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Minnie Lansbury

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Minnie Lansbury
Chairperson of the East London Federation of Suffragettes
In office
1915–1922
Alderman of Poplar, East London
In office
1919–1922
Personal details
Born
Minnie Glassman

c. 1889
Stepney, London, England
Died1 January 1922
London, England
Political partyLabour
SpouseEdgar Lansbury (m. 1914)
OccupationPolitician, suffragette

Minnie Lansbury (née Glassman; 1889 – 1 January 1922) was an English suffragette and the first female alderman on the first Labour-led council in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar, England.[1] She died after contracting pneumonia while imprisoned for refusing to levy full rates in Poplar.

Family

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Lansbury was born about 1889, off Brick Lane in Stepney, London.[2] She was the daughter of Isaac Glassman, a Polish-born coal merchant,[3] and his wife Annie Glassman. Her parents were Jewish immigrants.[4]

In 1914, she married Edgar Lansbury. He was the son of George Lansbury, mayor of Poplar and later leader of the Labour Party, and Elizabeth Lansbury (née Brine). After Lansbury's death, Edgar remarried to actress Moyna Macgill and became the father of actor Angela Lansbury, Bruce Lansbury and Edgar Lansbury Jr.[5]

Career

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Lansbury became a teacher, and joined the East London Federation of Suffragettes in 1915.[6] She made arrangements with the film distribution company Pathé News to film suffrage meetings.[7]

Lansbury was persuaded by Sylvia Pankhurst to give up her teaching post to become the chair of the War Pensions Committee,[8][9] fighting for the rights of widows, orphans and wounded soldiers from World War I. She was the first woman to be elected alderman on Poplar’s first Labour council in 1919, after a change in the law allowed some women to receive Parliamentary suffrage and stand as candidates.[5]

In 1921, Lansbury was one of five women on Poplar Council who, along with their male colleagues including her husband and father-in-law, were jailed for six weeks for refusing to levy full rates in the poverty-stricken area.[10][11] She said of the arrests that "if we said the word, the people of Poplar would prevent our arrest by no less than a machine-gun corps."[3]

Due to her imprisonment in Holloway Prison, Lansbury developed bronchitis and pneumonia and died on 1 January 1922, aged 32.[12][13] Lansbury was buried in the Jewish cemetery in East Ham, with "thousands" of women assembling near her home to walk with the funeral procession.[13]

The Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock, Bow Road, upon restoration in 2018

Legacy

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There is a Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock on Electric House in Bow Road, Tower Hamlets that was erected in the 1930s. The Memorial Clock was restored in 2008 and re-fitted on Electric House. The clock was restored through a public appeal organised by the Jewish East End Celebration Society and the Heritage of London Trust. From the appeal the Heritage of London Trust raised over £13,000, which was given to Tower Hamlets Council to complete the restoration. Angela Lansbury was among those who made a donation towards the restoration of the clock. The restored clock, now painted green and gold, was officially unveiled in the presence of relatives of Minnie Lansbury and local people on Thursday, 16 October 2008.

Lansbury's name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.[14][15][16]

References

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  1. ^ "Minnie Lansbury". Janine Booth. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  2. ^ Kolsky, Rachel; Rawson, Roslyn (10 April 2018). Jewish London, 3rd Edition: A Comprehensive Guidebook for Visitors and Londoners. IMM Lifestyle Books. ISBN 978-1-60765-567-1.
  3. ^ a b Rubinstein, W. (27 January 2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Springer. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6.
  4. ^ Booth, Janine. "George Lansbury, Minnie Lansbury and Their Relevance to Modern Feminism | Janine Booth".
  5. ^ a b Simkin, John. "Minnie Lansbury". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  6. ^ Jackson, Sarah; Taylor, Rosemary (4 August 2014). East London Suffragettes. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-6216-2.
  7. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-135-43401-4.
  8. ^ Winslow, Barbara (27 July 2021). Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics and Political Activism. Verso Books. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-83976-163-8.
  9. ^ Shepherd, John (19 September 2002). George Lansbury: At the Heart of Old Labour. OUP Oxford. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-19-154205-3.
  10. ^ Clark, Peter (2005). The Lefties' Guide to Britain: From the Peasants' Revolt to the Granita Restaurant. Politico's. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-84275-144-2.
  11. ^ Pankhurst, Helen (6 February 2018). Deeds Not Words: The Story of Women's Rights - Then and Now. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4736-4686-5.
  12. ^ Coysh, Louise (6 October 2014). Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Mark Wallinger. Art / Books. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-908970-16-9.
  13. ^ a b German, Lindsey; Rees, John (19 June 2012). A People's History of London. Verso Books. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-84467-914-0.
  14. ^ "Historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett unveiled in Parliament Square". Gov.uk. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  15. ^ Topping, Alexandra (24 April 2018). "First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth". iNews. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.

Bibliography

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