- Vanishing for the vote tells the story of what happened on census night, Sunday 2 April 1911. The Liberal government, which still denied women the vote, ordered every household to comply with its census requirements. So suffragette organisations urged women, all still unenfranchised, to boycott this census. Many did. Mary Howey inscribed her schedule with the words ‘Votes for Women’. Others evaded the enumerator by sheltering in darkened houses or, in the case of Emily Wilding Davison, by hiding in a cupboard inside the Houses of Parliament. Some of the more adventurous evaders even adapted gypsy caravans, used earlier for suffrage propaganda, turning them into ‘arks of refuge’, which vanished on census night. Yet many decided against boycotting. Even some suffragettes, who might be expected to rebel, decided to comply with the census – and handed over a perfectly accurate schedule. Why? Vanishing for the vote investigates the ‘battle for the census’ arguments that raged across Edwardian England in spring 1911. It explores why many committed campaigners decided this civil disobedience tactic would be highly effective propaganda; and why others decided to prioritise, not ‘Votes for Women’, but providing the government with accurate census data for its health and welfare reforms. This book plunges the reader into the turbulent world of Edwardian politics, recorded so vividly at one dramatic moment, census night 1911. It is based upon a wealth of brand new documentary sources, written in participants’ own hand. Interrogating this evidence, the book offers compelling reading for history scholars and general readers alike. It includes a substantial Gazetteer of 500 campaigners’ census schedules, compiled jointly with suffrage historian Elizabeth Crawford.