We mail a lot of weird and wonderful things...

Even we're not old enough to remember when the Post Office allowed individual to be posted!

Royal Mail had a long connection with the Suffragette Movement

The Suffragettes protested against the government and their lack of willingness to give them the vote. The GPO (General Post Office) which was state owned, saw some local Post Office window’s smashed during anti-government attacks. These attacks only increased due to the harsh treatment of Suffragettes in prison.

Pillar boxes were also targeted in their campaigns. Emily Wilding Davison, known for having tragically died in a collision with the King's horse at the Epson Derby, set fire to three pillar boxes in 1911. Emily had been arrested and sent to prison many times, where she took part in hunger strikes. The Suffragettes also poured ink into pillar boxes, damaging the mail inside. This led to inventive designs to prevent this from happening. You can see in the comical postcard above a combination of both tactics being combated by the pillar box booting the Suffragette away.

Postcards, like the ones shown below, were used to support and ridicule the Suffragettes. On the left is an image of a Suffragette in prison, speaking of women’s liberty. Whereas on the right the Suffragette is depicted as small and insignificant being passed between two large policemen.

Commemorative stamp design

The first example of the Suffragettes appearing on stamps came in 1968 when they were part of an anniversary series marking 50 years since the vote. Below are examples of unadopted designs - those that were produced but not commissioned to be the final stamps. The design by Jeffery Matthews depicts the wish for  women to pass on their vote. Here a female hand in a delicate glove places her vote into the ballot box.

David Gentleman produced two designs for the issue; one taking a photo of Emmeline Pankhurst being forcible removed by a policeman and the other looking at women wearing sandwich boards. Here they spell suffrage but Suffragettes used these as a means to spread their message - an image that shows the unity of the women.

The same image of Mrs Pankhurst being removed by a policeman was used by Clive Abbott in the below design. The extreme facial expression of Mrs Pankhurst only emphasises the brutality the Suffragettes experienced at the hands of the police force.

The final design was produced by Clive Abbot for the British Anniversary issue of 1968. The nine pence issued stamp depicts the Emmeline Pankhurst statue in in Victoria Tower Gardens.

The Suffragettes appeared on two more stamp issues before the 100th anniversary. Once in 1999 for the Millennium Series, The Citizens’ Tale depicting a suffragette behind bars and the other of Millicent Garrett Fawcett, who was included in the Women of Distinction issue of 2008.