The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was the most prominent militant suffrage organisation in the United Kingdom until the start of World War I.
Many members of the organisation disagreed with the decision, with some forming the breakaway Suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1915.
[1] Other leading members included Edith Rigby, who founded a branch in Preston, Lancashire, and Dorothy Evans, who served as its provincial organiser.
[3][4][5] The group was very hostile to Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst, but while it did not share the WSPU's patriotism, it did not oppose the war.
The group proclaimed that it would devote itself to the suffrage campaign and would "work in the spirit of the old WSPU".