Evelyn Billings record states that she was arrested twice on July 28th 1913 and August 11th 1913. Next to the first entry is a pencil star which refers to a footnote stating that no records have been found relating to the first arrest on her file. This seems to be an administrative error as the first arrest is recorded in the newspapers. Evelyn’s surname is variously spelt with and without an “s”. The correct spelling appears to be Billing as included in advertisements in suffrage newspapers.

Evelyn was the organiser of the West and North Kent branch of the WSPU. In January 1912 she gave a speech at a meeting of the Hastings Branch. “It was for them [Cabinet Ministers] to prove that they were dishonourable, and they pretty nearly always did it. A keen correspondent she often raise awareness of the cause by her letters to the press. She wrote to the Kent and Sussex Courier asking women to write to their Members of Parliament to protest at the force feeding of Olive Walton held in Aylesbury Gaol.

In July 1912 she travelled to London to take part in a protest in Trafalgar Square against the operation of the Cat and Mouse Act and the re arrest of Sylvia Pankhurst. Thirteen women and eleven men were arrested and charged, Evelyn with obstruction. According to the police Evelyn incited the crowd crying “Come on, men.” She then proceeded to grab a walking stick ran into Great Scotland Yard yelling to the crowd to follow her and break the windows at the Liberal Club. To this evidence Evelyn responded that it was all lies and raised a legal objection in that she understood there needed to be three witnesses for an offence to be proven. The magistrate pointed out this was incorrect to which Evelyn replied “Very well- I’ll find out for the next time, and we’ll get along”. The policeman “..has got the author’s brain and has invented a great yarn”. She was fined forty shillings or one month’s imprisonment. Evelyn shouted “Where are your witnesses?” and had to be forcibly removed from the court.

It appears that Evelyn did not go to goal as only a few weeks later she was arrested again for her part in an attempt to enter Downing Street. The crowd were described variously by the police as a mob or almost a riot. Evelyn was charged with obstruction and assault. A policeman attested that she had attempted to break through a cordon striking a policeman in the face. Evelyn argued that the police were in fact obstructing the crowd not the other way round, the magistrate whilst not agreeing with the argument decided to concentrate on the assault charge. Evelyn stated she was a “marked woman” and that when she had been arrested previously she had been assaulted by police officers. This the magistrate stated “...was futile and irrelevant” sentencing her to a fine or one month in prison. Evelyn stated her intent to go on hunger strike.

Whether Evelyn did or did not go on hunger strike is unknown but she did elect to go to prison. On her release she continued campaigning. In the October 25th 1913 edition of the Bexhill on Sea Observer a letter was published written in response to a speech given by the Bishop of Chichester at the Diocesan Conference. First Evelyn responded to the Bishop’s contention that women should not be elected to the synod, legislative council, of the church by outlining in detail why his argument was incorrect. It would be another nearly eighty years before the first women priests were ordained. The Bishop had referred to a “filthy” paper which Evelyn believed he meant the Suffragette newspaper which had recently included informative articles on venereal disease highlighting in particular the way married women could be infected by unfaithful husbands suffering in silence due to the collusion of male doctors. She attacked the church’s lack of desire to recognise this or poverty. “..Suffragists and Trade Unions are on the warpath, while the Church sleeps-or scoffs.” This impassioned conclusion sums up the actual underlining motive of many campaigners. They wanted the vote not for its own sake but to have a voice to raise awareness of poverty, disease or injustice.

No biographical information is given in any press report, the only clue is her role of organiser of the West and North Kent WSPU. When arrested she gave her address as the WSPU headquarters. Evelyn does not appear on the Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners and no further personal information has been located.

Teresa Billington was arrested twice on June 21st 1906 and October 24th 1906. Teresa was born in Preston, Lancashire to a devout Roman Catholic family in 1877, she strongly opposed her family’s religious values becoming an agnostic. She eventually ran her away from home, went to night school and trained to be a teacher. Her refusal to teach religious studies lessons brought her into conflict with the authorities who summoned her to appear before the Manchester Education Committee. Emmeline Pankhurst heard her case and arranged for her to teach at a Jewish school where she would no longer be called upon to teach religious studies. Whilst studying for a degree alongside teaching Teresa became involved in the University of Manchester Settlement based in a deprived area of Manchester, Ancoats. The idea behind the Settlement was to bring learning to the community whilst exposing the more privileged to the impact of poverty on a community. Like so many of the suffragettes this exposure was to spur Teresa into campaigning for the vote.

A committed feminist Teresa was one of the first to join the Women’s Social and Political Union of which in due course she became an organiser having first served as an organiser of the Independent Labour Party. By 1905 Teresa was a regularly speaker on the Women’s Enfranchisement Bill or other topics such as Socialism and the Women’s Question. In April 1906 she was part of a group of women including Annie Kenney who gained access to the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons during the debate on the Enfranchisement Bill. Their cries of protest led to them being forcibly removed but they were not charged with any offence.

In June 1906 Herbert Asquith was due to address a meeting of the Liberal Party. All week Teresa accompanied by Annie Kenney campaigned to raise awareness of their cause ahead of the meeting handing out fliers which read “Come in crowds to oppose Asquith, the enemy of liberty and justice.” They were joined by Emmeline Pankhurst later in the week.  All three gained entry to the meeting. As soon as Asquith rose to speak they attempted to drown him out.  Members of the audience and stewards bundled the women out of the hall. One newspaper report claimed Teresa produced a whip from under her skirt and lashed out with it. Given she was not charged with any offence and no other newspaper reports this this may well be an embellishment.  After she was ejected Emmeline rose to protest and when she was shouted down and removed others took her place to continue interrupting.

Only a week later Teresa attempted to knock on Asquith’s front door in Cavendish Square, London. When she refused to move on she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and inciting others. In court she refused to enter a plea or give any personal details on the basis that the courts were there to apply laws made by men and therefore had no jurisdiction over women. She was fined £10 or two months imprisonment which was later reduced to £5 or one month imprisonment. She did not serve much of her sentence as an anonymous sympathiser presented herself at Holloway Prison and paid the fine stating that the trial and initial imprisonment had raised the profile of the cause sufficiently negating the need to serve anymore of the sentence. Amusingly she was made to pay the full fine of £10 as the prison authorities were not aware of any reduction, they would in due course refund the difference if it proved to be true.

