The Home of David Lloyd George, Following an Attempted Bombing by Suffragettes

Maker:

Topical Press Agency

ID:

NN22850

Production date:

1913-02-19

Location:

In Store

The newly built home of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, following an attempted bombing by Suffragettes, 19th February 1913.
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The newly built home of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, following an attempted bombing by Suffragettes, 19th February 1913.

On 19th February 1913 Suffragettes attempted to bomb the house being built for David Lloyd George near Walton Heath Golf Links, in Walton on the Hill. One device exploded, causing about £500 worth of damage, while another had failed to ignite. The Suffragettes left clues of discarded hairpins and hatpins at the scene and, although the police suspected Olive Hockin and Norah Smyth were the perpetrators of the bombing they were never charged.

That evening, at a meeting held in Cardiff, Emmeline Pankhurst, declared ‘we have blown up the Chancellor of Exchequer’s house’ and stated that ‘for all that has been done in the past I accept responsibility. I have advised, I have incited, I have conspired’.

Workmen had been due to arrive at the house around 6am but the devices exploded prior to their arrival. After visiting the house with the Lloyd Georges to see the bomb’s impact, Sir George Riddell, the proprietor of the News of the World, who had commissioned the house, wrote on 4 March in his diary:

‘LG much interested. Said the facts had not been brought out and that no proper point had been made of the fact that the bombs had been concealed in cupboards, which must have resulted in the death of 12 men had not the bomb which first exploded blown out the candle attached to the second bomb, which had been discovered, hidden away as it was. He was very indignant…’

Shortly after the bombing Christabel Pankhurst, was interviewed by the Daily Chronicle in Paris. In response to the reporter’s question, ‘Aren’t you afraid of being called Anarchists?’, Christabel made the WSPU position quite clear: ‘We do not mind at all …we are fighting a revolution’. She explained that Lloyd George was a prime target because, while often professing himself in favour of women’s suffrage, ‘he is always betraying us’. < Hide

Measurements

H 106 mm; W 149 mm

Materials

paper

Last Updated

2024-03-14