Evelyn Sharp (suffragist)
Encyclopedia
Evelyn Sharp was a key figure in two of the major women's suffrage
societies in Britain, the militant Women's Social and Political Union
and the United Suffragists. She helped found the latter and became editor of Votes for Women during the First World War. She was twice imprisoned and became a tax resister. An established author who had published in The Yellow Book, she was especially well known for her children's fiction.
In 1903 Sharp, with the help of her friend and lover, Henry Nevinson
, began to find work writing articles for the Daily Chronicle
, the Pall Mall Gazette
and the Manchester Guardian, a newspaper that published her work for over thirty years. Sharp highlights the importance of Nevinson and the Men's League for Women's Suffrage
: "It is impossible to rate too highly the sacrifices that they (Henry Nevinson and Laurence Housman
) and H. N. Brailsford
, F. W. Pethick Lawrence, Harold Laski
, Israel Zangwill
, Gerald Gould
, George Lansbury
, and many others made to keep our movement free from the suggestion of a sex war."
Sharp's journalism made her more aware of the problems of working-class women and she joined the Women's Industrial Council and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
. In the autumn of 1906 Sharp was sent by the Manchester Guardian to cover the first speech by actress and novelist Elizabeth Robins
. Sharp was moved by Robins' arguments for militant action and she joined the Women's Social and Political Union.
Evelyn immediately became active in the militant campaign, and later that month she was imprisoned for fourteen days.
who also rejected the nationalist line), Sharp was unwilling to end the campaign for the vote during the First World War. When she continued to refuse to pay income tax she was arrested and all of her property confiscated, including her typewriter. A pacifist, Sharp was also active in the Women's International League for Peace during the war. She would later record:
Sharp was an active member of the Women Writers' Suffrage League
. In August 1913, in response to the government tactic of keeping prisoners that would hunger strike until they were too weak to be active by means of the Cat and Mouse Act
(Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913), permitting their re-arrest as soon as they were active, Sharp was chosen to represent the WWSL in a delegation to meet with the Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna
and discuss the Cat and Mouse Act. McKenna was unwilling to talk to them and when the women refused to leave the House of Commons, Mary Macarthur
and Margaret McMillan were physically ejected and Sharp and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
were arrested and sent to Holloway Prison.
, worked as a journalist on the Daily Herald. In 1933 Sharp's friend Margaret Nevinson died. Soon afterwards, aged 63, she married Margaret's husband, Henry Nevinson, by then aged 77. Their love affair had lasted many years withstanding complications of friendship and marriage.
Sharp's autobiography, Unfinished Adventure, was published in 1933. It was republished by Faber
in 2009.
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
societies in Britain, the militant Women's Social and Political Union
Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
and the United Suffragists. She helped found the latter and became editor of Votes for Women during the First World War. She was twice imprisoned and became a tax resister. An established author who had published in The Yellow Book, she was especially well known for her children's fiction.
Early life
Evelyn Sharp, the ninth of eleven children, was born in 1869. Sharp's family sent her to a boarding school for just two years, yet she successfully passed several university local examinations. In 1894, against the wishes of her family, Sharp moved to London, where she wrote and published several novels including All the Way to Fairyland (1898) and The Other Side of the Sun (1900).In 1903 Sharp, with the help of her friend and lover, Henry Nevinson
Henry Nevinson
Henry Woodd Nevinson was a British campaigning journalist. He was known for his reporting on the Second Boer War, and slavery in Angola in 1904-1905....
, began to find work writing articles for the Daily Chronicle
Daily Chronicle
The Daily Chronicle was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the Daily News to become the News Chronicle.-History:...
, the Pall Mall Gazette
Pall Mall Gazette
The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood...
and the Manchester Guardian, a newspaper that published her work for over thirty years. Sharp highlights the importance of Nevinson and the Men's League for Women's Suffrage
Men's League for Women's Suffrage
The Men's League for Women's Suffrage was a society formed in 1907 by the left-wing writers Henry Brailsford, Max Eastman, Laurence Housman, Henry Nevinson and others to pursue women's suffrage.-External links:*...
: "It is impossible to rate too highly the sacrifices that they (Henry Nevinson and Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman
Laurence Housman was an English playwright, writer and illustrator.-Early life:Laurence Housman was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, one of seven children who included the poet A. E. Housman and writer Clemence Housman. In 1871 his mother died, and his father remarried, to a cousin...
) and H. N. Brailsford
H. N. Brailsford
Henry Noel Brailsford was the most prolific British left-wing journalist of the first half of the 20th century.The son of a Methodist preacher, he was born in Yorkshire and educated in Scotland, at the High School of Dundee...
, F. W. Pethick Lawrence, Harold Laski
Harold Laski
Harold Joseph Laski was a British Marxist, political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946, and was a professor at the LSE from 1926 to 1950....
, Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill was a British humorist and writer.-Biography:Zangwill was born in London on January 21, 1864 in a family of Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia, to Moses Zangwill from what is now Latvia and Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing...
, Gerald Gould
Gerald Gould
Gerald Gould was an English writer, known as a journalist and reviewer, essayist and poet.-Life:He was brought up in Norwich, and studied at University College, London and Magdalen College, Oxford...
, George Lansbury
George Lansbury
George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....
, and many others made to keep our movement free from the suggestion of a sex war."
