International Women's Day Timeline: Suffragette rally in Trafalgar Square 1915

The women had gathered to voice their support of the war effort, encouraging both men and women to contribute

Suffragettes address a crowd of male and female supporters at Trafalgar Square in this Pathé video (no sound).

The women had gathered to voice their support of the war effort, encouraging both men and women to contribute.

Another clip shows suffragettes in hoods and masks marching along a street distributing leaflets calling for the arrest of Bonar Law, the Conservative Party leader who refused to address women's right to vote.

One of the women speaking at the rally is activist Christabel Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, who was imprisoned several times because of her militancy.

[Related: Male students take to the streets to protest against giving women degrees, 1921]


In 1905 she interrupted a Liberal Party meeting and was imprisoned as a consequence. She left for France in 1913 but returned at the start of the war to campaign about women's rights and hand out white feathers symbolising cowardice to men not in uniform.

The title card reads: "Miss Christabel Pankhurst home again: The pre-war outlaw is now the win-the-war champion."