Alongside her hands on actions Teresa wrote many letters to the national press and articles explaining the rationale of the women’s actions. The Militant Policy of Women Suffragists outlined the reasons why women felt they had the right to protest. Her campaigning took its toll in The Woman and the Whip she wrote of leaving meetings “‘in a state of nervous humiliation, shocked, weeping, and shuddering.’[i] These feelings did not deter her and after her release from prison she continued campaigning addressing meetings during a tour of Scotland. By October Teresa had returned to London joining an attempt to enter the House of Commons. She was arrested and charged with using insulting and threatening language likely to lead to a breach of the peace. The court hearing was chaotic with one woman being arrested at the court. All of the women were fined but on refusing collectively to pay were sent to prison for two months.  They were all released having served one month.
Teresa returned to the campaign trial visiting the North of England and Scotland. During her work in Scotland she had met Frederick Lewis Greig, the manager of a billiard supplies company to whom she became engaged to much comment in the press that she had broken her vow not to marry until women obtained the vote. The reality was that she had told Frederick she would give a further year to the campaign before she wed. She married Frederick in Scotland in February 1907 in a low key ceremony intended to prevent journalists attending, the groom reportedly was working until an hour before the nuptials. In a very modern move they combined their surnames becoming Billington Greig. The couple went on to have one daughter, Fiona, born in 1915.

Teresa was straight back on the campaign trail after her marriage continuing to give talks and write to the newspapers. At a meeting of the WSPU in June 1907 she was presented with a belated wedding present, a typewriter, presented by Charlotte Despard. At the September conference of the WSPU the Emmeline Pankhurst stated her intent to run the organisation without any meddling from doubters of in particular the tendency of the leadership to take decisions without consultation. Charlotte Despard questioned this stance and Emmeline invited those who challenged her authority to found an organisation of their own. Teresa amongst others joined Charlotte and left forming the Women’s Freedom League.

The campaign continued with both organisations pushing their message but in different ways. In February 1910 Teresa, travelling to Scotland, was injured when the train she was travelling on hit a landslide derailing the train and sending some of the carriages into the sea. She sustained wrist and ankle injuries. Whilst continuing to question the leadership of the WSPU she became disenchanted with the Women’s Freedom League citing their “weak intimidation.” Thus largely independent of any group she campaigned by writing articles and books such as Women and the Machine published in 1913.
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With the dawn of the First World War Teresa she organised in Glasgow billiards afternoons for women where they could enjoy demonstrations, talks and playing to raise funds for the Sportsmen’s Ambulance Fund. In 1928 she returned to the fray campaigning for more women Members of Parliament.

She died in 1964.
 
 


[i] www.wcml.org.uk

Elizabeth Biling and May Billinghurst to staunch campaigners.

 Elizabeth Billing was arrested on October 14th 1908 and charged with obstructing the police near the Houses of Parliament. At her first court appearance she was remanded in custody for one week. At the subsequent trial she was ordered to pay a fine and agree to be bound over to keep the peace, refusal would lead to one month’s imprisonment. She was released on November 21st alongside other women who were greeted by Mrs Pethick Lawrence and Mrs Howe Martyn and a band playing the Marseillaise.  According to Votes for Women published on October 15th 1908 Elizabeth was a new recruit to the movement who had only recently addressed a crowd at her first street corner meeting. After she wrote “My great regret is to have wasted many valuable years while others have stood the brunt of the battle.”

The next two entries read Mary or May Billinghurst arrested December 26th 1912 and January 9th 1913; Rosa May Billinghurst arrested March 12th 1912. These two entries actually relate to one person Rosa May Billinghurst. Although the records do not reflect this she was first arrested in November 1910 having been a “conspicuous” presence at two demonstrations she was arrested for obstruction and discharged. The reason for her “conspicuous” appearance was that disabled from childhood she got around in a tricycle which she often adorned with the suffragette colours.

Known as May she was born in 1876 into a comfortable middle class family as a young woman she volunteered at the workhouse in Greenwich which as was often the case opened her eyes to the hardships suffered by the poor. May joined the Women’s Social Political Union early on believing as did many that the vote was the means by which women would have a say and raise issues such as poverty. It is clear from the Vote for Women newspaper that this endeavour became a family affair with her mother and sister joining and other family members giving donations.

May was a hard worker and was well aware that her appearance at rallies or canvassing at by elections in her tricycle drew attention to the cause. Her first arrest, mentioned above, followed Black Friday but such turmoil did not deter her. A year later she was arrested for her part in another demonstration outside Parliament and “was carried through the thick of the crowd by half-dozen stalwart policemen”.[1] The reporting of this arrest shows the power of being seated in a tricycle, over one hundred and fifty women were arrested after the leaders of the movement May is singled out for special mention in many of the newspaper reports. Again this arrest is not included in the official record and it appears the charges were dropped.

May was arrested again for her part in the window smashing campaign and was this time imprisoned for one month. In December 1912 she was arrested on suspicion of attacking post boxes. On being searched six rubber tubes containing a black fluid were found on her lap. She was sent for trail in January, found guilty she was sentenced to eight months. The judge when he passed sentence observed that many supported the right of women to the vote but that might have been granted by now if it was not for the actions of a militant few to which those on trial had mistakenly adhered themselves. “..they were animated by the highest and purest motives in what they did, and that, having spent many years among the poorest class of women, they had been impressed with the miseries which resulted from the sweating system, … which often led to the degradation of women and to other results too terrible to contemplate.” A surprisingly more supportive statement than was the norm.

Despite many letters demanding that May was not force fed due to her poor health she was subjected to this degradation on several occasions. Her health declined on January 18th she was released. After a period of recuperation May spoke at events recounting her experiences and denouncing force feeding. In May 1914 May was part of the deputation who attempted to speak directly with the King refusing to move on she chained her tricycle to the railings at Buckingham Palace. She was not arrested as no doubt her notoriety meant the authorities had no intention of giving anyone the opportunity of claiming they were preying on a disabled woman.
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May remained politically active until she died in 1953.


[1] Dundee Courier November 22nd 1911 

Someone kindly got in touch and provided further information on Blanche Bennett who was included in the last blog. She was arrested on March 5th 1912 for her part in the window smashing campaign and was sentenced to two months hard labour for smashing two windows at 1, Baker Street, London. Secretary of the Irish Women’s Suffragette Society and had travelled to London to take part.

Many protested at the harshness of the sentences in comparison to sentences metered out to men for crimes against women or children which were considered to be more lenient. As Charlotte Despard wrote in The Vote published on March 9th 1912 “Let them compare the sentences passed on men for outrageous offences against women and children with that on Mrs Pankhurst, and they will, we hope, begin to realise how low we have fallen in our-man administered justice, and how deep is the necessity for reform”.[1]
Dorothea Benson was arrested on March 5th 1912. No further information has been found.

The next entry is for William Edward Bethell. Unusually no date for his arrest is included as has always been the case so far for every name. Searching through the newspapers a very strange tale transpired. The Votes for Women newspaper dated November 13th 1913 included a report regarding the injuring of William at a suffragette meeting, injuries that were so great he passed away a few days later. However a search through the death records did not locate any record of William dying. A report in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, who had picked up on an article in the Times, states that the police had been trying to verify the veracity of the report included in amongst other publications Vote for Women. William’s brother was apparently informed that he had attended a meeting and been injured. When interviewed William’s father expressed surprise as William had emigrated a year before and he had received a letter from him only days before. A case of mistaken identity or something more sinister because as the police concluded there was no sign of anyone passing away who had attended such a meeting? As apparently William had never been active before that point in suffragette activities who did they arrest or was his name included because his death was being investigated?

