The Suffragette Bombers: Britain's Forgotten TerroristsIn the years leading up to the First World War, the United Kingdom was subjected to a ferocious campaign of bombing and arson. Those conducting this terrorist offensive were members of the Women's Social and Political Union; better known as the suffragettes. ??The targets for their attacks ranged from St Paul's Cathedral and the Bank of England in London to theatres and churches in Ireland. The violence, which included several attempted assassinations, culminated in June 1914 with an explosion in Westminster Abbey.??Simon Webb explores the way in which the suffragette bombers have been airbrushed from history, leaving us with a distorted view of the struggle for female suffrage. Not only were the suffragettes far more aggressive than is generally known, but there exists the very real and surprising possibility that their militant activities actually delayed, rather than hastened, the granting of the parliamentary vote to British women. |
Contents
The Edwardian World | 15 |
An Undemocratic Organisation | 29 |
The Use of Terror and the Need for Martyrs | 53 |
Emily DavisonPortrait of a Terrorist | 71 |
Bombing and Arson | 87 |
The Terrorist Campaign Gathers Pace | 107 |
Winter 1913 | 129 |
Dead EndSaved by the War | 141 |
The Plot to Kill The Prime Minister | 161 |
How the Vote was Won | 169 |
The Birth of a Myth | 177 |
| 183 | |
| 185 | |
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Abbey able to vote Alex Gordon Alice Wheeldon Annie Kenney arrested arson arson attacks began blackshirts bomb attack bomb exploded bombings and arson British burned campaign carried charge Christabel Pankhurst church court crowd damage death Derby Dublin Edwardian Britain elections Emily Davison Emmeline and Christabel Emmeline Pankhurst enfranchisement explosion fact favour female suffrage former suffragettes fuse gettes harm Herbert Asquith Holloway Prison Home Secretary horse hunger strike Jennie Baines killed King’s Labour Party later leader letter Liberal Lincoln’s Inn House lives Lloyd George London Manchester martyrs nitroglycerine Old Bailey organisation parliament parliamentary vote pillar boxes police Political Union Prime Minister protest railway set fire Social and Political Station streets suffragette movement suffragettes suffragists Sylvia Pankhurst target terrorism terrorist theatre twentieth century United Kingdom violence Votes for Women woman Women’s Social women’s suffrage working-class World WSPU