SYLVIA PANKHURST
Who she was – and why she is remembered
Sylvia Pankhurst (1882–1960) lived in Woodford, Essex from 1924 till 1956. For many years her name has been most associated with women's struggle to be granted the right to vote – though her greater contributions to the world came later.
If you would like to know much more about Sylvia Pankhurst's life and work, her connections with Woodford and to see some of her work as an artist, click here to find the new Heritage Lottery Funded website, 'sylviapankhurst.com'
Her background
Born in Manchester, Sylvia was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst who had founded the Women’s Social & Political Union (the WSPU or the Suffragettes), and of the barrister and legal reformer Dr Richard Pankhurst. Amongst other bills and amendments, Dr Pankhurst had been responsible for the Married Women’s Property Act of 1884, which allowed married women to keep all personal wealth, property or savings that they had brought to their marriage or acquired during it. Before the Act, this automatically became the property of the husband. Dr Pankhurst was a friend of the designer, writer and Socialist William Morris.
Her career
Sylvia studied art at the Royal College of Art and developed extraordinary artistic skills, but spent a great deal of time working for the WSPU. She later became disillusioned with some of the policies decided by her mother and her sister Christabel, and broke away from the WSPU to concentrate efforts on helping the Labour Party build up support in London. When she became aware of the extreme poverty women and children in London’s East End were facing, she went to help in every way she could, opening mother and baby clinics and organising practical assistance and education. In 1924 she opened a transport café in a cottage along the High Road in Woodford Wells and published campaigning literature to draw attention to the evils of fascism. In 1932 she moved from there with her partner and their young son to 3 Charteris Road, Woodford where she stayed until 1956. A block of flats now stands on the site, but in the 1990s the green next to it, opposite Woodford Broadway, was named Pankhurst Green in Sylvia's honour.
Her politics
Sylvia embraced, then eventually abandoned, Communism, taking on Lenin and other world leaders in many arguments. In Woodford, she erected a monument – still there – against aerial warfare, feeling strongly that bombing innocent people from the sky was not a fair way to fight. In the 1930s she supported the Republicans in Spain, then helped Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Suspecting the lives of Ethiopians could be threatened by Italian occupation, Sylvia campaigned against it, but did not get the support of the British Government she hoped for and MI5 were watchful of her: they kept a file headed 'Muzzling the tiresome Miss Pankhurst'. Sir Winston Churchill, MP for Woodford, had a long-running exchange with her on the letters page of the Woodford Express & Independent.
Sylvia remained active in politics throughout her life, taking on specific causes that moved her including pacifism and anti-racism.
In 1956, at the invitation of Emperor Haile Selassie, Sylvia moved to Ethiopia where she lived until her death in 1960. Though her work had remained largely unrecognised in Britain, she was given a state funeral in Addis Ababa.
Sylvia Pankhurst and Woodford
From the 1920s when she moved to quiet Essex suburbia, Woodford, on the whole, was embarrassed by its unconventional resident. The discomfort about her lasted until long after she had died. Now, however, most people would recognise some of Sylvia's beliefs and moral codes as having been simply 'before her time'. One issue was that she was known to be living, unmarried, with an Italian revolutionary called Silvio Corio. At the age of 45, she had his child.
Dr Richard Pankhurst
Sylvia's child, later educated at St Aubyn's and Bancroft’s, was to become Dr Richard Pankhurst, Professor of Humanities at the University of Addis Ababa for most of his career. The Sylvia Pankhurst Festival in Summer 2007 marks Dr Pankhurst’s eightieth year, with a mission to create greater recognition of his mother and her contributions to humanity worldwide. He is the author of a biography of his mother's earlier life, Sylvia Pankhurst: Artist and Crusader.
Holding forth at an
anti-fascist