Annie Biggs was arrested twice on March 21st 1907 and September 30th 1911.  The first arrest was for her part in a demonstration and she was sentenced to two weeks imprisonment. In 1907 a book was published entitled My Prison Life and Why I Am a Suffragette written by Annie S Biggs which seems likely to be one and the same person. Although no light can be shed on her personal life not helped by the fact that she often gave a different age when she appeared in court contemporaneous newspaper reports shed some insight. The Sheffield Evening Telegraph dated April 8th 1908 reported the appearance in court of Annie who refused to give her address and described herself as an organiser. She had been charged with obstruction for sweeping a crossing between Waterloo Place and Pall Mall in Central London. Annie is described as a well dressed woman wearing a “fashionable black toque, trimmed with red flowers and white suede gloves” who spoke “in a refined tone, and was evidently well educated”. Her sweeping of the crossing had drawn a crowd which was causing an obstruction. On being requested to desist she had refused and was then arrested. In court Annie stated that she had tried to gain employment. She was a caterer and organiser of first class restaurants undertaking some of the finest work in London but had not succeeding in finding work.  As, she claimed, her references were too good she had been unsuccessful in finding work as a domestic servant. She had tried to emigrate to Queensland but this had not been successful either.  She had not known it was against the law to sweep crossings. The magistrate explained why she should not have been sweeping the crossing to which Annie responded “.. I think I have had enough of crossing sweeping; probably I shall not, go there again.” The magistrate discharged her. Not being a suffragette activity this arrest does not appear on her record.

Three years later Annie was arrested again. This time she presented herself at Cannon Row Police Station stating she had broken two windows at the Home Office. Annie was described as an organiser who was homeless. Annie stated that she had broken the windows to draw attention to her plight. Prior to breaking the windows she had spent the entire night sitting at the out patient’s department of a hospital hoping to be admitted as an in-patient but had failed to achieve her aim. She had been without food until the police offered her sustenance. The police informed the court that some months before she had participated in a suffragette protest being charged with resisting the police and had also appeared before the courts charged with obstruction of the highway. The first of these statements is not consistent with the arrest records as only this incident and the arrest in 1907 are included.  In response to the assertion regarding the suffragette movement Annie said she was now opposed to the movement.
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Annie was remanded in custody to be examined by a doctor. No newspaper reports can be found of recording what followed. It seems probable that Annie was admitted to the workhouse as Annie S Biggs, journalist, is recorded as being admitted on December 12th 1911. There the trail goes cold. It is purely conjecture but perhaps Annie’s imprisonment in 1907 disturbed the balance of her mind which would not be an isolated incident.
 
 


[1] The Vote March 9th 1912

The next entry is for May Bellinghurst arrested on November 28th 1911. There is no trace of a suffragette of that name in any newspaper reports of that time. The entry should be included under the entries for Rosa May Billinghurst, newspaper reports record that she was arrested and tried on November 28th 1911 but no entry is made on the arrest record. It seems that the entry has been recorded incorrectly. Rosa May Billinghurst will be discussed in a later blog.

Blanche Bennett was arrested on March 5th 1912 for her part in the window smashing campaign. She was sentenced alongside Dora Beedham [Spong] to two months hard labour. No further information has been found.
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Dorothy Bennett who gave her address as Clement’s Inn, the WSPU headquarters, was arrested on November 27th 1911. She was sentenced to seven days imprisonment.

The next on the list is Sarah Bennett who used the aliases Susan Burnton and Mary Gray. The list records that she was arrested seven times. Born in 1850 in the New Forest to James and Rebeca Bennett she was baptised Sarah Charlotte.  Her father was a mariner and away from the home for long periods of time. She was the fourth of seven children. In 1873 her mother had died and Sarah moved north to Burslem in the Potteries which was the address she gave when she was elected treasurer of the Women’s Freedom League in 1909. Extensive searches of the census returns do not locate Sarah in the intervening years. Sarah worked to improve the lot of the workers in the Staffordshire Potteries campaigning to prevent the use of lead glaze in the production of pottery.

The first arrest was in March 1907 was for her part in the demonstration attempting to enter the House of Commons when she was charged with obstructing the police helpfully defined by a policeman as attempting to force your way through a cordon. This Sarah had done whilst clutching a piece of paper relevant to suffrage and whilst linking arms with other women. The policeman concerned said he had been forced back by Sarah’s actions but had not been hurt. She was fined £1 or fourteen days in prison.

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Sarah was arrested for a second time in January 1908 by which time she was in her late fifties. A newspaper report states “an elderly person.” The charge this time was disorderly behaviour and resisting the police. Sarah had been standing outside the home of the Scottish Secretary for State addressing a crowd when the police intervened. On the way to the police station Kathleen Crummey took the hand of Sarah and of the policeman announcing that if they took Sarah they could take her as well. The magistrate during the hearing felt that Sarah needed medical examination. She retorted “I am not insane.” To which the magistrate responded that she was clearly not but there was such a thing as “hysteria and being out of health.” Sarah firmly reiterated that there was nothing wrong with her at all. The magistrate stated that if that was the case that removed any excuse at all and sentenced her to pay a fine of 40 shillings or twenty one days in prison. Sarah refused to pay. Kathleen was admonished and told she was like a repentant child who should return to her husband and children.
Sarah was a member of the Women’s Freedom League formed in 1907 by a breakaway group from the WSPU. Initially Charlotte Despard was the treasurer but when she was appointed President in 1909 Sarah was elected in her place. The following year Sarah was accused of also being a member of the WSPU, her defence at the Annual Conference was given short shrift by the members of the Women’s Freedom League and she resigned. Sarah, who had by then moved to Finchley, North London, was arrested for her part in Black Friday. The entry actually reads December 13th but as the offence number is the one used for Black Friday this seems to be an error.
In March 1912 Sarah took part in the window smashing campaign breaking windows at Selfridges to the value of £160, she was sentenced to six months hard labour alongside Edith Warwick Bell [see earlier blog]. Her response was to inform the judge that she had been part of the suffrage march from Edinburgh to London in October 1909. Presumably the comment was intended to make the judge realise she was a tough resilient woman.
In May 1912 Emmeline Pankhurst, Frederick and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence were charged with conspiring with Christabel Pankhurst to maliciously cause damage and inciting others to do the same. One of the persons they were alleged to have incited was Sarah who had been witnessed throwing a stone at the window of the Aerated Bread Company. 
Sarah must have been released from prison without serving her full sentence as she was arrested on July 22nd for her part in the protests in Birmingham associated with Asquith’s visit to the city. What part Sarah took or her sentence have not been located as the newspaper records do not name the individuals involved. She was arrested again in May 1914.

