The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1913. MRS PANKHURST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 82, 14 April 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1913. MRS PANKHURST.

The brief announcement contained in the cable message appearing in another column to the effect tnat tire notorious Mrs Paukhurst has been released from prison will bo received with surprise. If it r.as simply because this very violent person was endangering her own life by declining to cat chicken and custard, then the fact of her release is the more surprising and wo may look for plenty more bomb outrages, window smashing exhibitions, and other such criminal acts at the hands of frenzied female rioters, whose recent doings have made some of England’s saddest history. As to Mrs Emrnaline Pankhurst, she has no excuse for her folly, for she is a woman of intellect, a powerful speaker, and a leader who must have succeeded had she but chosen the paths of sanity , ml mason. She was born at Manchester and married in 1879 to Dr. Richard Marsden Paukhurst. She has three surviving children—Christabel, Sylvia, and Adda. Mrs Pankhurst —formerly a Miss Golden —was born on the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, her father was a Radical politician, and her grandfather narrowly escaped-with his life at the great franchise riot ol Peterloo, in 1819. In 1883 she as-

si,steel her husband when ho stood as. Independent Radical candidate for| Manchester, and two years later was Radical candidate for Rotherhithe. In 1880 ilrs Pankhurst went to London, joined tho Fabian Society and the Ilolborn Women’s Liberal Association. Slie remained a Liberal until lhb‘2. when she joined the, Independent La-i hour Party and returned to Manchcsler. In the same year she stood as Independent Labour candidate for the Manchester Sehobl Hoard, and was first of the defeated candidates. The following year sho was elected head of the poll for the Poor Law (Inardians of Manchester, and served in that capacity for live years. In LSB9, on the death of her husband, slie was appointed registrar of births and deaths, and in the following year was elected as trades council nominee of the School Hoard ; she also 'served twice on tho National Administrative Council of the Independent Labour Party, and became popular in the union. In 1909, together with her daughter, Chnstabel, she founded the Women’s Social and Political Vaion, and was arrested on Fehniarv L's, 1908, for heading a.

de))utation of thirteen women to tho House of Commons, and served a term of six weeks’ imprisonment in the sec-

on(1 division, i.e., as an ordinary criminal. In October of the same year, sin' was charged with inciting to riot, and, together w ith. Ikt dauglitoi. Christabel, Wits arrc4 r d, and tried it' Bow-slrect Court, and after a trial lasting three days, was sentenced to, three mold las’ imprisonment, hut wa> released a few weeks before the ex-, pir:ilion of her sentenc.’. In October, 1909, she conducted a very successful lecturing tour in the I idled States and Canada, and wherever she went, she had a splendid reception. Oii| November Id, 1910, she led a depu-j tiition to the Crime Minister, and though she succeeded in reaching thoi door of the House of Commons, the Prime Minister refused to see her. On the following Tuesday she again marched at the head of about 400 women to see the Prime Minister. She was arrested in Downing-street, and was brought up at Bow-street Court next morning. No charge was laid against her, however, and she was dis-, missed. On March 1, 1912, in the course of the great window -smashing. demonstration, Mrs Pankhuist, accompanied by Mcsdames i uke and Marshall, drove to 10 Downing-street, and threw a stone through a window. She and her companions were arrested, and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. On March 5 warrants were issued for the arrest of the leaders on a. charge of conspiracy. Mrs Pankhurst was charged in prison. On April 4, at the end of the magisterial inquiry into the charge, the rest oi her sentence was remitted in order that she might he free to prepare her defence against the graver charge. On May 22 she was sentenced to nine months on the charge of conspiracy. On Juno 19 she joined the hungei strike, and after an attempt had been made to feed her by force she was released on June 24. On her return from the holiday, Mrs Pankhurst became lion, treasurer, when the union was reorganised in 1912. The events loading up to the present sentence are, of course, too recent to need further reference, hub it is plainly evident from the above brief outline of her career that she is in the forefront of tho so-called militant suffragettes, and her disposal is probably one of the most difficult questions the British Home Office has now on hand.