There is a lovely piece by Stephen Bate on Comment is Free. He looks at the recent revelation that the authorities feared that militant suffragettes were planning an attempt on Asquith's life. (I hope the first Lady Bonkers had a good alibi.)Bate writes:
In fact they attacked him physically at least three times: twice when he was playing golf on holiday, at Lossiemouth and Lympne - when he fended them off with the aid of his doughty daughter Violet and doubtless a handy mashie niblick, and once more seriously when they waylaid his car outside Stirling, when he was on his way to the unveiling of a memorial to his predecessor Campbell-Bannerman, and set about him with dog whips.And a letter in this morning's Times suggests that Bate's supposition about the Asquith family's choice of weapon is correct:
Sir, Suffragettes apparently practised shooting with the possible intention of assassinating the Prime Minister (reports, Sept 29, 30 and Oct 2), and those about Mr Asquith were also armed. Once, when they were playing golf together at Lossiemouth, his brother-in-law, H. J. Tennant, MP (my grandfather), protected the Prime Minister by fending off suffragettes with his mashie-niblick.
MARK TENNANT OF BALFLUIG
Alford, Aberdeenshire
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