1911 United Kingdom census boycotters
These British suffragettes and suffragists are known to have participated in a boycott of the 1911 United Kingdom census.[2][3][4][5] The number of boycotters has been estimated to have been in the thousands, but was probably fewer than 100,000 in total.[4]
Notable women who participated in the boycott include:
- Laura Ainsworth, 38 other women and one man sought to hide in Jezreel's Tower in Gillingham, Kent, but they were betrayed and still counted by census officials.[6][7]
- Rhoda Anstey: participated on behalf of the Anstey College of Physical Education, which she had founded in 1897[8][9][10]
- Helen Archdale: hosted a mass census boycott party with Adela Pankhurst[11]
- Hertha Ayrton: hosted a boycott party for approximately 40 people at her home in 41 Norfolk Square.[12] Wrote on census form: "How can I answer all these questions if I have not the intelligence to choose between two candidates or parliament? I will not supply these particulars until I have my rights as a citizen. Votes for Women."[4]
- Minnie Baldock: did not appear on the census, although her husband and sons were enumerated[13]
- Inez Bensusan: member of the Actresses' Franchise League who performed during a mass evasion party[14]
- Rosa May Billinghurst
- Mary Blathwayt
- Dorothy Bowker: wrote: "Dumb Politically, Blind to the Census, Deaf to the Enumerator. Being classed with criminals lunatics & paupers I prefer to give no further particulars"[15][16]
- Nina Boyle: wrote "No Votes. No Census. Votes for Women" on her census form[17]
- Georgina Brackenbury: hosted an evasion party for 25 women and 1 man.
- Marie Brackenbury: hosted an evasion party for 25 women and 1 man. Wrote on the census form: "Miss Marie Brackenbury in charge takes this opportunity of registering her protest against the votelessness of the women of Great Britain by refusing to fill in this form."[18]
- Constance Bryer
- Florence Canning
- Joan Cather[19] and her husband[20]
- Joseph Clayton
- Annie Coultate[11][21]
- Margaret Cousins[22]
- Ellen Crocker
- Hilda Dallas
- Irene Dallas
- Emily Davison: hid in the House of Commons and was thus registered as an "occupant" of the Palace of Westminster and enumerated in Parliament[15][23][24][25][26]
- Charlotte Despard[27]
- Lillian Dove-Willcox: organised the boycott in Trowbridge[4]
- Flora Drummond
- Bessie Drysdale: wrote on her form: "as the Government refuses me a vote and as I am not therefore recognised as a citizen, I refuse to perform the duties of one in giving the information required by the Government"[28][29]
- Charles Vickery Drysdale[29]
- Florence Earengey[4]
- Dorothy Evans: organised parties for census boycotters in Birmingham[30]
- Millicent Fawcett
- Ada Flatman
- Florence Gertrude de Fonblanque
- Kate Gillie: dedicated her boycott of the census "in loving memory of Mrs [Mary Jane] Clarke and Miss Henria [Leech] Williams who lost their lives for the cause"[31]
- Eva Gore-Booth
- Kate Harvey[32]
- Anna Haslam[22]
- Alice Hawkins[33]
- Vera Holme
- Clemence Housman[34]
- Laurence Housman: advertised the boycott in several writings[a]
- Edith How-Martyn[29]
- Elsie Howey: refused to be enumerated and wrote "Votes for Women" on her form[36]
- Mary Howey: listed her occupation as "artist and suffragette" and her infirmity as "not enfranchised"[37][15]
- Maud Joachim[38]
- Violet Key Jones: organised the suffragette boycott in York[39]
- Helena Jones[40]
- Annie Kenney: organised the census boycott in Bristol[4]
- Lilian Lenton[4]
- Marion Mackenzie[4]
- Susan Manning: recorded her religion as "militant suffragette" and her disability as "legally unfit to vote"[41]
- Mildred Mansel: hired 12 Lansdowne Crescent in Bath to be used by the 35 local census evaders[42]
- Katherine "Kitty" Marshall[43][44]
- Muriel Matters
- Eleanora Maund[45]
- Winifred Mayo[46]
- Decima Moore
- Ethel Moorhead
- Clara Neal: stayed overnight in a sea cave on the Gower Peninsula[47]
- Henry Nevinson[48]
- Margaret Nevinson and an undetermined number of other women documented their reasons for refusal[4]
- Frances Olive Outerbridge
- Adela Pankhurst[11]
- Christabel Pankhurst
- Emmeline Pankhurst[44][49]
- Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence[50]
- Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence
- Dorothy Pethick
- Mary Phillips (suffragette): wrote on her form "NO VOTE NO CENSUS. Posterity will know how to judge the Government if it persists in bringing about the falsification of national statistics instead of acting on its own principles and making itself truly representational of the people"[51]
- Emily Phipps: stayed overnight in a sea cave on the Gower Peninsula[52][53]
- Catherine Pine[54]
- Ellen Pitfield[55]
- Aileen Preston
- Katherine Raleigh[56]
- Edith Rigby[57]
- Elizabeth Robins
- Dorothea Rock: wrote on her return "I, Dorothea Rock, in the absence of the male occupier, refuse to fill up this Census paper as, in the eyes of the Law, women do not count, neither shall they be counted"[58]