Sarah died in 1924 remaining close friends with other suffragettes for the rest of her life. She collaborated with Ethel Smyth whose cell she had been next to in Holloway on The Wreckers. 

Edith Marion Begbie was born c 1866, the daughter of John and Marion McFarlane in Leith, Scotland. By the 1881 census the family had moved to Edinburgh. Her father worked in the wire cloth industry. In 1856 he joined a family run business which made wire related products and branched out into paper milling. The return records twelve children of which Edith is the eldest daughter. The second daughter Florence was also to become an active part of the suffrage movement. Between the census in 1881 and the end of 1882 Marion had two more children. The last Noel was born at Christmas time 1882 only weeks later their mother died in January 1883.

John had borrowed heavily to buy other family members out of the business but by the 1891 census the family fortunes had significantly changed. His son, Arthur, began to work in the business which was now very profitable and John founded a liberal newspaper. This may have influenced his daughters. By 1901 Florence and two younger sisters are running a women’s hospital in Edinburgh. Edith married John Begbie, an East India merchant in 1888. The couple settled in Stanmore, Middlesex and had four children, three boys and a daughter.

Edith was first arrested on Black Friday but the charges were withdrawn. On the 1911 census return she merely entered her name and left all the other squares blank. Arrested on March 7th 1912 she was charged with smashing windows at 126, 127, 128 and 129-130 The Strand with something she had concealed in a muff. According to the witness she systematically walked down the Strand smashing one window after another. The manager of one shop stated the damage amounted to £10, another £15 and another £4 and 10 shillings. At her first appearance in court Edith stated “I stand her as the mother of four children….that my children should have equal rights and protection, daughters and sons, and as I cannot appeal to men’s reason I must use their own language, which is violence.”[1] She added that she concurred with William Ball [see earlier blog]. Sentenced to imprisonment Edith went on hunger strike alongside Florence who was sentenced a few days later. Both were far from well on their release. Florence continued with her militant activities but Edith was not arrested again.

She died in 1932.
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A K A Behenna arrested July 9th 1909 for whom no further information has been found.

B Beldon was arrested for her part in Black Friday, as with all the other participators the charges were dropped.  No further trace has been found.

Mary Beldon was arrested on November 22nd 1911, one of two hundred and twenty three arrested in connection with window smashing. With two exceptions all were tried at Bow Street Magistrates Court. One hundred and fourteen were charged with wilful damage, of the rest some were charged with obstructing the police in the exercise of their duty, assault or damage. Most women and the few men involved defended themselves. A crowd of over three hundred stood outside the court whilst others swelled the court ranks to capacity. The prosecution opened with a general speech condemning the actions of the accused “the disgraceful and discreditable scenes of organised disorder”. The proceedings went on over several days. Mary’s case was heard on November 28th when she was charged with obstructing the police by holding on to a horse’s bridle. Mary informed the court that she had been trying to get through the cordon and had, therefore, stated she was not going to be moved. At that point she was arrested. She was fined 5 shillings but was imprisoned for five days on her refusal to pay.

In the newspaper reports Mary is recorded as being from Fulham, London. There are no census return or other records that narrow the search. Presumably she was staying with someone.

Annie Bell who also used the aliases Elizabeth Bell, Hannah Bell or Hannah Booth is the most prolific offender in the record so far. Arrested numerous times in a period spanning July 1909 to the amnesty granted on the outbreak of the First World War. Annie, full name Elizabeth Anne, was the youngest child of George and Elizabeth Bell. George served in the Royal Navy as an engineer. 

The first arrest was on July 9th 1909 but no details of the charges have been found. Less than a month later she was arrested again on July 31st 1909. As described in an early blog Lloyd George was to give a speech in Limehouse, London. Suffragettes attempted to enter the hall where the speech was to be given but were not permitted entry. They were charged with obstruction. All the women were given the choice to be bound over to keep the peace and all refused. Mrs Baker, who has been written about earlier, was charged for her part in defending Emily Davison, Annie was sentenced to fourteen days.

The reports of the court cases concerning suffragettes often refer to the division in which they were to serve their sentence, the most often cited being second division. The decision as to which division the sentence should be served was at the court’s discretion and the decision had a profound impact on the treatment once in prison. Whilst the government did not as such recognise political prisoners legislation had been passed which allowed a convicted person who was not sentenced to hard labour and was guilty of a minor offence to be categorized as either a First or Second Division prisoner. Sedition or seditious libel was specifically a First Division sentence, non-payment of a fine was specifically left to the courts to rule which division the convicted should be allocated to. Thus in effect a categorisation for political prisoners was created for those whose actions were not per se criminal.

Being sentenced to the second division meant the wearing of prison clothes, the eating of prison food, solitary confinement for all but one hour of the day, access to the prison provided books only, no contact with other prisoners and if the sentence was for a month or less no visitors. In July 1909 Marian Wallace Dunlop went on hunger strike in protest at being sentenced to the second division rather than being treated as a political prisoner and sentenced to the first division. Such sentencing was justified by the government on the basis that the offences they were convicted of where violent and the courts could not be seen to condone their behaviour.

Marian was released after ninety one hours without food. The Limehouse women followed her into Holloway prison. On their arrival they stated their case not to be treated as second division prisoners, the prison governor denied their claim offering one concession the retention of their own clothes but adding the additional penalty of no exercise and no chapel visits. In addition if they did not withdraw their claim the women would be charged with insubordination. The women refused to accept these terms. Female prison officers tried to force some of the women into prison dress by forcibly stripping them, others were marched off to cells where they proceeded to break the windows. Some of them were then placed in punishment cells which were unlit, damp and icy cold with one tiny high up window. The wooden planked bed was only inches from the ground with a thin mattress and pillow which lay on the cold ground outside the cell only being allocated at night time. Other than the floor there was nowhere else to sit. The women then refused to eat. Each was released having only served part of their sentence, Annie was freed on August 5th.

Annie’s next arrest was on Black Friday, November 18th 1910, when all the charges were dropped by the government. A few days later she was part of a deputation to number 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister. About one hundred women surged towards Downing Street from Caxton Hall, the police caught unawares hastily sent policemen on bicycles to get reinforcements. Seconds before the women reached the bottom of Downing Street seventy policemen took their place barricading their path. The women pushed against the police and where they broke through the cordon a woman would run towards the door of the Prime Minister’s residence only to be pushed back into the melee. The protestors had the upper hand as they outnumbered the police and managed to push their way up Downing Street but as they did so more police reinforcements arrived. The women were now outnumbered and police pushed them back towards Parliament Square. Many including Annie were arrested.

