women selflessly braved dersion, opposition and ostracism, many enduring violence and suffering. (Nearby Caxton Hall was historically associated with women’s suffrage meeetings & deputations to Parliament.)" A bronzed glass fibre sculpture designed by Edwin Russell to resemble an uncurling scroll. The Suffragette Fellowship was founded in 1926 to commemorate the suffrage movement of the early 20th century. Caxton Hall is a now-listed building which opened as the Westminster Town Hall in 1883.

October 11, 1987 - The Pankhurst Centre, 62 Nelson Street, Manchester (England). "Home of Emmeline Pankhurst & her family for over eight years. In 1903, Number 62 played host to the very first meeting of the Suffragettes. By 1908, all the Pankhursts had moved to London to be at the centre of the growing campaign. By 1979, the house had fallen into disrepair, the North West Health Authority applied for permission to demolish both 60 & 62 Nelson Street. The application produced a storm of protest from women’s groups & from conservationists. Permission to demolish the houses was refused, & the Health Authority agreed to lease the houses to the Pankhurst Trust. The trust was established to restore the buildings & put them back into public use. Through extensive fundraising the Trust raised the half a million pounds required to carry out the project. In 1984, the restoration work started. Progress was slow as labour was recruited through Community Programme Schemes to ensure that women were employed on the site. The Centre was opened by Helen Pankhurst, Sylvia’s granddaughter & Barbara Castle on 11th October 1987, the anniversary of the first meeting of the Suffragettes in 1903. More then twenty years [later], the Pankhurst Centre still stands as a permanent reminder of women’s fight to become full & equal citizens and in memory of the many women who took part in the struggle."

August 22, 2011 - "Votes for Women!," Mile End Park, close to Meath Bridge, near Bow Borough of Tower Hamlets, London (England). One of three steel statues depicting Tottenham Hotspur & England footballer Ledley King, suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst [1882-1960] & a towpath horse. "Suffagettes fought for voting rights for British Women, and were very active in nearby Bow. The vote was extended to British Women over the age of 30 in 1918 & to all women of voting age (then 21, now 18) in 1928."