Christabel Pankhurst

suffragette, co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union, editor (1880-1958)

Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE (/ˈpæŋkhərst/; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British woman. She was born in Manchester, England. She was a suffragette, which means she wanted England to give women the right to vote. She was one of the founders of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). In 1914, she supported Britain going to war against Germany in World War I.


Christabel Pankhurst

Christabel Pankhurst, c. 1910
Born
Christabel Harriette Pankhurst

(1880-09-22)22 September 1880
Died13 February 1958(1958-02-13) (aged 77)
Resting placeWoodlawn Memorial Cemetery
OccupationPolitical activist
Parent(s)Richard Pankhurst
Emmeline Goulden
RelativesSylvia Pankhurst (sister)
Adela Pankhurst (sister)
Richard Pankhurst (nephew)
Helen Pankhurst (great-niece)
Alula Pankhurst (great-nephew)

Early life

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Christabel Pankhurst was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst[1] and Richard Pankhurst. She had two sisters: Sylvia and Adela Pankhurst. Her father was a barrister, which is a high-ranking lawyer, and her mother owned a small shop.

Education

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Pankhurst learned to read at home on her own before she went to school. She went to Manchester High School for Girls with her two sisters. She got a law degree from the University of Manchester, and received honours on her LL.B. exam. However, Pankhurst could not practise law because she was a woman. British law did not allow women to be lawyers at that time.

Christabel died 13 February 1958, at the age of 77. She was buried in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.[2]

Recognition after death

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There is a profile bust, which is a small statue, of Christabel Pankhurst on the right pylon of the Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. The sculpture was put there in 1959.[3]

 
The Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial

References

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  1. Christabel Panhurst, Britannica.com, Retrieved 21 September 2016
  2. Hillberg, Isabelle. "Pankhurst, Christabel Hariette (1880–1958)". Detroit:Gale. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  3. Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011), Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1, Public Sculpture of Britain, vol. 14, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 382–5