When Annie appeared in court it was stated that she had smashed a window at the Home Office where two one pound weights had been found. After her arrest she was taken to the police station where she broke the windows in the Inspector’s office with a hammer she had in her pocket. Annie was then searched and more means of breaking windows were found. The case was adjourned, with Annie declaring that she refused to recognise any government or obey any law until women received justice. The next day the hearing reconvened and Annie was found guilty being fined £5 plus £4 and 10 shillings damages. This, when Annie, refused to pay, became one month in prison.
By the time Annie was imprisoned some concessions had been made towards the women prisoners. Although still not categorised as first class they were not forced to wear prison clothes or eat prison food. Their exercise time was spent together and they were allowed to converse although the remainder of the day was spent on their own. For the first two weeks visitors were prohibited although they were allowed to receive reading material so long as it did not relate to suffrage activities, fruit and flowers.

The next arrest was in April 1912 for breaking a window at the medical officer’s house at Aylesbury prison with a stone around which was wrapped a piece of paper “A protest against forcible feeding.” In court Annie stated she was employed as a housekeeper at Clement’s Inn, the headquarters of the WSPU. Her actions were in protest at the condition of suffragettes who had been imprisoned in Aylesbury prison. The inconsistent approach on sentencing between the courts, second division with or without certain privileges such as books, angered the women as their identical actions to women sentenced elsewhere received sentences without privileges. They protested and when that fell on deaf ears they went on hunger and liquid strike. Force feeding followed. On their release they were all in a weak state.

The value of the window Annie broke was stated to be 1shilling and 6 pence. As the spotlight was on Aylesbury prison the case was well reported and well attended. At the hearing to decide if Annie should be bailed or sent to prison on remand several witnesses were called. The two who apprehended Annie and handed over to the police were keen to play up their role and implied their detention of her was a laudable act. Annie, defending herself, enquired if she had resisted the witness retorted that she had. With that she was remanded until the next hearing with Annie pointing out that as she stated she was guilty why could she not be sentenced there and then. This was ignored and she sent to Oxford Prison. On her return to court Annie was clear why she had taken the action she had but pointed out she had only thrown a stone at the window with the blind down so no one inside could be hurt. She was fined £5 and refusing to pay was sent to Aylesbury Prison for two months. Annie on hearing this she said she wished she had broken every window. 

On April 9th 1913 Annie was arrested for obstructing the police outside Holloway prison whilst waiting for Mrs Pankhurst to be released. Refusing to be moved on by the police and shouting that if anyone tried to make her she had a loaded revolver. The presence of the weapon was confirmed when she was searched together with a gun licence. Perhaps surprisingly Annie was released on bail with a surety of £20 and an undertaking not to attend any rallies. Annie gave her occupation as Braille copyist and that she lived in Laurence Street, Chelsea. At her trial Annie claimed the revolver was purely for her own protection. The prosecution stated they had doubts as to Annie’s sanity and she was remanded in custody for a week for medical reports. Brought before the court again presumably with satisfactory medical reports she was fined £5 or twenty one days imprisonment. The magistrate remarked that it would be much better to keep to the needle and drop revolvers.
Annie was involved in July of the same year in the confrontation with the police over the rearrest of Annie Kenney under the Cat and Mouse Act. She was charged with assault and obstruction of the police. Evidence was presented to the court that Annie had struck a police officer. She was fined £2 or twenty days in prison. She declined to pay. Votes for Women dated August 1st 1913 reports that Annie was in prison but in the same issue it records Hannah Bell, one of Annie’s aliases, was convicted at Westminster Magistrates Court of breaking windows at the Home Secretary’s home. She was fined forty shillings, twenty shillings damages or twenty one days imprisonment.

It seems likely that Annie committed the second offence in July whilst out on licence under the Cat and Mouse Act. Certainly her next arrest was following her release on August 2nd on licence for that offence. She attempted to evade being taken back to prison by dressing as a man. Dressed in a Norfolk suit and a straw hat she was spotted by an eagle eyed policeman entering St Pancras Station. Annie was returned to Holloway Prison.

Released again on September 13th Annie, on the same day, broke a window at the Home Office as the prison authorities had not returned her clothes. The window was valued at £2 and Annie claimed her clothes were worth £3 demanding the magistrate righted the wrong. Her protest failed and she was sentenced to two months hard labour, to which Annie responded that she would not do it. She was released after a week of refusing food under the Cat and Mouse Act.

Annie remained out on licence and in July 1914 she was arrested again. Annie had entered St John’s Church, Westminster, during evening service and placed a tin with a lighted candle to act as a fuse attached in the church. She was apprehended on her way out. The tin was put in a fire bucket and extinguished. In court Annie was clear that she had intended to blow up the church. At her first appearance in court Annie, who continuously spoke insulting the magistrate, lay full length along the seat in the dock and asked the warder to get her up when it was over. She was remanded in prison.

A week later Annie was brought before the court again. To the charge relating to the church was added one of attempting to blow up the Metropolitan Tabernacle on May 10th. Annie addressed the court throughout the proceedings stating that blowing up a church was nothing to the destruction of a woman and the magistrate was talking drivel. She boasted that although imprisoned on many occasions she had yet to serve a full sentence. She was taken back to prison to await trial on both charges. Several newspapers report that Annie appeared demented. The case never appears to have come to trial. In August 1914 the WSPU wrote to the Home Office asking what the position was in respect of Annie as she still remained a prisoner and whilst she was not a member she was imprisoned for suffragette activities.
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The records include two more entries possibly in 1920 but no more details have been found. Sadly no further trace of Annie has been found.
 


[1] Votes for Women March 8th 1912

​With thanks to the Museum of London

Ellen Beaver was arrested on February 14th 1907. In the newspapers she is described as a housekeeper aged thirty five from Crosland Moor, Huddersfield who was sentenced to a fine or fourteen days imprisonment. This is the same protest that Pattie Barrett and Ann Alice Older [see earlier blogs] participated in where the women attempted to enter the House of Commons.

Ellen’s correct name is Ellen Beever. She is often stated to be the aunt of Ann whereas she is in face her great aunt. Born in 1848, the daughter of Samuel and Mary Beever, she grew up in Holmfirth, Yorkshire. Her father was a weaver in the local mill and each of her siblings as they became old enough joined him. Ellen became a woollen weaver but by 1891 she has left the mill to work as a domestic. Her younger brother James had joined the police force which possibly placed him in a difficult position when Ellen joined the suffragette movement.
The 1901 census records Ellen as the only sibling still living at home caring for her elderly mother. Ten years later her mother has died and Ellen is living alone. She died in 1913.

