Votes for Women Demonstration. July 8th, 1906. Women's Social and Political Union.

Printed handbill issued by the Women's Social and Political Union announcing a 'Votes for Women' demonstration to be held in Hyde Park on 8 July 1906. The demonstration organised by the WSPU to call for the 'immediate enfranchisement of women' was due to include speeches from the Suffragette leaders Christabel Pankhurst, Annie Kenney, Minnie Baldock, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Teresa Billington. However the handbill has been altered by hand and both Christabel Pankhurst's and Emmeline Pethwick Lawerence's names have been crossed through with those of Sylvia Pankhurst and others added. At the top of the flyer is handwritten '1st Speech in Hyde Park E.H.W'. Presumably this annotation has been added by Edith How Martyn herself in acknowledgement of her first major Suffragette speech.
This was one of a series of Hyde Park meetings organised by the Women's Social and Political Union during the summer of 1906. With the relocation of the WSPU leaders to London and the opening of a new London headquarters in 1906 the Women's Social and Political Union increased their campaigning activity in the capital. Regular, open air meetings in London's famous landmarks such as Hyde Park were crucial not only for promoting the Votes for Women message but also for putting pressure on the government to confront the issue and drive it up the political agenda.