Editing Emmeline Pankhurst (section)

==Women's Social and Political Union/WSPU==
[[File:Pankhurst Centre 1.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Women's Social and Political Union|WSPU]]. It was founded at Pankhurst's home on 62 Nelson Street, Manchester in 1903. The Grade II* Victoria Villa is now home to the [[Pankhurst Centre]].]]
[[File:Suffragettes, England, 1908.JPG|thumb|right|The [[Women's Social and Political Union]] became known for its militant activity. Pankhurst once said: "The condition of our sex is so deplorable that it is our duty to break the law in order to call attention to the reasons why we do."<ref>Quoted in Bartley, p. 98.</ref>]]

By 1903, Pankhurst believed that years of moderate speeches and promises about women's suffrage from members of parliament (MPs) had yielded no progress. Although suffrage bills in 1870, 1886, and 1897 had shown promise, each was defeated. She doubted that political parties, with their many agenda items, would ever make women's suffrage a priority. She even broke with the [[Independent Labour Party|ILP]] when it refused to focus on [[Votes for Women]]. It was necessary to abandon the patient tactics of existing advocacy groups, she believed, in favour of more militant actions. Thus on 10 October 1903 Pankhurst and several colleagues founded the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] (WSPU), an organisation open only to women and focused on [[direct action]] to win the vote.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp.65–67; Bartley, pp. 71–82; Pugh, pp. 104–108.</ref> "Deeds," she wrote later, "not words, was to be our permanent motto."<ref name="multiref1"/> The WSPU confined its membership to women – men could not become members.<ref>{{cite book|first=John|year=2012|last=Hostettler|title=Dissenters, Radicals, Heretics and Blasphemers: The Flame of Revolt that Shines Through English History|publisher=Waterside Press|page=223|isbn=978-1904380825}}</ref>

The group's early militancy took [[Nonviolence|non-violent]] forms. In addition to making speeches and gathering petition signatures, the WSPU organised rallies and published a newsletter called ''Votes for Women.'' The group also convened a series of "Women's Parliaments" for example, in [[Caxton Hall]], to coincide with official government sessions. When a bill for women's suffrage was filibustered on 12 May 1905, Pankhurst and other WSPU members began a loud protest outside the Parliament building. Police immediately forced them away from the building, where they regrouped and demanded passage of the bill. Although the bill was never resurrected, Pankhurst considered it a successful demonstration of militancy's power to capture attention.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 70–73; Bartley, p. 78; Pugh, pp. 124–125.</ref> Pankhurst declared in 1906: "We are at last recognized as a political party; we are now in the swim of politics, and are a political force."<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 87–88.</ref>

Before long, all three of her daughters became active with the WSPU. Christabel was arrested after spitting at a policeman during a meeting of the Liberal Party in October 1905;<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 74–75; Bartley, pp. 78–79; E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 48.</ref> Adela and Sylvia were arrested a year later during a protest outside Parliament.<ref>Purvis 2002, p. 88; Bartley, p. 84</ref> Pankhurst was arrested for the first time in February 1908, when she tried to enter Parliament to deliver a protest resolution to Prime Minister [[H. H. Asquith]]. She was charged with obstruction and sentenced to six weeks in prison. She spoke out against the conditions of her confinement, including vermin, meagre food, and the "civilised torture of [[solitary confinement]] and absolute silence" to which she and others were ordered.<ref name="Quoted in Bartley, p. 103">Quoted in Bartley, p. 103.</ref> Pankhurst saw imprisonment as a means to publicise the urgency of women's suffrage; in June 1909 she struck a police officer twice in the face to ensure she would be arrested. Pankhurst was arrested seven times before women's suffrage was approved. During her trial on 21 October 1908 she told the court: "We are here not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers."<ref>[[June Purvis]], Sandra Stanley Holton (eds.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=rHlnOq2DqJ8C&dq= ''Votes For Women''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716173352/https://books.google.com/books?id=rHlnOq2DqJ8C&dq= |date=16 July 2019 }}, Routledge, 2000, p. 120.</ref><ref>Quoted in Bartley, pp. 98–103 [100]; Purvis 2002, pp. 129–130.</ref>