Clara Bechstein arrested on February 19th 1909 was one of a group of eight arrested and charged with obstruction trying to enter the House of Commons. The group included one of the leaders, Charlotte Despard, and one man. They were attempting to deliver to the Prime Minster a written statement. At court the usual options as to sentence were a fine and agreeing to be bound over to keep the peace or imprisonment. Clara elected to be bound over.

It seems probable that Clare Bechstein is actually Helena Clara Kathleen Broadbent born in 1882 and used a combination of her own name and her mother’s, a ruse suffragettes often used to prevent family knowing if it was reported in the newspapers. Her mother was born in Germany where her parents, Howard Broadbent and Henriette Clara Katharina Bechstein, married. The couple settled in Mirfield, Yorkshire. Helena was the eldest of five children, one of whom died aged two in 1888. Her father worked as a bookkeeper but 1898 her father died leaving her mother to care for her four surviving children the youngest of whom was four years old.

Only months after her arrest her mother died and only two years later her only sister Doris also died. By the time of the 1911 census Helena is running the family home caring for her two brothers and two lodgers. Tragedy struck the family again when her brother Oscar was killed in 1917 at Flanders. Her sole surviving brother died in 1951. Helena died in 1963.

Ethel M Beckett was arrested twice on November 28th 1911 and January 29th 1913. The first offence was obstruction following her participation in an attempt to enter the House of Commons when she attempted to break through the police cordon. Ethel commented in court that hers was a protest against the cowardly behaviour of the Government against defenceless women. She was sentenced to five days in prison.
In January 1913 she was arrested for throwing a spanner twice at the windows of the Post Office in Dover Street, Piccadilly. She gave her address as the Woburn Palace Hotel. She was found guilty of malicious damage and was sentenced to three months imprisonment. The damage was valued at in excess of £5. An appeal was lodged against the sentence by her barrister George Rivers Blanco White, a supporter of women’s rights, on the grounds that no evidence had been presented at trial to verify the actual value of the damage. The judge dismissed the appeal in a matter of minutes remarking “...the point is an ingenious one, but there was no substance in it.”

Dora Beedham is recorded on the arrest record as well as Dora Spong which was her maiden name.  She was arrested a total of five times. Born in 1879 to James and Frances she was the fourth daughter. Her elder sisters were Minnie born in 1869, Annie born in 1871 and Florence born in 1873 who herself was an active suffragette and like Doris was arrested. A fifth daughter Irene was born in 1882. Dora also had an elder brother, James, born in 1869 and a younger brother, Francis, born in 1875 who died the year before she was born. Her father founded Spong and Co, a company manufacturing household appliances such as coffee grinders, mincers or corkscrews, which became a household name.
Dora was intent on being a working woman qualifying as a midwife. In 1908 she joined the WSPU and was first arrested soon after on July 1st 1908 for her part in an attempt to enter the House of Commons and was sentenced one month imprisonment but due to ill health she was released early. She was arrested for a second time on July 12th 1909, one of over hundred suffragettes arrested for principally disorderly conduct or obstruction in connection with a march to the House of Commons. No record of her sentence has been found. Only a few days later her sister Florence was arrested and imprisoned in Holloway for one month. All the female members supported each other although none were as active as Dora and Florence. The youngest sister Irene advertised in Votes for Women as a singing teacher.

On October 14th 1910 she married Ralph Beedham who had trained as a formschneider, a wood engraver who carved an artist’s design into a wood block. Weeks later Dora was arrested for her part Black Friday but as for all the participants the charges were dropped. Whilst Ralph is recorded on the 1911 census Dora is not along with all the other female family members apart from Annie. The final two entries are March 2nd 1912 recorded as Dora Spong and March 5th recorded as Dora Beedham. These relate to two separate appearances in court when she was charged with smashing windows. Found guilty she was sentenced to two months imprisonment with hard labour.

Dora and Ralph went on to have two children: Ruth born in 1914 and David born in 1917. Dora died in 1969.

With thanks to the Museum of London

​Bibliography:

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Annie Batchelor was arrested on February 12th 1908. As the London Daily News, February 12th 1908, wrote many women tried to enter the “Parliament of Men”. One attempt involved two vans on the tailgate of which sat men looking like typical delivery men. As they neared the Houses of Parliament they jumped down opening the back doors and out tumbled suffragettes who made straight for St Stephen’s entrance. They were quickly stopped by a line of hastily assembled police. The melee continued in Parliament Square with Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst directing operations from hansom cabs. Other women drove through the square using megaphones to cite their protest.
Annie had travelled down from Yorkshire. In the reports of the court case her occupation is given as “idle”. Charged with obstruction she was found guilty and sentenced to six weeks in prison.

