January 1, 1970

Churchill had always maintained that he would not be “henpecked” into a decision on Votes for Women. This was one of the main controversies to dog his tenure as Home Secretary. He was a particular target for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), with his meetings at the Dundee by-election in 1908 wrecked by a suffragette ringing a large bell and, in the autumn of 1909, he was attacked by a WSPU member brandishing a riding-whip at Bristol Temple Meads railway station.

?Black Friday?

Relations between Churchill and the WSPU worsened as a result of ‘Black Friday’ in November 1910, when several women’s suffrage supporters marched to parliament following the failure of a Conciliation Bill. Several women were injured following rough treatment by the police. Churchill wasn’t personally responsible for ‘Black Friday’, but he rejected all allegations against the police and refused to institute an enquiry.

Hugh Franklin wrote a newspaper article, ‘Why I struck at Mr Churchill’ (he was sentenced for assaulting Churchill on 26 November 1910), outlining the reasons for his attack: Churchill’s orders to the police resulting in violence, his ‘insults’ and ‘slander’ and the rough treatment given to those who spoke out on women’s suffrage at Liberal meetings.