Christabel studied law at Manchester University. 听After founding the WSPU with her mother and sisters, Christabel, along with fellow campaigner Annie Kenney, became the first woman to be arrested in the suffrage campaign in 1905. She was arrested and imprisoned many times more and, at one of her trials, she called Lloyd George and Gladstone as witnesses.
Christabel believed passionately in order and discipline within the movement. This resulted in disagreements and eventual splits in the WSPU. In 1912, threatened with arrest for conspiracy, she fled to France but still managed to direct the action from across the water. After the war, she was one of the first women to stand as an MP, although she failed to get elected.听
