Suffragette speaker, Women's Sunday, 21 June 1908

A Suffragette speaker in Hyde Park, Women's Sunday, 21st June 1908. Women's Sunday was the first 'monster' meeting to be organised by the militant Women's Social and Political Union. Specially chartered trains transported thousands of Suffragettes from all over Britain to march in seven processions through central London to a rally in Hyde Park. The highly choreographed demonstration attracted a crowd of up to 300,000 drawn by the colourful spectacle of the delegates dressed in the suffragette tricolour and carrying over seven hundred embroidered banners. ‘Never’, reported the Daily Chronicle, has so vast a throng gathered in London to witness a parade of political forces’.

This image depicts one of the 20 platforms erected in a huge circle in Hyde Park from which 80 Suffragette leaders delivered an organised programme of speeches. The location of each platform was indicated by purple, white and green flags and a number on a placard. This improvised platform appears to be formed from a wagon.

Christina Broom, trading as Mrs Albert Broom, was a pioneering professional photographer and is considered to be the UK's first woman press photographer. Broom's extensive photographic work spans the activities of the suffrage movement in London, street views, military figures and actions of the Household Division including the First World War period, sporting events and the Royal Family.