Ivy Constance Beach was arrested on March 5th 1912. Born in Southampton in 1881 it is not known who her parents were. By the age of nine she was at boarding school in Cheltenham and ten years later in 1901 she was an apprentice draper’s assistant living over the shop. No details of Ivy’s sentence have been found. Ivy died in 1931.
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Olive Beamish, full name Agnes Olive, was born in 1890 in Cork, Ireland. Her father Ferdinand who described himself as a gentleman on his marriage certificate and her mother Frances had five children: four boys followed by Olive. The family moved from Ireland to England for the boys to be educated at Clifton College.  She was sent to the local girl’s school joining the Women’s Social and Political Union at the age of sixteen. After school she went to Girton College, Cambridge studying mathematics with economics but was like all women at the time unable to graduate.
After university she moved to London and started working for the WSPU. All of her entries in the arrest record is under the name Phyliss Brady, the name she always gave to the police. Olive was first arrested on April 12th 1913 for being found with inflammable material with the intention of committing a felony. A railway carriage had been damaged by an explosion and the police believed the railway stations were to become a target. Olive and Millicent Dean with whom she was arrested were considered to be suspects. A policeman saw them walking in Croydon at 1.45am each carrying a leather travelling case. When questioned as to why they were out so late they replied they were returning from their holidays. Followed by the policeman for some distance they dropped the cases and ran. According to the newspaper reports the retrieved cases contained tins of paraffin paper saturated with oil, candles, matches, cotton wool and firelighters. There was also a piece of paper on which had been written “Beware of how you treat Mrs Pankhurst.”
When the two women appeared in court they requested an adjournment to prepare their defence. This was agreed to, bail being agreed at £50. Olive continued to use her false name and gave a false address. Olive was remanded in custody where she immediately went on hunger strike and was in due course force fed. At her trial she was sentenced to six weeks.
Olive continued to refuse food and the authorities continued to respond by force feeding. On April 25th 1913 the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 came into force commonly known as the Cat and Mouse Act. This allowed prisoners who were in danger of dying to be released and then taken back into prison when they had sufficiently recovered. Olive was released three days after the Act came into force but failed to return to prison. Her details were circulated “late of Albany Street, Regents Park, twenty three years, 5ft 6in, complexion swarthy, hair dark, eyes dark, medium build.”
The police did not find Olive until January the following year, she was immediately returned to Holloway prison. Two days later she was charged with setting fire to a house in Englefield Green, Surrey. Olive’s response was “I am almost certain not to appear.” Back in prison awaiting trial Olive refused food. Concerns were expressed and in response the Bishop of London paid a surprise visit to Holloway. He reported that he found Olive well “and kindly and considerately treated by the prison officials.” He was not permitted to witness the force feeding but had been assured the only side effects were indigestion and sickness. Another prisoner he had interviewed only screamed he wrote as a protest at what was about to happen. His report angered the WSPU who felt it was a white wash as he had failed to witness the force feeding. Olive issued a statement in which she stated that she had informed the Bishop that force feeding was very painful and she was very weak. The Bishop; had assured her that her fellow prisoner only screamed through protest. When Olive put this to her she was clear that she had told the Bishop that she screamed as a means of relieving her feelings as she knew that what was about to happen was so awful, if she did not scream she would go mad.
An application for bail was made to the court to allow Olive to prepare her defence. Dr Flora Murray appeared to support the application informing the court that Olive was too ill to prepare her defence. She offered to undertake to have Olive living with her. The application was denied as Olive had been released before and disappeared, she had also avowed when charged not to appear again. However a subsequent application was successful.
When the case came to court Olive appeared wearing a long coat to which she had pinned bunches of violets. The prosecution evidence centred on suffragette literature found in the garden and the identification of them by a police officer at Holloway who had picked them out from thirteen women.  Fifteen witnesses were called twelve of whom put the women at different places on the evening in question and few were certain that these were in fact the two involved. The house had been empty for three years and no one could say with any certainty how leaflets got into the garden. Olive’s barrister, George Rivers Blanco White, proffered no defence stating that the evidence was too flimsy on which to convict and thus Olive never spoke or gave an alibi. The judge was clear when he was speaking to the jury after the conclusion of the evidence that Olive had not said where she had been that night.
In less that fifteen minutes she was found guilty with the jury recommending clemency as she had been led astray by older women. Her barrister pointed out her health was frail which the judge dismissed stating it was her own fault as she refused food. She was sentenced to eighteen months, the judge’s only clemency being not to impose hard labour as he was entitled to do.
Tests were carried out on suffragettes on their release for the presence of bromide which relaxed the body making force feeding easier to administer. Its presence was detected when Olive was tested. Waldorf Astor, MP for Plymouth, alarmed at these revelations asked Reginald McKenna, Home Secretary, if there was any truth in these reports. Mckenna was clear no administration of bromide had taken place.
On March 25th 1914 Olive was released from prison have undertaken to stop her political activities. In the Suffragette she wrote that this had been a reluctant decision only made due to the state of her mother’s health. Whatever the truth of this statement at the time her mother lived until 1929. In a later letter Olive explained it was a combination of her mother’s health and the long term effect on her own health. She needed to earn a living and if she was too weak she would not be able to do so. Olive was tested again for bromide and again it was found to be present. This also found to be the case when tests were carried out on another suffragette. Dr Flora Murray outlined in a report supported by Dr Frank Moxon the consequences of the administration of bromide which could include long term mental impairment. It was a serious allegation in particular in light of the Home Secretary’s adamant denial but the gathering clouds of war seem to have averted the press attention.
After the First World War Olive founded a secretarial business in London joining the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union. Eventually moving to Suffolk she became a leading member of the Sudbury and Woodbridge Labour Party. She died in 1978.
With thanks to the Museum of London
 
Bibliography:
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
Votes for Women

Ellen Barwell, whose name was Ellen Barnwell, was arrested on September 18th 1909 in Birmingham for taking part in the protests connected with Herbert Asquith’s visit to Birmingham. Following other disturbances Asquith by now had a term of body guards. When he arrived at Euston Station for his journey to Birmingham he was so closely guarded that his own sister had difficulty in joining the party. Anticipating trouble the city of Birmingham was heavily policed and barricades were placed to prevent any protestors reaching the Prime Minster who was to speak at Bingley Hall. Most of his journey to the Hall was conducted through underground passageways and even when he was travelling by car he was heavily flanked by mounted police. The roads around the Hall were closed and barricaded, the windows of the building padded and barred. The attendees at the meeting were escorted along a passageway lined with mounted police and in front of them another row of policemen.

To ensure that they were not barricaded out several suffragettes had taken lodgings in the road behind and in front of Bingley Hall. Two women threw stones from the lodging room breaking a window in the Hall, the police charged into the building and arrested them. Two others climbed onto a roof behind the Hall and with the help of an axe dislodged some roof tiles which they threw onto the roof of the Hall and Asquith’s car. At this the police turned hoses onto them to dislodge the women. Soaked to the skin the women stayed put even though the police were now throwing stones at them. They were eventually removed by officers who climbed behind them onto the roof. Wet and in one case bleeding from a head wound the women were marched to the police station in their stockinged feet. Another pair locked themselves into a room and continuously operated a car horn until the door was broken down and the horn removed. Many of the crowd had come to support the suffragettes who repeatedly attempted to break through the barricades. Anyone who objected in the Hall was forcibly ejected. Even on his carefully planned departure to the station one woman managed to throw stones through his train’s windows.

The women were refused bail, the right to talk to Mrs Pethick Lawrence or Christabel Pankhurst who had arrived from London to discuss their defence or dry clothes. Ellen was charged with throwing stones and breaking the train carriage window. She was sentenced to one month in prison. On her arrival at Winson Green she immediately went on hunger strike. She was force fed. The Nottingham Evening Post dated September 24th 1909 reported that the women had become quite weak and it had been anticipated that they would be released. However the authorities had dealt with the situation and the women had succumbed to the “gnawing pain of hunger”. The Home Office had visited the women and force fed the “obdurate” women. This involved feeding them beef tea through a tube to their stomachs. Their protests at this treatment was met with solitary confinement and handcuffs. Ellen was released on October 16th and was reported to look very ill.
Ellen was born in Birmingham in 1881 to George, electroplate worker and his wife, Sarah. In 1908 she married John Beamish Barnwell, a school attendance officer. They do not appear to have had any children and this one skirmish appears to have been the end of Ellen’s suffragette activities. She died in Birmingham in 1943.

Henrietta Barwell was part of the deputation that headed the protest which became known as Black Friday. They arrived at St Stephen’s entrance to the Houses of Parliament at about 1.30 where they stood for two hours corralled by the police helplessly watching as proceedings unfurled. Then Mrs Pankshurst, Mrs Garrett Anderson and Mrs Ayrton were shown into the Prime Minister’s room and were informed by his secretary that the Prime Minister would not see them. The three women were then shown back to the St Stephen’s entrance where they remained until six when the House of Commons rose.

