Good morning. A bonus post for you!
The passing of Angela Lansbury, aka the Murder, She Wrote OG, reminded me of a lesser-known Lansbury, Minnie. The other Lansbury’s may have overshadowed Minnie’s story but that doesn’t mean to say her life was any less interesting.
I promise next week I will be back to my usual nonsense.
My thanks, as always, to Ferry Gouw for this letter’s illustrations.
Until next time!
Your pal,
Katie
THE OTHER LANSBURY
A human barricade began to form outside 6 Wellington Road moments after the arrest warrant for Minnie Lansbury was called into force. Minnie was not going to be taken away, the ex-servicemen keeping guard said, without ‘a demonstration being made in her favour.’ But it didn’t matter; five days later Minnie walked through a crowd of hundreds of supports and into Poplar Town Hall where she was arrested.
Minnie, alongside twenty-nine other Poplar councillors, was being arrested for refusing to hand over what they saw as unfair tax. Each borough was expected to raise its own funds through an early version of council tax, but with significantly lower in value properties to tax, and more services to fund (unemployment, poverty) — as opposed to the multimillion-pound borough of Kensington — money was tight. And what little money they raised had to be given to central government. So the councillors refused to pay, instead keeping the money for the people of Poplar.
The courts gave them one month to reconsider or face prison.
They chose prison.
“I wish the Government joy in its effort to get this money from the people of Poplar. Poplar will pay its share of London’s rates when Westminster, Kensington, and the City do the same!” Minnie told the Daily Herald.
Minnie was a popular figure amongst the people of Poplar and it’s easy to see why when looking at the long list of campaigns she attached herself to, from mother and infant clinics, to suffragette work, to supporting war veterans and their widows. Her popularity saw her elected onto Poplar council where she joined her husband, Edgar, and his father, the mayor of Poplar, George Lansbury.
The living conditions in jail were inhumane. Minnie fell ill and was transferred to the hospital wing, but her health didn’t approve. Upon being released six weeks later she was so unwell she needed help climbing into a cab. Her health continued to deteriorate and six weeks after she was freed, Minnie died.
Her husband remarried and had a daughter, Angela. Eighty-six years after Minnie’s death Angela Lansbury, then eighty-three, donated money to the restoration of a clock erected in Minnie’s honour, with a message praising Minnie’s life:
"Her courage and total belief in the cause of righteous dissent in the turbulent years leading up to women's suffrage and the rise of "populism" in the boroughs of East London made her an inspiration and a heroine to all those who fought the good fight.”
As Janine Booth said in a talk about Minnie in 2016, “Minnie was a Lansbury, but not by birth. A suffragette, but not a Pankhurst. A political prisoner and martyr, but somehow not remembered by history. Young, radical working class women do not have to choose from […] the many men whom our movement remembers better in order to find role models. They can find one in Minnie Lansbury.”
Q SERIOUS
Are you still here? Phew! Just checking. -Insert sweating emoji- Deviating away from my usual nonsense is quite nerve wracking. I have literally sweated pressing ‘send’ on this week’s two posts. I know! But thank you for reading and all your comments and feedback, I really do appreciate it.