A bizarre compilation of print and manuscript items recounting the controversy that erupted between Mrs Henry Morton Stanley - Dorothy Tennant - the Womens’ Committee of the Unionists of North Lambeth and the disruptive young woman journalist, Miss Strutt Cavell of the leftist newspaper, The Star.
A one page introduction in the neat hand of Henry Pymm sets the scene for Mrs Pymm’s invitation in January 1893 to an ‘At Home’ hosted by Dorothy Tennant, also Mrs H.M. Stanley, British painter, author and wife of the famous African explorer, journalist and political candidate, Sir Henry Morton Stanley. Uninterested in Unionist politics it is noted that Mrs Pymm passed the invitation to a male friend. A day after the ‘At Home’ the left leaning evening newspaper The Star printed two articles written by Miss Strutt Cavell under the pen name ‘Stella of The Star’ in which she exposed in ‘hostile and satiricial’ fashion the campaign tactics of Mrs Stanley by someone who infiltrated the gathering.
The contents of the volume including the originals and copies of the ensuing letters exchanged between the Pymms and the Womens’s Committee as they investigated this leak:
Tipped and pasted in are:
1. Invitation card to ‘Mrs H.M. Stanley At Home, 2 Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, On Thursday January 26th, 8.30 pm’.
2. News Cutting dated 27.1.93 from The Star titled ‘Stanley’s Dark Design - Illuminated by the Bus Talk of a Garrulous Lambeth Lady’ and 3 smaller untitled clippings from The Star and The Echo dated 28th & 29th January 1893 which discuss the informant’s presence at the meeting.
3. A photograph of Miss Strutt Cavell from Cassell’s Magazine dated Sept 1898 and accompanying clipping.
4. Letter and envelope addressed to Mrs Pymm, 136 York Rd, Lambeth dated March 3 1893 on paper headed Womens’ Liberal Unionist Association written to Mrs Pymm signed Agatha Richardson, ‘you perhaps have not heard that a very hostile and satirical article and paragraph were published in The Star describing the meeting at Mrs Stanley’s and information said to have been derived from someone who was present..... the ladies present at the meeting emphatically denied having anything to do with the matter, and I must now ask you if you wish to do so also’.
5. Hand written copy of a letter and envelope dated March 4th 1893 written from Henry Pymm to ‘Mrs A S H Richardson... ‘if a man had written to me in the spirit of your letter I should possibly have been able to reply to better effect’.
6. A hand written original letter dated March 8th 1893 from Mrs Richardson to Mr Henry Pymm, ‘the person who intruded herself into a private house on a false pretence of political sympathy ridiculed her hostess and fellow guests in the public press’.... ‘if this is not dishonest and unladylike conduct I can attach no meaning to it’.
7. Handwritten letter dated March 15th from Mr Pymm to Mrs Richardson which was not sent and a list of 3 reasons why.
8. Letter dated May 6th 1893 to Mrs Pymm from the Chairman of the Committee making further enquiries as to who the invitation was passed on to.
9. Letter dated May 8th 1893 from Mrs Pymm to the Chairman of the Committee. ‘I think you have made a mistake’.
Slammed and sabotaged by the local press, Stanley lost his first campaign when he first ran for the Lambeth North seat in 1892 but by 1895 the furore had quieted down just enough for him to contest it again and secure a narrow victory. His colonial past in Africa however ensured he remained a highly polarizing political figure throughout his tenure.
PHYSICAL CONDITION: Half morocco over green titled 1893 in gilt to upper. Just cracking over front flyleaves but otherwise sound and sqaure. Leaves to rear remain blank. Contents in very good, clean and legible condition.
