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EVADING THE CENSUS
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ISABELLA DARENT HARRISON
In 1911, as a protest against the Liberal government still refusing votes for women, Emmeline Pankhurst called for women householders to refuse to fill in the census. The census listed all householders in the country so campaigners argued that if they could not vote, they would not fill in the census, even though they would be fined.
Campaigners in Hastings responded to the call and decided they would join the action. One of the most enthusiastic activists was Isabella Darent Harrison, a staunch supporter of votes for women. She lived at 1 St Paul’s Place, St Leonards. On 2 April, the day of the census, she opened her home to her suffrage friends who hid there over night so avoiding filling in the census. Mrs Harrison wrote “no vote, no information” on her form and refused to say if there were other women in the house. Other women who took part included Edith Bowerman Chibnall, Lettice and Nora MacMunn, Isabel Willis, and Flora Tristram, all local WSPU members. Many of them spent an uncomfortable night hiding at 5 Grand Parade listening to the police climbing on the roof trying to find them.
The protest was very successful. The Hastings census evaders made the front page of the Hastings Pictorial Advertiser (left). Dressed in their best, they posed for a photo and were interviewed about their action.
OUT FOR THE COUNT
Suffragettes hid in some extraordinary places including horse-drawn caravans on Wimbledon Common. Suffragette Emily Davison, who would later be mowed down by the King’s horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby hid in a cupboard in the crypt of Westminster Hall. Tony Benn secretly added a plaque to the cupboard, with the aid of Jeremy Corbyn.
Opposite: Women from the Hastings and St Leonards Women’s Suffrage Propaganda League who chose to evade the census. Hastings Pictorial Advertiser, April 1911 33
