Pendant

This pendant, known as the Angel of Hope, commemorates the release from Holloway prison of the Suffragette Louise Mary Eates in 1909. Louise, Secretary of Kensington Women's Social and Political Union was imprisoned in Holloway for one month having been arrested in Parliament Square in March 1909 while taking part in a deputation with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. On her release in May 1909 Kensington WSPU gave their secretary a 'royal welcome'. After greeting her at the gates of Holloway they arranged a meeting of welcome in Kensington Town Hall. Here she was presented with the pendant made especially for the occasion by Ernestine Mills. The 14th May 1909 Votes for Women newspaper referred to The Angel of Hope as a “slender chain with stones of purple, green, and white'

Louise Eates (1877-1944) was encouraged to become a suffragette by her husband, Dr Augustus Eates a General Practioner based in Kensal Rise. Prior to becoming a Suffragette, Louise was Honorary Secretary of the Investigation Committee of the Women's Industrial Council, helping to produce reports on women's trades. In 1906-07 Eates assisted with the formation of the Kensington branch of the Women's Social and Political Union, and became its Secretary. Under Louise's co-leadership Kensington became one of the most active and financially successful of the WSPU national branches, responsible for raising considerable funds for the campaign. In 1909 Louise served her only term of imprisonment for militancy having been sentenced to 1 month in Holloway prison while taking part in a deputation to Parliament Square with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. In 1910 Eates worked as WSPU organiser for the Kensington (North) Division during the general election campaign and in December 1910 in the constituency of West St. Pancras. At the end of 1910 Eates left London with her husband to travel to India and Vienna. They returned to London in 1913 where Eates resumed her interest in the suffrage cause by joining the United Suffragists.
Her only daughter Margot, was an art historian and worked at the London Museum as a Curator from the late 1930s, including during World War II.