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TELEPHONE,
HOLBORN 5724. May 11: 1916: 16 John Street
38, Douchty Street,
Bedford Row W. C. Dear Mrs Sheehy Skeffington, I do not know how to write to you
in your great sorrow. You will hear from
many who know you and knew your splendid
husband much better personally than myself,
but I cannot refrain from sending you a
few words to tell you how outraged I feel at
his tragic fate and how deeply sympathetic
with you. The loss to our own cause is irrepa—
—rable, as it is to Ireland and to humanity,
But his soul will go marching on: no one who
even met him once for 5 minutes, as I did, can
doubt that for a moment. You poor dear woman!
Let me know if there is anything more we can
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do over here. At two United Suffragists' meetings
this week, we told the audience what had happened,
and they were profoundly moved, knowing
how much you and your husband had done
for our Cause. Mr. Nevinson has been splendid:
I think it is very largely owing to his untiring efforts
that the affair was bought to light so
promptly in Parliament. Do not dream of
answering this unless there is anything we can
do for you over here— Mr. Laurence and Mr
Lansbury have been working hard too. Yours with warmed—sympathy Evelyn Sharp
In this letter from Evelyn Sharp (1869–1955) to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946),
Evelyn offers her condolences regarding the tragic death of Hanna's husband, Francis.
Evelyn conveys the extent to which Francis' death is a loss to their cause and Ireland
as well as a personal one, and offers her assistance to Hanna in any way that it would
be necessary. She writes that the women of the United Suffragists are similarly moved
in response to the tragedy and then praises how quickly the whole affair was brought
to light. She finishes by assuring Hanna that she need not respond unless there is
anything she would like the United Suffragists to do.
Evelyn Sharp was a key member in the Women's Social and Political Union and the United
Suffragists, two militant suffragist organizations, the latter of which Evelyn helped
to form. She was the editor of Votes For Women during the First World War.
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, suffragette, nationalist, language teacher, was the founder
of the Irish Women’s Franchise League and a founding member of the Irish Women Workers’
Union. She was the widow of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington who was summarily executed
on 26 April 1916. She was active during the Rising, bringing food to the Volunteers
in the G.P.O. and the College of Surgeons. Four days passed before she found out what
had happened to her husband, Francis (1878-1916), and it wasn't until almost two weeks
later that the full details of his execution emerged.