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Walton, Olive. A dramatic picture of the arrest of Olive Walton in Dundee in 1914. Walton, held by two police officers in the foreground of the image, attempted to throw a petition in the royal carriage during the king’s visit to the city, where she was the WSPU paid organiser. (Suffragette Fellowship Collection, Museum of London, No 559. Copy in WC) East of ScotlandArbroath: Three ‘real photo’ postcards showing scenes of open-air meetings in Arbroath in 1909, with ‘no vote, no tax’ banners prominent among the large crowd present. The Tax Resistance League was set up in 1909 by the Women’s Freedom League with a simple policy that women should refuse to pay national taxes until they were granted the vote. Baliffs duly confiscated the women’s belongings. The goods were then sold at auction – but were often bought back for their original owners by suffrage friends and sympathisers. (Private Collection. Copies in WC)
Ballomill, Fife. Unidentified suffragettes (stated as from Dundee) being ejected from a Liberal meeting in Ballowmill in September, 1913. The presence of Prime Minister Asquith’s constituency in North Fife prompted many trips across the Tay by Dundee campaigners. (Watson Collection)
Bathgate. A large group of men are seen assembled on the steps of Bathgate Academy. At the very back of the group a woman is holding a sign reading ‘Votes for Women.’ (West Lothian Local History Library, BB1756)
Dalkeith. Suffragist making an outdoor speech to a large crowd in the centre of Dalkeith. (Midlothian Council, Local Studies Library)
Ladybank, Fife. Alice Crompton, secretary of the non-militant Dundee Women’s Suffrage Society, shows that frustration often led to action even among constitutionalist suffragists by mounting a wooden fence to protest against a visit by Prime Minister Asquith to his constituency in 1914. (Watson Collection)
Laurencekirk: Photograph of Helen Fraser speaking to a crowd during the Kincardine by-election of 1908. Fraser, who had just left the WSPU, campaigned enthusiastically throughout Scotland, but eventually rebelled against the Pankhursts’ autocratic rule. (Watson Collection)
Montrose. Mary Maloney of the WFL pictured at an open-air meeting during the Kincardine by-election, May 1908. (Original appeared in The Weekly News) (Copy in Watson Collection)
Whitekirk Church, East Lothian. Real photo postcard showing the burned-out Whitekirk church and bearing the caption, ‘Whitekirk Church Burned by Suffragettes 26th Feb’y 1914.’ Militant messages were found near the scene of the fire which destroyed one of Scotland’s most beautiful medieval churches. The timing of the fire may have been significant. Its destruction came only a few hours after Ethel Moorhead had been released from Calton Gaol suffering from pneumonia after being forcibly fed. Janie Allan claimed that one was linked to the other. (Watson Collection, with another of the church prior to burning.) For another postcard showing the burning building, see East Lothian Council museum collection. East Lothian Local History Centre also has notes on the Whitekirk Parish Church fire in 1914. EdinburghCensus Night, 1911. Photograph of women gathering at an unattributed location to avoid being enumerated. (Gorrie Collection, National Library of Scotland)
Emmeline, Christabel and Adela Pankhurst, with Emmeline Pethwick-Lawrence, pictured in Edinburgh for the 1909 franchise procession. (Gorrie Collection, National Library of Scotland)
Fettes College, Edinburgh. Two unpublished photographs showing the fire at Fettes College in 1913. 1) ‘the window broken by the militants’, 2) ‘the classroom damaged by the arson attack.’ The fire was seen as retribution for Arabella Scott’s imprisonment. No arrests were made. (Watson Collection)
Flora Drummond. Real photo postcard of Flora Drummond in her ‘General's' costume and mounted on horseback. Understood to be in an Edinburgh street. Postcard by ‘Ian Smith, Edinburgh.’ (Private collection. Copy in WC) |