[[File:Emmeline Pankhurst in prison.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Pankhurst (wearing prison clothes) described her first incarceration as: "like a human being in the process of being turned into a wild beast."<ref name="Quoted in Bartley, p. 103"/>]]

The exclusive focus of the WSPU on votes for women was another hallmark of its militancy. While other organisations agreed to work with individual political parties, the WSPU insisted on separating itself from – and in many cases opposing – parties which did not make women's suffrage a priority. The group protested against all candidates belonging to the party of the ruling government since it refused to pass women's suffrage legislation. This brought them into immediate conflict with Liberal Party organisers, particularly since many Liberal candidates supported women's suffrage. (One early target of WSPU opposition was future Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]]; his opponent attributed Churchill's defeat in part to "those ladies who are sometimes laughed at.")<ref>Bartley, p. 106.</ref>

Members of the WSPU were sometimes heckled and derided for spoiling elections for Liberal candidates. On 18 January 1908, Pankhurst and her associate [[Nellie Martel]] were attacked by an all-male crowd of Liberal supporters who blamed the WSPU for costing them a recent by-election to the Conservative candidate. The men threw clay, rotten eggs, and stones packed in snow; the women were beaten and Pankhurst's ankle was severely bruised.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 101–102; Bartley, p. 104–105.</ref> Similar tensions later formed with Labour. Until party leaders made the vote for women a priority, however, the WSPU vowed to continue its militant activism. Pankhurst and others in the union saw [[Political party|party politics]] as distracting to the goal of women's suffrage and criticised other organisations for putting party loyalty ahead of women's votes.<ref>Bartley, pp. 85–88; Purvis 2002, pp. 86–87.</ref>

As the WSPU gained recognition and notoriety for its actions, Pankhurst resisted efforts to democratise the organisation itself. In 1907 a small group of members led by [[Teresa Billington-Greig]] called for more involvement from the rank-and-file suffragettes at the union's annual meetings. In response, Pankhurst announced at a WSPU meeting that elements of the organisation's constitution relating to decision-making were void and cancelled the annual meetings. She also insisted that a small committee chosen by the members in attendance be allowed to co-ordinate WSPU activities. Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel were chosen (along with [[Mabel Tuke]] and [[Emmeline Pethick Lawrence]]) as members of the new committee. Frustrated, several members including Billington-Greig and [[Charlotte Despard]] quit to form their own organisation, the [[Women's Freedom League]].<ref>Bartley, pp. 91–93; Purvis 2002, pp. 96–99; Pugh, pp. 165–168.</ref> In her 1914 autobiography Pankhurst dismissed criticism of the WSPU's leadership structure:<blockquote>if at any time a member, or a group of members, loses faith in our policy; if any one begins to suggest that some other policy ought to be substituted, or if she tries to confuse the issue by adding other policies, she ceases at once to be a member. Autocratic? Quite so. But, you may object, a suffrage organisation ought to be democratic. Well the members of the W.S.P.U. do not agree with you. We do not believe in the effectiveness of the ordinary suffrage organisation. The W.S.P.U. is not hampered by a complexity of rules. We have no constitution and [[Bylaw|by-laws]]; nothing to be amended or tinkered with or quarrelled over at an annual meeting&nbsp;... The W.S.P.U. is simply a suffrage army in the field.<ref>E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 59.</ref></blockquote>

=== Tactical intensification ===
On 21 June 1908, 500,000 activists rallied in [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]] to demand votes for women. This day is the beginning of "Women' s Sunday". It was organised by the WSPN, the massive demonstration for women's suffrage saw thousands march in seven processions all over London, gathering for a day of peaceful protest.
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyrevealed.com/eras/modern/emmeline-pankhurst-mother-of-the-vote/|title=Emmeline Pankhurst, mother of the vote|website=historyrevealed.com|access-date=13 April 2023|archive-date=29 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529145006/https://www.historyrevealed.com/eras/modern/emmeline-pankhurst-mother-of-the-vote/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Asquith and leading MPs responded with indifference. Angered by this intransigence and abusive police activity, some WSPU members increased the severity of their actions. Soon after the rally, twelve women gathered in [[Parliament Square]] and tried to deliver speeches for women's suffrage. Police officers seized several of the speakers and pushed them into a crowd of opponents who had gathered nearby. Frustrated, two WSPU members – [[Edith New]] and [[Mary Leigh]] – went to [[10 Downing Street]] and hurled rocks at the windows of the Prime Minister's home. They insisted their act was independent of the WSPU command, but Pankhurst expressed her approval of the action. When a magistrate sentenced New and Leigh to two months' imprisonment, Pankhurst reminded the court of how various male political agitators had broken windows to win legal and [[civil rights]] throughout Britain's history.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 108–109; Bartley, pp. 96–97.</ref>

