Band of the WSPU

The Drum & Fife Band of the Women's Social and Political Union at the Women's Exhibition, May 1909. The posed image taken inside the Exhibition venue of Prince's Skating Rink in Knightsbridge shows 22 members of the WSPU drum and fife band, including on the far left the Drum-Major Mary Leigh. The women are seen wearing their eye-catching uniform in the WSPU purple, white and green colourscheme.
The image marks one of the first appearances of the Drum & Fife Band that made its debut on 15th May 1909 in a procession to promote the Women's Exhibition. The novelty of an all -female band dressed in a purple, white and green military style uniform drew vast crowds and much press attention. The creation of the band was intended to remove the Suffragette's total dependence on male bands to front processions, a fact not lost on the News of the World who reported ‘By this latest enterprise the Suffragists have got rid of the last vestige of ‘mere man’ at their demonstrations’ and then made its way back to Kingsway after stopping off at the exhibition.
After its first appearance the band paraded around the streets of central London every evening until the end of the exhibition 26th May. On each occasion they went out accompanied by volunteers selling the Votes for Women newspaper.
Christina Broom, trading as Mrs Albert Broom, was a pioneering professional photographer and is considered to be the UK's first woman press photographer. Broom's extensive photographic work spans the activities of the suffrage movement in London, street views, military figures and actions of the Household Division including the First World War period, sporting events and the Royal Family.