‘No Vote, No Census’ is the opening line of my new historical mystery, Murder at Big Ben.
These were the words shouted by Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the suffragettes, as she encouraged women to boycott the 1911 census. After all, she argued, if the government has deemed us incapable of writing X on a ballot paper, how can we be expected to fill out a census form?
The head of every household was required to provide the government with details of each person residing in their dwelling on the night of Sunday 2nd April 1911 – and could face a £5 fine or a month in prison if they refused to complete a census form.
But that didn’t stop thousands of women from rallying to Mrs Pankhurst’s call to either stay away from home that night or spoil the census form by writing ‘No Vote, No Census’ across it.
Wealthy suffragettes and heads of colleges opened their doors to women who needed somewhere to stay for the night. In London, suffragettes camped in horse-drawn caravans on Wimbledon Common, while others hired the roller-skating rink at Aldwych and skated throughout the night.
Women who would previously never have considered breaking the law saw this as a peaceful way to protest, leaving the government and police with no choice but to ignore the widespread census evasion.
Suffragette Emily Davison took the protest one step further, deciding that if she couldn’t have a say in what went on in parliament, she could at least have it recorded as her address. Emily managed to break into the Houses of Parliament and hide overnight in a broom cupboard in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft underneath Westminster Hall.
The following morning, the clerk of works at the House of Commons was forced to complete a census form that included Emily, noting she had been ‘found hiding in the crypt of Westminster Hall’.
In 1988, the Labour MP, Tony Benn, put up a plaque in the cupboard in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft to mark Emily’s overnight stay in parliament on census night 1911.
In Murder at Big Ben, six suffragettes, including Emily Davison, break into the Houses of Parliament on census night. While Emily takes her rightful place in the broom cupboard of the chapel, three others hide in Big Ben. But only two leave the clock tower alive…
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