Leading Suffragettes at The Prisoners' Pageant procession

Suffragette prisoners prepare to take part in a procession In support of the Conciliation Bill, 23rd July 1910. In the foreground are the leading Suffragettes Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence on the left and Sylvia Pankhurst holding a model of prison gates. To the right in her graduation robes is Emily Wilding Davison. This procession was organised by the Women's Social and Political Union to take place on the anniversary of the day in 1867 when men demonstrating for their inclusion in the Reform Bill pulled down the railings in Hyde Park. Two processions, one from the west and one from the east converged on Hyde Park where 150 speakers addressed at crowd of up to 20,000 from 40 platforms.The Prisoners' Pageant formed the most dramatic section of all Suffragette processions from 1910 and usually included leading members of the Women's Social and Political Union. As well as carrying their own imposing prisoner's banners individual prisoners also carried smaller emblems symbolic of imprisonment. For this procession on 23rd July the women carried, for the first time, smaller banners with the words 'Honour', 'truth' and 'justice' as well as the pennants that can be seen in the photograph painted with the slogan 'Deeds not words' and the prisoners arrow. Sylvia Pankhurst was one of several women who carried a black portcullis 'with rattling chains' styled on the silver Holloway brooch she designed in 1909 whilst the 'hunger-strikers' had the honour of carrying frameworks representing prison gates and walking in single file.  Always positioned in a prominent position of the processions, the Prisoner's Pageant comprised over 600 Suffragettes, dressed in white.