Doing time for your beliefs ……. a picture post card and a place in Yorkshire

Now, I can’t make my mind up about this picture postcard which was sent in the March of 1911.

The historian in me is drawn into what quite clearly was a political attack on the campaign for the extension of the vote to women.

But as someone who grew up with the  idea of political as well as economic and social equality I am appalled that some one would find it amusing or for that matter an artist and a postcard company could find merit in display a woman in prison who was there because of her beliefs.

And yes I know it “was a different time where they did things differently” but around the world people are still being thrown in prison for trying to exercise even the most basic rights, like that of voting, regardless of gender or nationality.

We will never know just what the person who sent it thought about the campaign for women’s suffrage, or whether they agreed with some of the more violent aspects of that campaign.  The message on the back just says “What do you think of this?”

What I find interesting is that it was sent from Brough in Yorkshire, and while the person who sent it may have obtained it in London, or received it as part of a “batch” of anti Suffragette material, it is equally likely it was on sale in the town.

From which we might assume it was in wide circulation, along with others in the series which have yet to turn up.  The company were B B London, but I doubt there will be much of a trail back to to them, although there are some of their cards for sale from dealers. 

I would be fascinated to know more, and I suspect someone will offer up an insight.

A quick trawl of the postcards of Tuck and Sons, who were an international company, responsible for marketing thousands of cards reveals a collection of postcards which feature the campaign, but none as tacky as this one.

So there you have it ……. answers on a postcard.

Location; Yorkshire, 1911

Picture; This is the House, 1911, from the collection of David Harrop

* Suffragettes, Tuck and Sons, https://tuckdbpostcards.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=suffragettes&commit=