| 1869 |
Lady Constance Georgina Lytton born, third child of Robert, first Earl of Lytton and Edith Villiers. Family are living in India, where Lytton is Viceroy. Sickly child. |
| 1880 |
Family leaves India. |
| 1887 |
Constance’s sister Betty marries Gerald Balfour (Arthur’s brother). |
| 1897 |
Constance’s sister Emily marries Edwin Lutyens, the architect. |
| 1908 |
Constance’s godmother Lady Bloomfield dies, leaving her £1000. Her brother Neville suggests she gives it to the Esperance Club, a small singing and dancing group for working class girls. She subsequently meets Annie Kenny and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. |
| 1909 |
Constance becomes an official member of the WSPU. Imprisoned for the first time in February 1909. Her pamphlet ‘No Votes for Women: A Reply to Some Recent Anti-Suffrage Publications’ is published. Imprisoned again in October 1909. |
| 1910 |
Disguises herself as Jane Warton and imprisoned in Walton Gaol in Liverpool in terrible conditions. Force fed several times. Writes about her experiences in The Times. |
| 1912 |
Suffers a stroke from which she never fully recovers, but continues to write Prisons and Prisoners: an account of her time in custody. |
| 1914 |
Prisons and Prisoners is published. |
| 1918 |
Representation of the People Act 1918 gives the vote to all men, and to women over the age of 30. |
| 1923 |
Constance dies aged 54. |
| 1928 |
Representation of the People Act 1928 gives the vote to women on the same grounds as men. Universal suffrage has arrived! |