[[Image: Portrait Badge of Emmeline Pankhurst - c1909 - Museum of London.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait badge of Emmeline Pankhurst – c. 1909 – Sold in large numbers by the WSPU to raise funds for its cause – Museum of London]]

In 1909 the [[hunger strike]] was added to the WSPU's repertoire of resistance. On 24 June [[Marion Wallace Dunlop]] was arrested for writing an excerpt from the [[Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights (1688 or 1689)]] on a wall in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]]. Angered by the conditions of the jail, Dunlop went on a hunger strike. When it proved effective, fourteen women imprisoned for smashing windows began to fast. WSPU members soon became known around the country for holding prolonged hunger strikes to protest their incarceration. Prison authorities frequently force-fed the women, using tubes inserted through the nose or mouth. The painful techniques (which, in the case of mouth-feeding, required the use of steel gags to force the mouth open) brought condemnation from suffragists and medical professionals.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 129–135; Bartley, pp. 113–114.</ref>

These tactics caused some tension between the WSPU and more moderate organisations, which had coalesced into the [[National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies]] (NUWSS). That group's leader, [[Millicent Fawcett]], originally hailed WSPU members for their courage and dedication to the cause. By 1912, however, she declared that hunger strikes were mere publicity stunts and that militant activists were "the chief obstacles in the way of the success of the suffrage movement in the House of Commons."<ref name="p194">Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 194.</ref> The NUWSS refused to join a march of women's suffrage groups after demanding without success that the WSPU end its support of property destruction. Fawcett's sister [[Elizabeth Garrett Anderson]] later resigned from the WSPU for similar reasons.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 147, 181.</ref>

[[File: Emmeline Pankhurst addresses crowd.jpg|thumb|right|After selling her home, Pankhurst travelled constantly, giving speeches throughout Britain and the United States. One of her most famous speeches, "[[s: Freedom or death|Freedom or death]]", was delivered in Connecticut in 1913.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Commons Librarian |date=2024-07-08 |title=Watch Inspiring Activist and Protest Speeches : Emmeline Pankhurst, Freedom or Death, 1913 [Women’s suffrage] |url=https://commonslibrary.org/watch-inspiring-activist-and-protest-speeches/#Emmeline_Pankhurst_Freedom_or_Death_1913_Womens_suffrage |access-date=2024-08-10 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>]]

Press coverage was mixed; many journalists noted that crowds of women responded positively to speeches by Pankhurst, while others condemned her radical approach to the issue. ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]'' urged her to endorse a more moderate approach, and other press outlets condemned the breaking of windows by WSPU members. In 1906 ''[[Daily Mail]]'' journalist Charles Hands referred to militant women using the diminutive term "[[suffragette]]" (rather than the standard "[[suffragist]]"). Pankhurst and her allies seized the term as their own and used it to differentiate themselves from moderate groups.<ref>Holton 1996, p. 253; Purvis 2002, pp. 135–138.</ref>

The last half of the century's first decade was a time of sorrow, loneliness, and constant work for Pankhurst. In 1907 she sold her home in Manchester and began an itinerant lifestyle, moving from place to place as she spoke and marched for women's suffrage. She stayed with friends and in hotels, carrying her few possessions in suitcases. Although she was energized by the struggle–and found joy in giving energy to others– her constant travelling meant separation from her children, especially Christabel, who had become the national coordinator of the WSPU. In 1909, as Pankhurst planned a speaking tour of the United States, Henry was paralyzed after his [[spinal cord]] became inflamed. She hesitated to leave the country while he was ill, but she needed money to pay for his treatment and the tour promised to be lucrative. On her return from a successful tour, she sat by Henry's bedside as he died on 5 January 1910. Five days later she buried him beside his brother Frank in Highgate Cemetery,<ref>Oakley 2021, pp. 12–13</ref> then spoke before 5,000 people in Manchester. Liberal Party supporters who had come to heckle her remained quiet as she addressed the crowd.<ref>, Purvis 2002, pp. 98–99, 142–153; Bartley, p. 88.</ref>
[[File:Pankhurst boys' grave.jpg|thumb|Grave of Emmeline Pankhurst's sons in Highgate Cemetery]]

