Minnie Baldock
Lucy Minnie Baldock (born November 20, 1864 in Bromley-by-Bow, London, † December 10, 1954 in Hamworthy, near Poole ) was a British suffragette . Together with Annie Kenney , she founded a branch of the Women's Social and Political Union in London. She is an example of the fact that among the committed suffragettes there were also married women from the working class who had to look after children.
Life and activism
Lucy Minnie Rogers was born in London (Bromley-by-Bow) in 1864. As a girl she had to sew in a shirt factory. She married in 1888 and had two sons, Jack and Harry. The East End of London was known for its poor living conditions, so the Baldocks joined the Independent Labor Party (ILP) after the socialist Keir Hardie became their MP in the House of Commons in 1892. She worked with Charlotte Despard and Dora Montefiore. It took over the local fund for the unemployed, which was used to alleviate the worst hardship. Women were not allowed to become members of parliament at the time, but the ILP elected her as its candidate for the West Ham Board of Guardians in 1905.
Baldock and Annie Kenney founded the first branch of the Women's Social and Political Union in Canning Town in 1906 , which at the time was still based in Manchester . Meetings were held in the Canning Town Public Hall. Baldock attended a Liberal campaign meeting at the Royal Albert Hall on December 21, 1905 , disguised as the 'maid' of Annie Kenney (who wore a fur coat). Both sat in a box, hung a banner over the railing that said 'Votes for Women' and made loud shouts, which led to a disturbance. The next day, Baldock visited Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman with Kenney and Teresa Billington to ask when the Liberals would look into women's suffrage. For Baldock's 'noble demeanor', Dora Montefiore congratulated her in a postcard.
Baldock became a paid employee of the WSPU. Speakers there included Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence , Annie Kenney and Flora Drummond . On October 23, 1906, Baldock was arrested - along with Nellie Martel and Anne Cobden Sanderson - for improper conduct during the opening of Parliament. In 1907, after Jane Sbarborough's visit to Holloway Prison, she reported to the leadership group that she had heard something about communication between the suffragettes who were imprisoned at the same time but were not allowed to speak to one another. Baldock was also at the prison gates with Christabel Pankhurst to assist Flora Drummond and other released inmates and to pick them up for a celebratory hotel breakfast. She also spoke to Emmeline Pankhurst at a home event in Knightsbridge hosted by Louise Eates of Kensington WSPU in June 1907 and at a Kensington house. Sara Jessie wrote in her pamphlet No Other Way the important statement why she got involved: "To make the rich and idle women realize the difficulties that drive poor women to demand the vote". (German: To make the rich and idle women aware of the difficulties that drive poor women to demand the right to vote. )
In November 1907, Baldock reported that she had been kicked out of an event with a Liberal MP on the Isle of Dogs but stood on a chair outside and shouted 'Votes for Women' through a window. In the summer of 1908 she was in Nottingham with Elsa Gye to set up a new branch of the WSPU. In April 1909, she and about 500 suffragettes had breakfast in Picadilly on the occasion of Mrs. Pethick-Lawrence's release from prison.
Prison experiences
Baldock was among the twelve women who marched single file through the streets with Emmeline Pankhurst in the direction of Parliament in February 1908 and were then arrested. Their intention was "to present a petition from the Conference at Caxton Hall, and to the refusal of the authorities to treat suffragist offenders as first-class misdemeanants." (German: Your intention was to hand over a petition from the Caxton Hall congregation to protest against the authorities' refusal to grant first-class detention to the suffragists as convicts) . Baldock, along with Mrs. Pankhurst and others, were arrested and charged with resisting and disturbing the public order:
"Miss Kenney and Mrs. Baldock, against whom there were previous convictions, were each fined £ 5, with the alternative of one month's imprisonment in the second division. Mrs. Pankhurst and the other defendants were each ordered to find sureties of £ 20 to be of good behavior for twelve months, or to go to prison for six weeks in the second division. All the ten women chose to go to prison. "
(German: Miss Kenney and Mrs. Baldock, who had previously been convicted, were each fined £ 5 or the alternative of a month's imprisonment in the second degree. Mrs. Pankhurst and the other defendants were ordered to give £ 20 collateral to show good behavior for 12 months or to go to prison for six weeks in the second grade. All 10 women chose prison. )
Baldock had to leave her two boys with their father while she served a month in prison helping her fellow suffragettes. She sent a message outside, which was printed on March 1, 1908 on p. 82 in Votes for Women :
"I love freedom so dearly that I want all women to have it, and I will fight for it until they get it".
