Augustine Birrell - Birrell and The Suffragettes

Birrell and The Suffragettes

Birrell was not really in favour of votes for women and like many of his political colleagues and members of the general public he strongly disapproved of the militancy and violence the suffragettes were increasingly espousing. In November 1910 he was walking alone from the House of Commons to the Athenaeum Club when he was set upon by a group of about twenty suffragettes who had recognised him. While he did not believe there was any serious attempt to damage him, he did suffer some injuries which stopped him from taking strong exercise on which he told C. P. Scott he depended for his good health. He feared he might require an operation to remove his knee-cap and joked to Scott that, if he did, he would remain 'a weak-kneed politician' to the end of his life.

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