=== Conciliation, force-feeding attempt, and arson ===
{{See also|Suffragette bombing and arson campaign}}
After the Liberal losses in the 1910 elections, ILP member and journalist [[Henry Brailsford]] helped organise a Conciliation Committee for Women's Suffrage, which gathered 54 MPs from various parties. The group's [[Conciliation Bills|Conciliation Bill]] looked to be a narrowly defined but still significant possibility to achieve the vote for some women. Thus the WSPU agreed to suspend its support for window-breaking and hunger strikes while it was being negotiated. When it became clear that the bill would not pass, Pankhurst declared: "If the Bill, in spite of our efforts, is killed by the Government, then&nbsp;... I have to say there is an end to the truce."<ref>Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 150.</ref> When it was defeated, Pankhurst led a [[Demonstration (people)|protest march]] of 300 women to Parliament Square on 18 November. They were met with aggressive police response, directed by [[Home Secretary]] Winston Churchill: officers punched the marchers, twisted arms, and pulled on women's breasts.<ref name="bf"/> Although Pankhurst was allowed to enter Parliament, Prime Minister Asquith refused to meet her. The incident became known as [[Black Friday (1910)|Black Friday]].<ref name="bf">Purvis 2002, pp. 143–151.</ref> Her sister Mary Jane, who had attended the protest, too, was arrested for the third time, a few days later. She was sentenced to a month of imprisonment. On Christmas Day she died at the home of their brother Herbert Goulden, two days after her release.<ref name="wsm"/>

[[File:Forcefeeding.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Pankhurst was horrified by the screams of women being [[Force-feeding|force-fed]] during hunger strikes. In her autobiography, she wrote: "I shall never while I live forget the suffering I experienced during the days when those cries were ringing in my ears."<ref>E. Pankhurst 1915, p. 252.</ref>]]

[[File:Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, Leader of the Women's Suffragette movement, is arrested outside Buckingham Palace while trying to present a petition to King George V in May 1914. Q81486.jpg|thumbnail|right|Pankhurst is arrested by police outside [[Buckingham Palace]] while trying to present a petition to George V in May 1914]]
As subsequent Conciliation Bills were introduced, WSPU leaders advocated a halt to militant tactics. [[Aileen Preston]] was appointed as Pankhurst's driver in April 1911, to drive her around the country to help spread the suffrage message.<ref>{{Cite web|date=16 March 2021|title=Suffrage Stories: Aileen Preston: Mrs Pankhurst's first 'lady chauffeuse'|url=https://womanandhersphere.com/2021/03/16/suffrage-stories-aileen-preston-mrs-pankhursts-first-lady-chauffeuse/|access-date=16 March 2021|website=Woman and her Sphere|language=en|archive-date=16 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316114039/https://womanandhersphere.com/2021/03/16/suffrage-stories-aileen-preston-mrs-pankhursts-first-lady-chauffeuse/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Woman's Hour – Aileen Graham-Jones – BBC Sounds|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p01ngy65|access-date=16 March 2021|website=www.bbc.co.uk|language=en-GB}}</ref>

In March 1912, the second bill was in jeopardy and Pankhurst joined a fresh outbreak of window-smashing. Extensive property damage led police to raid the WSPU offices. Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence were tried at the [[Old Bailey]] and convicted of conspiracy to commit [[property damage]]. Christabel, who by 1912 was the chief coordinator for the organisation, was also wanted by police. She fled to Paris, where she directed WSPU strategy in exile. Inside [[Holloway (HM Prison)|Holloway Prison]], Emmeline Pankhurst staged her first hunger strike to improve conditions for other suffragettes in nearby cells; she was quickly joined by Pethick-Lawrence and other WSPU members. She described in her autobiography the trauma caused by [[force-feeding]] during the strike: "Holloway became a place of horror and torment. Sickening scenes of violence took place almost every hour of the day, as the doctors went from cell to cell performing their hideous office."<ref>E. Pankhurst, pp. 251–252.</ref> When prison officials tried to enter her cell, Pankhurst raised a clay jug over her head and announced: "If any of you dares so much as to take one step inside this cell I shall defend myself."<ref>E. Pankhurst 1914, p. 255; Purvis 2002, pp. 179–189, 128–132.</ref>

