Catalogue Number
NMLH.1993.75
Object Name
Photograph
Title
'Ex-prisoner members of parliament dinner at the House of Commons. January 9 1924.'
Place
Houses of Parliament, House of Commons,
People
James Maxton, Labour Party, Independent Labour Party, Conservative Party
Events
First World War, Campaign for Womens' Suffrage, Poplar Rates Rebellion
Description
A black and white photograph of a group of men and women around a long table. The caption indicates that some of these people are ex-prisoners who are now members of parliament in the Independent Labour Party.
This photograph was taken at the 9 January 1924 'Fetters and Roses dinner'. At the time 19 MPs were formerly incarcerated, 16 of whom attended the dinner. They had been jailed on a range of political and religious issues including:
- consciencious objection during the First World War: Walter H. Ayles, Rev. George Davies, Charles Dukes, Alexander Haycock, James Hudson, Morgan Jones, Arnold Lupton, Edmund Dene Morel, Richard Collingham Wallhead
- actions taken during the campaign for womens suffrage (George Lansbury, Barbara Gould, Frederick Pethick-Lawrence)
- participation in the Poplar Rates Rebellion (Lansbury, Susan Lawrence, Sam March, John Scurr)
- participation in trade union activism (William John, David Kirkwood, James Maxton, John Muir, Emanuel Shinwell).
The formerly incarcerated suffragette, Dorothy Evans, was also present, though she did not become an MP until 1930. Other prominent activists from the feminist, trade union and peace movements, who had been imprisoned were at the dinner. A full list of attendees, as researched by the House of Commons archive, is available to researchers.
The dinner attracted a congratulatory note from the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) which read âHeartiest good wishes. It is the old story, from prison to honourâ. Two weeks later, Baldwin's government would collapse, after which three of the ex-prisoners in the photograph became ministers of state in the first Labour Government.
