None given

43

Married

Kelmscott, 225 Hordern Road, Wolverhampton

WFL

Complies

Emma Sproson (nee Lloyd) was born in West Bromwich in 1867. She left school at 13 years of age to work in domestic service. The family moved to Daisy Bank, Bilston in 1875, where Emma took an interest in socialism and feminism and educated herself. She joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in Wolverhampton in 1895, where she met its secretary, Frank Sproson, a postman whom she married in 1896. In 1906, Frank invited Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst of the suffragette WSPU to Wolverhampton to speak, and Emma joined the WSPU the same year. Frank was fully supportive of Emma's Votes for Women activity. In February 1907, Emma took part in a suffragette march to Parliament Square, London, where more than 700 suffragettes attempted to force their way into the Houses of Parliament. Sixty-seven women were arrested, including Emma, and served 14 days in Holloway Prison. At that time she had two young children at home and a six month old baby so going to prison represented a huge sacrifice. She was arrested in a further raid on the House of Commons on 18 March 1907, along with (see) Elizabeth Price. On her prison experience she wrote: 'I measured my cell with my feet, and the shoes they gave me were too big and different sizes. My dress was a coarse grey linsey, covered with broad arrows… The bed was coarse, fibre mattress and pillow, placed on a plank 4” from the floor… Near the top of the thick iron door, such as you see in a large safe, was a space that converged to a glass-like bull’s eye. When I heard a click, I knew that a Warder was using it for observation… I did not sleep the first night.’ On her release she held a meeting in Wolverhampton, and toured around the Black Country arguing against women's low wages and poor working conditions. When there was a break within the WSPU in 1907, Emma joined the resulting breakaway society the Women's Freedom League (WFL) becoming Wolverhampton branch secretary and a member of its National committee by 1908 undertaking extensive countrywide speaking tours. She likely broke from the WSPU because of its split with the ILP. In 1911, she complied with the government census survey but by then she was also a member of the Women's Tax Resistance League and so was arrested and imprisoned in May that year for refusing to pay her dog license. She went on hunger strike in prison when she was not classed as a political prisoner. Her dog was sadly shot by the police. In 1912, and disillusioned by suffrage politics, she resigned from the WFL and afterwards took little interest in the movement, focusing instead upon improving social conditions. Emma also known as “Red Emma”, later became the first woman Councillor for Wolverhampton Borough Council when she was elected for Dunstall Ward in 1921 and was re-elected in 1924. Emma died in 1936. Contributed by Heidi McIntosh, Senior Archivist, Wolverhampton City Archives. Please note: Wolverhampton Archives is currently closed due to Covid 19 and so document access is restricted. However, we will be adding more images in relation to Emma Sproson including prison accounts and letters as soon as possible. Additional Sources: Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928 (London); Nicola Gould https://nicolagauld.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/emmas-prison-experience/