Pankhurst was spared further force-feeding attempts after this incident, but she continued to violate the law and – when imprisoned – starve herself in protest. During the following two years she was arrested numerous times but was frequently released after several days because of her [[Disease|ill health]]. Later, the Asquith government enacted the [[Cat and Mouse Act]], which allowed similar releases for other suffragettes facing ill-health due to hunger strikes. Prison officials recognised the potential [[public relations]] disaster that would erupt if the popular WSPU leader were force-fed or allowed to suffer extensively in jail. Still, police officers arrested her during talks and as she marched. She tried to evade police harassment by wearing disguises and eventually the WSPU established a [[jujutsu]]-trained female bodyguard squad to physically protect her against the police. She and other escorts were targeted by police, resulting in violent scuffles as officers tried to detain Pankhurst.<ref>Bartley, pp. 152–156.</ref>

In 1912, WSPU members [[Suffragette bombing and arson campaign|adopted arson as another tactic to win the vote]]. After Prime Minister Asquith had visited the [[Theatre Royal, Dublin|Theatre Royal]] in Dublin, suffragette activists Gladys Evans, Lizzie Baker, [[Mary Leigh]], and [[Mabel Capper]] [[Suffragette bombing and arson campaign#The campaign|attempted to cause an explosion using gunpowder and benzine]], which resulted in minimal damage. During the same evening, Mary Leigh threw an axe at the carriage containing [[John Redmond]] (leader of the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]]), the Lord Mayor, and Asquith.<ref>Manchester Guardian 20 July 1912, "The Dublin Outrages by Women"</ref>

Over the next two years women set fire to a refreshments building in [[Regent's Park]], an orchid house at [[Kew Gardens]], [[pillar box]]es, and a [[Railroad car|railway carriage]]. [[Emily Davison]] threw herself under [[George V|the King]]'s horse [[Anmer]] at the [[Epsom Derby]] in 1913. Her funeral drew 55,000 attendees along the streets and at the funeral. This gave significant publicity to the movement.
Although Pankhurst confirmed that these women had not been commanded by her or Christabel, they both assured the public that they supported the arsonist suffragettes. There were similar incidents around the country. One WSPU member, for example, put a small [[hatchet]] into the Prime Minister's carriage inscribed with the words: "Votes for Women,"<ref>Purvis 2002, p. 193.</ref> and other suffragettes used acid to burn the same slogan into [[Golf|golf courses]] used by MPs.<ref>E. Pankhurst 1914, pp. 270–271; Purvis 2002, p. 209; Bartley, p. 146.</ref> In 1914, [[Mary Richardson]] slashed the [[Diego Velázquez|Velasquez]] painting ''[[Rokeby Venus]]'' to protest against Pankhurst's imprisonment.<ref>Davies, Christie. "Velazquez in London." ''New Criterion.'' Volume: 25. Issue: 5, January 2007. p. 53.</ref>

=== Defection and dismissal ===
[[File:Britain Before the First World War Q81490.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Emmeline Pankhurst (left) and Christabel (centre) and [[Sylvia Pankhurst|Sylvia]] at Waterloo Station, London on 4 October 1911. ]]
The WSPU's approval of property destruction led to the departure of several important members. The first were Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and her husband [[Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence|Frederick]]. They had long been integral members of the group's leadership but found themselves in conflict with Christabel about the wisdom of such volatile tactics. After returning from a vacation in Canada they found that Pankhurst had expelled them from the WSPU. The pair found the decision appalling, but to avoid a [[Schism (organizational)|schism]] in the movement they continued to praise Pankhurst and the organisation in public. Around the same time, Emmeline's daughter Adela left the group. She disapproved of WSPU endorsement of property destruction and felt that a heavier emphasis on socialism was necessary. Adela's relationship with her family – especially Christabel – was also strained as a result.<ref>Pugh, pp. 225–226; Purvis 2002, pp. 190–196.</ref>

