Emily Davison
Last night Michael and I toured parts of the House of Commons with MP Liam Fox. We were able to visit the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, which isn't part of the public tour route. This is an incredibly beautiful and old (begun in 1292) chapel in a very unusual style, most similar spaces being destroyed. However, one of the most interesting parts of the chapel for me was the broom cupboard at the back, where the suffragette Emily Davison hid during the 1911 Census, ensuring that her address would go down on record as "House of Commons". The cupboard is small these days, with bits of maintenance equipment in it, only fitting two very friendly people in at once. As Fox said, if this was America, the cupboard would be "a major feminist shrine". As it is, it is almost unmarked. There is, though, a plaque and a portrait of Davison - on the inside of the door, making it almost impossible to view.
The main point to me though was not that she hid there, or that the memorial to her actions was so discreet, but that the plaque itself had been placed there in what seems to have been a personal gesture by Tony Benn. Not an official commemoration; not done at or soon after the time women finally acheived suffrage; but a late addition by a rebellious MP. Apparently Benn arranged this himself, after the suggestion of a memorial was rejected by the Speaker. There was a note at the bottom of the plaque, which I paraphrase: "Well, Mr Speaker, I shall see that a plaque is placed there if I have to screw it to the wall with my own hands."
The main point to me though was not that she hid there, or that the memorial to her actions was so discreet, but that the plaque itself had been placed there in what seems to have been a personal gesture by Tony Benn. Not an official commemoration; not done at or soon after the time women finally acheived suffrage; but a late addition by a rebellious MP. Apparently Benn arranged this himself, after the suggestion of a memorial was rejected by the Speaker. There was a note at the bottom of the plaque, which I paraphrase: "Well, Mr Speaker, I shall see that a plaque is placed there if I have to screw it to the wall with my own hands."