West Ham WSPU banner

Hat tip to Col Roi for this picture of the banner of West Ham "Women's Social and Political Union" WSPU.

Does anyone have any further information about this branch?

I have found this link to a West Ham Branch of the East London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS).  Which split from the WSPU in 1914.

I found this fascinating quote here about East London in the First World War. "The worst outbursts of anti German feeling came after the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. West Ham alone suffered £100,000 of damage after rioting. Suspected Germans were beaten up and their premises looted. The ELFS centres were used as refuges by those caught in the violence".

“The war revolutionised the industrial position of women – it found them serfs and left them free”

This quotation by feminist and suffragette, Millicent Fawcett, was in the latest issue of “the Newham mag” (a free fortnightly Newham Council magazine). There was a great article (page 16) about “World War 1 comes to East and West Ham”.

Two other things I learnt from this article was that the (top) Edward VII pub in Stratford High Street used to be called the “King of Prussia” but due to anti-German sentiment it was renamed.

Also that the “Royal Welch Fusiliers” which was my “home” regiment in North Wales for some reason recruited in West Ham during the First World War!