- Bertha Ryland
- Lavena Saltonstall[59][60]
- Alice Schofield
- Evelyn Sharp (suffragist) and other census resisters[48]
- Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington[22]
- Isabel Giberne Sieveking: the enumerator wrote on her return: "Husband had left the town when I called and the wife, who is a suffragette, refused to sign as correct"[61]
- Sophia Duleep Singh[62]
- Ethel Smyth
- Jessie Stephenson: organised the census boycott in Manchester[4][44]
- Frances Swiney
- Violet Tillard: wrote on the household census return: “No Vote No Census. Should women become persons in the eye of the law this session - full information will be forwarded”[63]
- Aethel Tollemache[4]
- Alice Vickery[29][64]
- Jessey Wade[65]
- Ethel Williams (physician)
- Lilian Wolfe
- Celia Wray and Alice Embleton: defaced their census paper by writing the slogan "Getting votes for those who pay the piper. Getting votes for women" across it.[66][67]
- Rose Lamartine Yates[68]
- Edith Zangwill: wrote on the household census form: "The rest of the household is not entered as we feel that until women have the political rights of citizens, they should not perform the duties of citizens. Mr Zangwill is not at home"[4]
- Israel Zangwill
Notes
References
- ↑ Rogers, Simon (11 December 2012). "Census in pictures: from suffragettes to arms protesters". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Dobraszczyk, Paul (1 January 2009). "'Give in your account': Using and Abusing Victorian Census Forms". Journal of Victorian Culture. 14 (1): 1–25. doi:10.3366/E1355550209000575. ISSN 1355-5502.
- ↑ Liddington, Jill; Crawford, Elizabeth (1 March 2011). "'Women do not count, neither shall they be counted': Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the 1911 Census". History Workshop Journal. 71 (1): 98–127. doi:10.1093/hwj/dbq064. ISSN 1363-3554.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Liddington, Jill; Crawford, Elizabeth (2014). Vanishing for the vote: suffrage, citizenship and the battle for the census. ISBN 9780719087486. OCLC 861673182.
- ↑ Frangoul, Phoebe (20 March 2021). "The Secret Feminist History Of The Census (And Why Statues Of Women Matter)". Grazia. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth. "Laura Ainsworth". Woman and her Sphere. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
- ↑ "Medway women boycott 1911 census". BBC News. 20 March 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (2 April 2013). "Suffrage Stories: An Entire Birmingham College Boycotts The 1911 Census". Woman and her Sphere. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ↑ Elkes, Neil (6 February 2018). "Suffragette city: How three inspiring Birmingham women helped win the vote 100 years ago". Birmingham Live. Retrieved 19 November 2024.
- ↑ Gauld, Nicola (19 August 2018). Words and Deeds: Birmingham Suffragists and Suffragettes 1832-1918. History West Midlands. ISBN 978-1-905036-48-6.
- 1 2 3 Waters, Michael (1 January 2018). "The Campaign for Women's Suffrage in York and the 1911 Census Evasion". Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. 90 (1): 178–194. doi:10.1080/00844276.2018.1465692. ISSN 0084-4276.
- ↑ Sharp, Evelyn (1926). Hertha Ayrton, 1854-1923: A Memoir.
- ↑ "Suffragettes in Canning Town". Newham Heritage Month. 9 May 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ "Inez Bensusan". © Orlando Project. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- 1 2 3 "No Vote, No Census - 1911 Census Protests". Historic UK. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "1911 UK Census Collection". The Genealogist. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Etayo, Oihane. "Constance Antonia 'Nina' Boyle". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
- ↑ "Georgina & Marie Brackenbury". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
- ↑ "Suffragettes on file, Census Boycott". The National Archives. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth. "January 2014". Woman and her Sphere. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
- ↑ Rainger, Christopher. "Annie Coultate". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- 1 2 3 Atwal, Jyoti; Breathnach, Ciara; Buckley, Sarah-Anne (17 August 2022). Gender and History: Ireland, 1852–1922. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-68387-5.
- ↑ The Palace of Westminster Official Guide. Houses of Parliament. 2012. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-95620-292-5.
- ↑ "Emily Wilding Davison and Parliament". UK Parliament. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ↑ "How we uncovered suffragette Emily Davison hiding in Parliament's crypt in the 1911 Census | Blog". Find My Past. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Smith, Simon (27 May 2021). The British Census. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78442-455-8.