Sharp's journalism made her more aware of the problems of working-class women and she joined the Women's Industrial Council and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies , also known as the Suffragists was an organisation of women's suffrage societies in the United Kingdom.-Formation and campaigning:...
. In the autumn of 1906 Sharp was sent by the Manchester Guardian to cover the first speech by actress and novelist Elizabeth Robins
Elizabeth Robins
Elizabeth Robins was an actress, playwright, novelist, and suffragette.- Early life :Elizabeth Robins, the first child of Charles Robins and Hannah Crow, and was born in Louisville, Kentucky. After financial difficulties, her father left for Colorado, leaving the children in the care of Hannah...
. Sharp was moved by Robins' arguments for militant action and she joined the Women's Social and Political Union.
The impression she made was profound, even on an audience predisposed to be hostile; and on me it was disastrous. From that moment I was not to know again for 12 years, if indeed ever again, what it meant to cease from mental strife; and I soon came to see with a horrible clarity why I had always hitherto shunned causes.
Militant activism
Evelyn's mother, Jane, concerned at her daughter having joined the WSPU made her promise not to do anything that would result in her being imprisoned. Sharp kept her promise for five years, until her mother absolved her from that promise in November 1911.Although I hope you will never go to prison, still, I feel I cannot any longer be so prejudiced, and must leave it to your better judgment. I have really been very unhappy about it and feel I have no right to thwart you, much as I should regret feeling that you were undergoing those terrible hardships. It has caused you as much pain as it has me, and I feel I can no longer think of my own feelings. I cannot write more, but you will be happy now, won't you. (Jane Sharp, letter to her daughter (November, 1911)
Evelyn immediately became active in the militant campaign, and later that month she was imprisoned for fourteen days.
My opportunity came with a militant demonstration in Parliament Square on the evening of November 11, provoked by a more than usually cynical postponement of the Women's Bill, which was implied in a Government forecast of manhood suffrage. I was one of the many selected to carry out our new policy of breaking Government office windows, which marked a departure from the attitude of passive resistance that for five years had permitted all the violence to be used against us.
First World War resistance
Unlike most members of the women's movement (a notable exception being Christabel PankhurstChristabel Pankhurst
Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE , was a suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union , she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914 she became a fervent supporter of the war against Germany...
who also rejected the nationalist line), Sharp was unwilling to end the campaign for the vote during the First World War. When she continued to refuse to pay income tax she was arrested and all of her property confiscated, including her typewriter. A pacifist, Sharp was also active in the Women's International League for Peace during the war. She would later record:
Personally, holding as I do the enfranchisement of women involved greater issues than could be involved in any war, even supposing that the objects of the Great War were those alleged, I cannot help regretting that any justification was given for the popular error which still sometimes ascribes the victory of the suffrage cause, in 1918, to women's war service. This assumption is true only in so far as gratitude to women offered an excuse to the anti-suffragists in the Cabinet and elsewhere to climb down with some dignity from a position that had become untenable before the war. I sometimes think that the art of politics consists in the provision of ladders to enable politicians to climb down from untenable positions.
Sharp was an active member of the Women Writers' Suffrage League
Women Writers' Suffrage League
The Women Writers' Suffrage League was an organization in the United Kingdom formed in 1908 by Cicely Hamilton and Bessie Hatton.The organization stated that it wanted "to obtain the vote for women on the same terms as it is or may be granted to men. Its methods are those proper to writers - the...
. In August 1913, in response to the government tactic of keeping prisoners that would hunger strike until they were too weak to be active by means of the Cat and Mouse Act
Cat and Mouse Act
The Prisoners Act 1913 was an Act of Parliament passed in Britain under Herbert Henry Asquith's Liberal government in 1913...
(Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913), permitting their re-arrest as soon as they were active, Sharp was chosen to represent the WWSL in a delegation to meet with the Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna
Reginald McKenna
Reginald McKenna was a British banker and Liberal politician. He notably served as Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer during the premiership of H. H. Asquith.-Background and education:...
and discuss the Cat and Mouse Act. McKenna was unwilling to talk to them and when the women refused to leave the House of Commons, Mary Macarthur
Mary Macarthur
Mary Macarthur was a trade unionist and women's rights campaigner.-Early years:Macarthur's father was the proprietor of a drapery establishment. She attended school in Glasgow and after editing the school magazine, decided she wanted to become a full-time writer. After her Glasgow schooling, she...
and Margaret McMillan were physically ejected and Sharp and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a Britishwomen's rights activist.Her father was a businessman...
were arrested and sent to Holloway Prison.
After the First World War
After the Armistice, Sharp, now a member of the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, worked as a journalist on the Daily Herald. In 1933 Sharp's friend Margaret Nevinson died. Soon afterwards, aged 63, she married Margaret's husband, Henry Nevinson, by then aged 77. Their love affair had lasted many years withstanding complications of friendship and marriage.
Sharp's autobiography, Unfinished Adventure, was published in 1933. It was republished by Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
in 2009.
Quotations
- Reforms can always wait a little longer, but freedom, directly you discover you haven't got it, will not wait another minute.
Primary sources
Sharp's papers, including Diaries of Evelyn Sharp, 1920–37, 1942-7, are in the care of the Bodleian Library.See also
- Women's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...