(German: I love freedom so much that I want it for all women. And I will fight for it until they get it. )
In April of this year, Emily Cobb (WSPU) offered to fund the cost of a domestic help so that Baldock could be set free for work that only she and many others could not do for the cause. And in May Baldock was in Bristol with Annie Kenney to rent a house near the venue where Liberal MP and Irish Secretary of State Augustine Birrell was to speak. This should help Elsie Howey and Vera Holme, who wanted to hide in the hall of the house overnight, to get into the event. In October 1909 Baldock was arrested again along with Flora Drummond and the Pankhursts at the Clements Inn.
As a suffragette who had been in prison, she was given the honor of planting a memorial tree near Eagle House in Somerset in February 1909. The house was the family home of Mary Blathwayt's parents, who supported the cause of women's suffrage. Her father took souvenir photos and sent her flower sticks for her garden the following April. (See also: Annie's Arboretum )
The following year Baldock spoke at Wimbledon Common and made a Minnie Turner-paid trip to Brighton to support Mary Clarke, who campaigned there for a week over the summer.
In 1911, however, Baldock was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery by Louisa Aldrich-Blake. Baldock recovered, but broke off contact with the increasingly militant WSPU. However, she kept in touch with Edith How-Martyn and she remained a member of the Church League for Women's Suffrage. At the beginning of 1913, she and her family had to move temporarily to Liverpool because their sons wanted to work in the shipyards. Presumably she then lived with her husband in Southampton .
Baldock attended Emmeline Pankhurst's funeral, wearing the purple, white, and green colors (1928), and was also present at the unveiling of the statue of Emmeline in 1930. She herself lived until she was ninety and died in Poole in 1954.
Recognition after death
Her name and picture (and those of 58 other supporters of women's suffrage) are on the base of the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square , London, which was unveiled in late 2018.
See also
Web links
- Article about Minnie Baldock at Spartacus Educational. Retrieved April 10, 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1939 England and Wales Register
- ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995
- ↑ Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 . Routledge 2003. pp. 26-27. ISBN 1135434026
- ↑ Sarah Jackson, The suffragettes weren't just white, middle-class women throwing stones (English) The Guardian, October 12, 2015, Retrieved April 10, 2019
- ^ Short biography of Baldock at Spartacus Educational (English) Retrieved April 10, 1019
- ↑ Review of Atkinson's book, The remarkable lives of the suffragettes. Retrieved April 10, 2019
- ^ Short biography of Minnie Baldock in Spartacus Educational (English) Retrieved April 10, 2019
- ↑ Diane Atkinson: Rise Up Women !: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes. London, Bloomsbury Publishing 2018. Pages: 31-2; 45-, 79, 90, 94, 114, 142, 213, 259. ISBN 978-1-4088-4406-9 .
- ^ Short biography of Minnie Baldock in Spartacus Educational (English) Retrieved April 10, 2019
- ↑ Elizabeth Crawford: The women's suffrage movement: A reference guide, 1866-1928. Psychology Press 2001. ISBN 978-0-415-23926-4
- ↑ June Purvis: Emmeline Pankhurst: A Biography ( en ). Routledge, September 2, 2003, ISBN 9781134341924 , p. 103.
- ↑ a b Mrs. Pankhurst in Prison (en) . In: The Manchester Guardian , February 15, 1908, p. 11. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
- ↑ BM WilmottDobbie: A Nest of suffragettes in Somerset , ISBN 0950539015 , p. 21
- ↑ End of short biography. Accessed April 11, 2019
- ↑ Historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett unveiled in Parliament Square . Gov.uk. April 24, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
- ↑ Alexandra Topping: First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled . In: The Guardian , April 24, 2018.
- ↑ Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth . iNews. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Baldock, Minnie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Baldock, Lucy Minnie (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English suffragette and suffragette |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 20, 1864 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bromley-by-Bow , London |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 10, 1954 |
| Place of death | Hamworthy at Poole |