Mrs Minnie Baldock

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/g11f4qfb5wd
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)

Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/resource/3222/minnie-baldock

Family information: Married to a fitter and local Independent Labour Party candidate for West Ham, London. Two children.

Additional Information: Minnie was from a poor family and was one of the earliest London members of the WSPU. She was popular and well known and helped pave the way for the society among working class women in the area where she lived. In 1905, along with Dora Montefiore and Annie Kenney (whose maid she pretended to be), Minnie 'heckled' at a Liberal meeting and did the same at a Liberal Party rally a few days later. Minnie was an agitant in many working women's causes in the East End (see Other Activities), and these were closely tied to building the WSPU's early membership in London, where it had moved its headquarters from Manchester in 1906. Minnie was chairwoman in 1906 of a new group, the Unemployed Women of South West Ham, formed to put pressure on the Local Distress Committee to help unemployed women. Minnie invited northern working class WSPU member Annie Kenney (who was very close to the Pankhursts) to meet the group, appealing for their support for the votes for women cause and for the WSPU. The group subsequently became the Canning Town branch of the WSPU ? the first branch in London. Minnie took part in several early deputations to the House of Commons and other protests, and became a WSPU organiser. As militancy began to take hold, Minnie was arrested for disorderly conduct at the opening of Parliament (October) and was imprisoned for two months. Her husband spoke at a meeting in Hyde Park, proclaiming that he was 'proud to be the husband of such a woman as Mrs Baldock, and I glory in her courage'. As the WSPU sought to appeal to the wealthier middle and upper classes, Minnie was much in demand as a 'respectable' working class woman to speak at meetings. In 1908, Minnie was arrested again during the 'rush' on the House of Commons and received one month in prison as a previous offender. During that time, offers were made to pay for someone to pick up her household chores so that she could focus on the campaign and to help her family survive financially. Minnie and her husband had two sons. Upon her release, she entered into a round of speeches, meetings and organising, but working for the WSPU continued to put a strain on the family income. Minnie carried on working for the WSPU until she became ill with cancer in 1911 and required an operation. Understandably, her activities for the cause and for the WSPU declined afterwards, although she still spoke at meetings when she was able and became a member of the Church League for Women's Suffrage (CLWS) in 1912. She carried a banner in WSPU colours at Emmeline Pankhurst's funeral and at the unveiling of her statue in 1930. There has been some dispute by historians over the years as to why Minnie Baldock's central role in the WSPU's early gains in London's East End communities seems to have been 'written out' of the suffrage movement, particularly by renowned socialist and suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst (daughter of WSPU leader Emmeline Pankhurst).

Other Suffrage Activities: Minnie was a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), as was her husband. She was very involved with societies like the West Ham Unemployment Fund, organising working women in support of the Unemployed Workman's Act and putting pressure on Local Distress Committees to help unemployed women. In 1903, Minnie held a meeting for women to protest against the very low wages that West Ham Council proposed to pay in its women's tramway department, and in 1905, stood as a candidate for election to the West Ham Board of Guardians at the behest of the local ILP. In 1906, she was chairwoman of the Unemployed Women of South West Ham (see More on Suffrage Activity).