The deepest rift in the Pankhurst family came in November 1913 when Sylvia spoke at a meeting of socialists and trade unionists in support of trade union organiser [[Jim Larkin]]. She had been working with the [[Workers Socialist Federation|East London Federation of Suffragettes]] (ELFS), a local branch of the WSPU which had a close relationship with socialists and [[Labour movement|organised labour]]. The close connection to labour groups and Sylvia's appearance on stage with Frederick Pethick-Lawrence – who also addressed the crowd – convinced Christabel that her sister was organising a group that might challenge the WSPU in the suffrage movement. The dispute became public, and members of groups including the WSPU, ILP, and ELFS braced themselves for a showdown.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 237–238; Bartley, p. 158.</ref> After being dismissed from the WSPU, Sylvia felt "bruised, as one does, when fighting the foe without, one is struck by the friend within."<ref>E. S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 518.</ref>

In January Sylvia was summoned to Paris, where Emmeline and Christabel were waiting. Their mother had just returned from another tour of the US, and Sylvia had just been released from prison. All three women were exhausted and stressed, which added considerably to the tension. In her 1931 book ''The Suffrage Movement'' Sylvia describes Christabel as an unreasonable figure, haranguing her for refusing to toe the WSPU line:<blockquote>She turned to me. "You have your own ideas. We do not want that; we want all our women to take their instructions and walk in step like an army!" Too tired, too ill to argue, I made no reply. I was oppressed by a sense of tragedy, grieved by her ruthlessness. Her glorification of autocracy seemed to me remote indeed from the struggle we were waging, the grim fight even now proceeding in the cells. I thought of many others who had been thrust aside for some minor difference.<ref>E. S. Pankhurst 1931, p. 517.</ref></blockquote>With their mother's blessing, Christabel ordered Sylvia's group to dissociate from the WSPU. Pankhurst tried to persuade the ELFS to remove the word "suffragettes" from its name, since it was inextricably linked to the WSPU. When Sylvia refused, her mother switched to fierce anger in a letter:<blockquote>You are unreasonable, always have been &amp; I fear always will be. I suppose you were made so!&nbsp;... Had you chosen a name which we could approve we could have done much to launch you &amp; advertise your society by name. Now you must take your own way of doing so. I am sorry but you make your own difficulties by an incapacity to look at situations from other people's point of view as well as your own. Perhaps in time you will learn the lessons that we all have to learn in life.<ref>Quoted in Purvis 2002, p. 248.</ref></blockquote>Adela, unemployed and unsure of her future, had become a worry for Pankhurst as well. She decided that Adela should move to Australia, and paid for her relocation. They never saw one another again.<ref>Purvis 2002, pp. 248–249; Pugh, pp. 287–288.</ref>

===The Women's Party===

In November 1917 the WSPU's weekly newspaper announced that the WSPU was to become the [[Women's Party (UK)|Women's Party]]. Twelve months later on Tuesday 19 November at the [[Queen's Hall]] in London Emmeline Pankhurst said that her daughter Christabel would be their candidate at the forthcoming [[1918 United Kingdom general election|General Election]], the first at which women could stand as candidates. They didn't say which constituency they would fight but a few days later [[Westbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Westbury]] in Wiltshire was identified. Emmeline lobbied Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] to ensure Christabel would have coalition backing. However, as these discussions were taking place the Pankhurst's switched their attention to [[Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)|Smethwick]] in Staffordshire. The Coalition had already settled on a local candidate, Major Samuel Nock Thompson, but [[Bonar Law]], the Conservative leader, was persuaded to ask Thompson to withdraw. Significantly, Christabel was not issued with a formal letter of support from the two leaders, the [[Coalition Coupon]]. Christabel then had a straight fight with the Labour candidate [[John Davison (politician)|John Davison]] and lost by 775 votes. The Women's Party fought no other elections and closed soon after.<ref>[http://www.brewinbooks.com/taking_on_the_men Hallam, David J.A. ''Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629203313/https://www.brewinbooks.com/taking_on_the_men |date=29 June 2019 }}, pp. 18–19, 20, 22, 27</ref>