The 'From Prison to Citizenship' Banner on the Women's Coronation Procession, 17 June, 1911

The 'From Prison to Citizenship' banner on the Women's Coronation Procession, 17 June, 1911. The 'From Prison to Citizenship' banner designed by Laurence Housman for the Kensington branch of the Women's Social and Political Union was first seen at Women's Sunday in June 1908. Although this image is undated the temporary grandstands seen in the background suggest this image was taken during the Women's Coronation Procession, the grandstands having been erected for the Coronation of King George V the following week. For this procession the banner headed 'The Prisoners' Pageant that marched immediately behind the suffragette leaders and in front of the historical pageant of women.
The banner celebrated imprisonment. As the Daily News had written in 1908 'Those who dominate the movement have a sense of the dramatic, they know that whereas the sight of one woman struggling with policemen is either comic or miserably pathetic, the imprisonment of dozens is a splendid advertisement'.