On Friday June 14 1908 some 10,000 women marched in London, demanding the vote.
An anonymous Newcastle ‘Lady Demonstrator’ wrote:
'On the Embankment at half past two, all was hurry and confusion, but the splendid array of banners made it easy to find one's place. Bradford I caught a glimpse of, and Cardiff, and pushing through the crowd, came at length to the flag of the city of my abode - Newcastle. When I found myself beneath its striking banner of silver and green, there were many friends to greet.’
The ‘Lady Demonstrator’ on Northumberland Avenue, struggled with her banner in the wind: ‘As is the case with many other things, to carry a flag seems very easy until you actually attempt it.’
During a visit to Newcastle on Feb 4 and 5 1909, Winston Churchill had been waylaid by suffragettes at every stage of his two day itinerary, even on his trip down the Tyne on the Sir William Stephenson.
The corner of St Thomas Street is the site of the Palace Theatre, where the militant suffragettes staged one of their best-organised protests. Lloyd George was making a week-end visit to Newcastle on Saturday October 9 1909, to deliver an important budget speech and a dozen chosen women met Christabel Pankhurst beforehand in a 'lodging-house'. This remarkable gathering included Lady Constance Lytton and Emily Wilding Davison. Walter Runciman's car was hit by the stone thrown by Lady Constance and her book Prisons and Prisoners gives a touching account of her subsequent time in the Charlotte Square gaol in Newcastle. She was sentenced to four weeks, but after a fifty-six hour hunger strike was released, supposedly because of a heart condition discovered by the prison doctor. To expose this preferential treatment, Lady Lytton later dressed up as a working-class girl. Sentenced as 'Jane Warton' in Liverpool, she received quite different treatment this time - and no medical examination.
Many Newcastle buildings suffered at the hands of the indomitable suffragettes. The Liberal Club in Pilgrim Street had its windows broken in 1909, a bomb went off at the Barras Bridge Post Office on 10 June 1913, and on 18 September, Kenton railway station was razed to the ground. Gosforth Hall, now known as Brandling House, which backs onto the racecourse grandstand was burnt out in 1914.