Lucy Minnie Baldock

Lucy Minnie Baldock, (c.1864-1954), WSPU organiser in East London. The portrait depicts 'Minnie' wearing her silver Holloway brooch first presented to released Suffragette prisoners in April 1909.

Minnie lived in West Ham and was one of the earliest London supporters of the Women's Social and Political Union. Politically active in the Independent Labour Party her husband was a local ILP councillor in West Ham. In January 1906 Minnie became Chairwoman of the newly formed Unemployed Women of South-West Ham. Soon after the group went to Caxton Hall and joined Emmeline Pankhurst in lobbying the House of Commons and, by February, had become the Canning Town branch of the WSPU. Minnie Baldock became a salaried Organiser for the WSPU travelling the country and spending time away from her husband and two sons. She also served two terms of imprisonment for militancy in 1906 and 1908. In 1911 Minnie was diagnosed with cancer and, although she survived, her illness curtailed her militancy and future involvement with the WSPU.