Votes For Women, Miss Christabel Pankhurst

Portrait postcard of Christabel Pankhurst (1880-1958). Above is printed 'Votes For Women'. Below is 'Miss Christabel Pankhurst The Women's Social and Political Union' and the organisation's address. One in a series of official portrait postcards of leading Suffragettes, issued by the WSPU to raise the profile of its officers.
Christabel Pankhurst had a first class degree in law, but as a woman was unable to practise as a lawyer. With her Mother, Emmeline, Christabel was a founding member of the Women's Social and Political Union. Christabel was an inspirational speaker for the votes for women cause and drew many women into the militant campaign. Christabel and Annie Kenney were the first miltants to be arrested and imprisoned when, in 1905, they interrupted a Liberal meeting at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester asking when the Liberal Party would give women the vote. Christabel went to prison twice more in 1907 and 1908 but fled the country in March 1912 to live in exile in Paris and avoid a consipiracy charge. In Paris she continued to lead the WSPU, edit the Suffragette newspaper and give orders to her loyal supporters.