Occasionally I come across a quirky story which begs to be preserved. Unlike those in my cryptozoology and anomalies blogs, these do not defy the scientific paradigm. They are more Ripley's "Believe It or Not!" than Charles Fort. And, of course, everything is documented.
Monday, 26 October 2026
The Suffragettes as Terrorists
Here's a question for you: what was the difference between the Suffragists and the Suffragettes? The Suffragists, whom few people have heard about, were the people who really won votes for women in the UK. They comprised a very large number of both women and men, the largest group being the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), led by Millicent Fawcett from 1897 to 1919. The Suffragettes, on the other hand, was the nickname applied to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) under the control of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter, Christabel. It was a much smaller group of militant women who, somehow or other, managed to get the credit which really belonged to the NUWSS. In fact, if anything, they delayed the achievement of women's suffrage by their campaign of violence and vandalism, for they were terrorists.