WSPU 'From Prison to Citizenship' procession

This postcard depicts a scene from the spectacular 'From Prison to Citizenship' procession through London organised by the Women's Social & Political Union on 18th June 1910. The Prisoners Pageant represented in the image involved 617 women in white wearing their prisoners' medals and carrying 'a glittering host of steely broad arrows' representing their imprisonment. Before them is the newly unfurled 'Hunger Strikers' banner embroidered with the signatures of eighty women who had 'faced death without flinching'.
The prisoner's pageant formed part of the Great Procession of Women, organised in support of the Conciliation Bill, currently being debated in Parliament.
The Hunger Strikers' banner was designed by Ann Macbeth, Head of Glasgow School of Art Embroidery Department as a friendship quilt. Ann donated the quilt to the WSPU Scottish Exhibition and Bazaar held at St Andrew Hall, Charing Cross, Glasgow in April 1910 to raise funds for the campaign. The quilt was purchased for £10 by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and subsequently converted to a banner through the addition of carrying poles.
This postcard was one in a series of 8 issued by the commercial photographer H.Searjeant after the event. The postcards could be purchased for 2d and were also sold wholesale to WSPU branch shops.