The Terrace, 1909

The Terrace, 1909 is a landscape painting by Milly Childers showing the members' terrace of the Palace of Westminster with its view of the River Thames looking towards Lambeth Bridge. It is held by the Parliamentary Art Collection.

The Terrace, 1909
Year1909
Dimensions102 cm (40 in) × 127 cm (50 in)
Accession No.WOA 3439 
IdentifiersArt UK artwork ID: the-terrace-1909-213779

Painted before women could be elected to the British House of Commons, or sit in the House of Lords, the people on the terrace are all men. Childer's father Hugh Culling Eardley Childers served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, which may have assisted to secure her the commission for the painting.

The bearded man with top hat in the central group is Sir John Benjamin Stone, who later took a photograph of Childers with her painting. He appears to be giving a photograph to Sir Henry David Erskine, the Serjeant-at-Arms who had been responsible for removing the suffragettes Helen Fox and Muriel Matters who had chained themselves to the grilles of the ladies gallery of the House of Commons on 28 October 1908.[1][2]

The man leaning against the balustrade and looking at the painter was the Labour Party leader Keir Hardie, a friend of the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. THe man second from right is Norman Lamont.

  • Photo of Childers by Stone on location
  • Speaker's procession of 1906 with Sir Henry David Erskine carrying the mace.

References
  1. Suffragettes Rush the House of Commons, Library of Congress archives
  2. Comments on the portrait of Sir Henry David Erskine in the Parliamentary Art Collection
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