Suffragette 'plot to assassinate Asquith'
Suffragette 'plot to assassinate Asquith' -- by Neil Tweedie
Suffragettes plotted to assassinate Herbert Asquith, the Liberal prime minister, as part of their campaign to achieve votes for women, according to a file released yesterday at the National Archives.
Scotland Yard was warned that two members of the movement were perfecting their pistol shooting in the hope of killing Asquith as he arrived at the House of Commons. They were never caught.
The plot was disclosed by a Mrs Moore, a member of the Women's Freedom League who believed in peaceful protest and feared more militant campaigners were about to resort to extreme measures. She may have been the actress Eva Moore, a suffragist campaigner and friend of Asquith's sister-in-law.
In September 1909 she showed Det Insp Patrick Quinn a letter she had received outlining the plan, but refused to identify the author, even though she knew the woman had been attending a shooting range. The Home Office noted that the same range had been used by the Indian assassin Madar Lal Dhingra, who a few months earlier shot Sir William Curzon-Wylie, aide to the secretary of state for India.
Det Insp Quinn reported that the plotters were among women picketing the Palace of Westminster, adding: "Mrs Moore says she has been making efforts to restrain these women for some time past and has used her power to have them removed from the carriage entrance to the House of Commons, fearing that something would happen to Mr Asquith.
"But now she finds they are getting out of hand, and therefore she thought it best to inform the authorities."
The authorities discussed removing the suffragist picket camped outside the Palace of Westminster, but decided not to because they would have had to justify the act by making the plot public.