Emmeline Pankhurst statue Victoria Tower Gardens

The Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial is a memorial in London to

Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst (''née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Import ...

and her daughter Christabel, two of the foremost British

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to member ...

s. It stands at the entrance to

Victoria Tower Gardens Victoria Tower Gardens is a public park along the north bank of the River Thames in London, adjacent to the Victoria Tower, at the south-western corner of the Palace of Westminster. The park, extends southwards from the Palace to Lambeth Brid ...

, south of

Victoria Tower The Victoria Tower is a square tower at the south-west end of the Palace of Westminster in London, adjacent to Black Rod's Garden on the west and Old Palace Yard on the east. At , it is slightly taller than the Elizabeth Tower (formerly known ...

at the southwest corner of the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north b ...

. Its main feature is a bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst by

Arthur George Walker Arthur George Walker (20 October 1861 – 13 September 1939) was an English sculptor and painter. Among his best-known works are several war memorials and the statue of Florence Nightingale in Waterloo Place, London. Personal life Arthur Geor ...

, unveiled in 1930. In 1958 the statue was relocated to its current site and the bronze reliefs commemorating Christabel Pankhurst were added.

Campaign for and unveiling of the memorial

Shortly after Emmeline Pankhurst's death in 1928 a Pankhurst Memorial Fund was established, with her fellow suffragettes

Rosamund Massey The name Rosamund (, also spelled Rosamond and Rosamunde) is a feminine given name and can also be a family name (surname). Originally it combined the Germanic elements ''hros'', meaning ''horse'', and ''mund'', meaning "protection". Later, it ...

and Katherine "Kitty" Marshall (Pankhurst's former bodyguard in the

Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership an ...

) as joint secretaries. The fund's objectives were to arrange a headstone for her grave, to acquire Georgina Brakenbury's portrait of Pankhurst and to erect a public statue. Some spectators, such as

Nancy Astor Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor's first husband was America ...

, believed the idea of a statue impractical, noting that Pankhurst herself did not believe she was "statuesque" and the fact that the British public were facing austere times, which would impose financial constraints on the project. In reality raising the money, which was largely organised by ''The Suffragettes editor

Rachel Barrett Rachel Barrett (12 November 1874 – 26 August 1953) was a Welsh suffragette and newspaper editor born in Carmarthen. Educated at the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth she became a science teacher, but quit her job in 1906 on hearing ...

, was not the issue; finding a location for the statue was the real problem. Although the Chief Commissioner of Public Works, Sir

Lionel Earle __TOC__ Lionel may refer to: Name *Lionel (given name) Places *Lionel, Lewis, a village in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland *Lionel Town, Jamaica, a settlement Brands and enterprises *Lionel, LLC, an American designer and importer of toy trains and mo ...

, was sympathetic to their cause, he believed that it would be impractical to place the statue in Westminster. After several locations were rejected Marshall secured permission to erect the statue in a corner of

near the Houses of Parliament. Though this required a special Parliamentary bill, the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

MP William Bull ensured its smooth passage. A bronze statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, with arms outstretched as if addressing a rally, was sculpted by

; Sir

Herbert Baker Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He wa ...

was the architect of the plinth. As well as covering the cost of the plinth and statue the fund paid the Ministry of Works £160 to have the statue cleaned in perpetuity and a further £330 to always have a plant placed in a vase next to the statue. The statue was unveiled by the Prime Minister,

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

, on 6 March 1930. Marshall had arranged for two facing platforms to be erected near the statue, one for the three speakers, Baldwin, Lady Rhondda and Fred Pethick-Lawrence, and the other for a band. Loudspeakers were provided and the stages draped in the colours of the WSPU. In Baldwin's speech he said: "I say with no fear of contradiction, that whatever view posterity may take, Mrs. Pankhurst has won for herself a niche in the Temple of Fame which will last for all time." The composer

Ethel Smyth Dame Ethel Mary Smyth (; 22 April 18588 May 1944) was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended t ...

, a close friend of Pankhurst's, conducted the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

Band during the unveiling, playing an arrangement of her song " The March of the Women" and music from her opera '' The Wreckers''. "The March of the Women" was the anthem of the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

movement.

Relocation in 1958

In 1958 the statue was moved from its original position in the south of the gardens to a new site further north, and a low stone screen was built flanking the statue, terminating at either end with bronze medallions sculpted by Peter Hills. These depict, on the left, the "prison brooch" or "badge" of the WSPU, and, on the right, a profile bust of Christabel Pankhurst, who died in 1958. The unveiling of this dual memorial was performed on 13 July 1959 by the Lord Chancellor,

Lord Kilmuir David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, (29 May 1900 – 27 January 1967), known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combine ...

Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with t ...

died in 1960; she is not commemorated. The statue was granted a Grade II listing in 1970.

Proposed relocation in 2018

In August 2018, a group called "The Emmeline Pankhurst Trust Limited" led by former Conservative MP

Neil Thorne Colonel (United Kingdom), Colonel Sir Neil Gordon Thorne, (born 8 August 1932) is a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician. He contested the constituency of Ilford South (UK Parliament constituency), Ilford South six t ...

applied for planning permission to remove the statue from its site next to Parliament to the private grounds of

Regent's University London Regent's University London (formerly Regent's College) is a private university located in London, England. It is part of Galileo Global Education, Europe’s largest higher education provider. Regent's University London was established in 1984 ...

. 889 objections were received, including from MPs

Caroline Flint Caroline Louise Flint (born 20 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley from 1997 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she attended the Cabinet of the United Kingdom as Minister for Hous ...

and Vicky Ford, and campaigner

Caroline Criado-Perez Caroline Emma Criado Perez (born 1984) is a British feminist author, journalist and activist. Her first national campaign, the Women's Room project, aimed to increase the presence of female experts in the media. She opposed the removal of the ...

, and the application was withdrawn on 14 September.

References

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External links