- ↑ Graham-Matheson, Lynne; Matheson-Pollock, Helen (19 March 2020). Mrs Despard and the Suffrage Movement: Founder of The Women's Freedom League. Pen and Sword. p. 1871. ISBN 978-1-5267-3113-5.
- ↑ Stenlake, Frances. "Bessie Drysdale". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 "Collection : Suffragists & Suffragettes [SUFCOL1]". Hampstead Garden Suburb Virtual Museum. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (7 November 2013). "Suffrage Stories: The 1911 Census: More Birmingham Boycotters". Woman and her Sphere. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
- ↑ "Seven surprising finds in the 1911 Census | Blog". Find My Past. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Godfrey, Jennifer. "Kate Harvey". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 2 July 2025.
- ↑ Hanlon, Sheila. "Alice Hawkins: Leicester's Working Class Suffragette Cyclist". Women's cycling. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Andrews, Maggie; Lomas, Janis (23 October 2018). Hidden Heroines: The Forgotten Suffragettes. The Crowood Press. ISBN 978-0-7198-2762-4.
- 1 2 Liddington, Jill; Crawford, Elizabeth; Maund, E. A. (2011). "'Women do not count, neither shall they be counted': Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the 1911 Census". History Workshop Journal. 71 (71): 98–127. doi:10.1093/hwj/dbq064. ISSN 1363-3554. JSTOR 41306813. S2CID 154796763.
- ↑ Sutton, Chris (26 March 2021). "Is time we put up a Blue Plaque for Suffragette Elsie?". Worcester News. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Meikle, James (13 January 2009). "Past lives: 1911 census goes online". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (14 February 2014). "Suffrage Stories: 1911 Census: Vanishing For The Vote". Woman and her Sphere. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "Victorian Women". HerStoryYork. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Carroll, Stevie (17 July 2017). "Hidden Suffragette History in Halifax". Women and Words. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ "'Disability: unfit to vote': how suffragists used the 1911 census to send a message". Irish Independent. 1 April 2022. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Naylor, Ellis. "Mildred Mansel". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "'No vote, no census': The 1911 suffrage census protests". The National Archives blog. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- 1 2 3 "'No Vote, No Census': the Suffragette Boycott of 1911 / Census Blog". UK Census Records. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Willmott, Lauren (30 September 2019). Suffragettes. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-5267-2946-0.
- ↑ "The Suffragettes of Oakley Street". House Historian. 12 February 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "Blue plaque to Clara Neal". Swansea. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- 1 2 John, Angela V. (15 August 2019). Rocking the Boat: Welsh Women who Championed Equality 1840-1990. Parthian Books. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-912109-22-7.
- ↑ White, Ian (1 December 2010). "No vote ‐ no census: an account of some of the events of 1910–1911". Population Trends. 142 (1): 33–51. doi:10.1057/pt.2010.30. ISSN 2040-1590.
- ↑ "Mrs Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence". Women's Suffrage Resources. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (15 November 2013). "Suffrage Stories: The 1911 Census: The Bradford Boycotters". Woman and her Sphere. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Wilson, Kim. "Unveiling Emily". Women of Eastbourne. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Oram, Alison (1996). Women Teachers and Feminist Politics, 1900-39. Manchester University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-7190-2759-8.
- ↑ "Catherine Pine". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "Ellen Pitfield". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Cartwright, Colin (11 June 2013). Burning to Get the Vote: The Women's Suffrage Movement in Central Buckinghamshire 1904-1914. Legend Press Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78955-150-1.
- ↑ Adams, Beverley (1 November 2021). The Rebel Suffragette: The Life of Edith Rigby. Pen and Sword History. ISBN 978-1-5267-7391-3.
- ↑ "'Women do not count, neither shall they be counted'". OUPblog. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Liddington, Jill (3 September 2015). Rebel Girls: How votes for women changed Edwardian lives. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0-349-00781-6.
- ↑ "Lavena Saltonstall". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Jackson, Linda (2014). "Sieveking, Isabel Giberne". Epsom & Ewell History Explorer. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "Sophia Duleep Singh". The National Archives. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Godfrey, Jennifer. "Violet Tillard". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ Hall, Lesley A. (23 September 2004). "Vickery [Drysdale], Alice (1844–1929)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39448. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "Jessey Wade [SUF34]". Hampstead Garden Suburb Virtual Museum. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
- ↑ "Celia Wray and The Barnsley Suffragettes". Experience Barnsley. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ 1911 England Census for Celia Wray - Yorkshire-West Riding, Barnsley - Ancestry.com (subscription required)
- ↑ Godfrey, Jennifer. "Rose Lamartine Yates". Mapping Women's Suffrage, University of Warwick. Retrieved 12 June 2025.