William Barwell Browne Barwell married Elise Victorine, Countess Leiningen Westerbourg in 1873 in Budapest, Hungary. The couple had three children, Lilian born 1877, Henrietta born 1878 and Richard born 1879. By 1894 Lilian had died. Nine or ten years after the birth of Richard the marriage ran into difficulties. In her petition for divorce Elise stated that William was cruel to her. When Lilian was ill with TB contrary to doctor’s orders he insisted on her travelling abroad where she tragically died. Following Lilian’s funeral William then blamed Elise for their daughter’s death and prevented her having any contact with either Henrietta or Richard.

When Elise was permitted to return to the marital home William instructed the servants not to take any orders from her and regularly spat at her feet in contempt. Elise discovered that William was present in Henrietta’s room when she was bathing. She locked the door to prevent him whereupon he attacked her. Elise was not given any money by William and was driven to pawn her jewellery to raise funds. William’s cruelty escalated, in one incident he wrenched her hair out with a button hook. William had several mistresses some of whom he brought back to the marital home. The affidavit of Elise make for sad reading. Her petition was granted with maintenance of £300 per annum being awarded. Elise had custody of Henrietta, William could see her at the weekends but only at the home of a nominated person. Unusually for the time Richard could apply to the court himself for a discussion regarding his custody arrangements.

Like many suffragettes of any class or background personal tragedy influenced Henrietta’s support of women’s suffrage and rights. Following the divorce which was considered socially unacceptable at the time whatever the reason Elise, Henrietta and Richard are recorded as residing in a lodging house in Paddington. For appearances she states she is widowed. Ten years later Elise is living alone but although she petitioned for the divorce and William has remarried she this time states she has been married for thirty seven years. Like so many suffragettes Henrietta is not one the 1911 census return.

Henrietta was arrested on November 19th 1910 and November 25th 1910. On the first occasion the charges were dropped. One of second occasion she was charged with breaking windows at the War Office along with two others. Although the previous charge had been dropped it was taken into account when sentence was passed. All three strenuously objected which fell on deaf ears. Henrietta was sentenced to two months in prison.
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In 1920 Henrietta married Leonard Whibley, a Greek scholar and confirmed bachelor aged fifty seven. Leonard died in 1940 and Henrietta in 1949.

Bibliography:

​http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Doris Bartrum was part of Black Friday, the newspaper reports and the iconic Daily Mirror picture bring home the tactics used against the women. In the press the women were quick to state that the police who normally patrolled were respectful as always, it was the police brought in from elsewhere on the instruction of the Home Office who acted with a callous disregard for anyone’s welfare. It is enlightening that all charges against the arrested women were dropped.

Mary Barnett was part of a deputation of women who attempted on February 24th 1909 to present a petition to the House of Commons. The women marched from Caxton Hall to the Houses of Parliament in single file as ordered by the police. A large cordon of police awaited them outside Parliament which the women repeatedly tried to breach. The newspapers reported that a large crown gathered to watch booing or cheering the women’s efforts. Many were arrested but some returned to Caxton Hall disappointed that they had not been. Four returned to Parliament to have another attempt but were turned away by the police who had to protect them from the by now angry crowd. Refusing to be bound over to keep the peace as she felt that she had done nothing wrong Mary was sentenced to a month in prison.

Pattie Barrett, aka Martha, was arrested twice in 1907 on February 14th and March 21st 1907. The February arrest related to an attempt to access the House of Commons. The women marched four abreast singing “Glory Glory Hallelujah” headed by Charlotte Despard as they rounded into Parliament Square the police moved towards them some on horseback. The women scattered into small groups all with the united aim of entering Parliament. Several of the newspaper reports write that the police were far from passive in their response. Pattie was fined ten shillings or imprisonment for one week. Alongside her on the march was her sister Julia Varley who was sentenced to the same.
Pattie nee was born Martha Varley to Richard and Martha in 1876. Richard was an engine tenter in a worsted mill which meant he was responsible for the operation of the machine that stretched the cloth as it dried. Julia was five years older than Martha and the two sisters had seven other siblings five of whom survived to adulthood.  Both Julia and Martha started out their working lives as worsted weavers. Their mother died during the 1890s and by the 1901 census Julia is staying at home to care for the family.
In June 1899 Martha married George Ollive Barrett, a wine merchant’s bookkeeper, who died only three years later in 1902. According to newspaper reports following George’s death Julia and Martha moved in together. Whatever the truth of this by the 1911 census return on which both women are recorded Martha had returned to live with her father and Julia was living alone having moved to Selly Oak in Birmingham as a trade union organiser. The sister’s grandfather had been a Chartist campaigning for better working conditions and pay. This legacy impacted on most of the family, both of the sisters joined the WSPU. In 1911 two of their brothers worked for the Education Committee Corporation one as a chef and the other as assistant chef providing nutritious meals for underfed children whilst Martha was registration clerk at the Labour Exchange having previously worked as a visitor to check on the welfare of poor children.

On their release from Holloway the WSPU in Bradford intended to form a welcoming party at the station. They sent postcards to the women to inform them to get on a particular train but unfortunately these were never received. They returned home to be greeted by a few friends and family on an earlier train. The WSPU arranged instead for a welcome home supper the following week.

The two travelled to London again towards the end of March to again join a protest to the Houses of Parliament. They were two of seventy six arrested. Martha was fined forty shillings or a month in prison. Julia stated in court that she wanted to state that she had no complaint against the police but she had a huge contempt for the law and the men who made it. She was sentenced identically to her sister. Julia went on to be involved in the trade union movement more of which will under her own entry. Julia following retirement returned to Bradford to live with Martha who died in 1956.​

​Janet Barrowman was arrested on March 9th 1912. The daughter of John and Helen she was born in Glasgow in 1880, one of nine children. Her father was a lime merchant who died in 1900. After she left school she worked as a bookkeeper. She travelled to London with other Glasgow women to take part in the window breaking. Unfortunately no details of her sentence have been found.

Elsie Bartlett was charged with window breaking on March 4th 1912 and was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment. Her crime was to break a window at No 4 Grand Hotel Buildings with a hammer causing damage said to amount to £4 10s. In court Elsie said “I wish to say that I am very sorry that my protest had to take this particular form, but it is the only argument to which this government will listen.”

Alice Barton was arrested on November 25 1910 no press reports have been found mentioning Alice which is due to the sheer numbers of women arrested. It is possible that this entry actually relates to Alice Burton who will be written about later.
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Mary Bartrum whose full name was Mrs Doris Mary Bartrum was part of a deputation to the House of Commons with the aim of seeing the Prime Minster, Herbert Asquith. The protest had been organised because Asquith had reneged on the Conciliation Bill which would have given property owning women over thirty the vote. The bill passed its second reading but Asquith declared there was no Parliamentary time for a third reading as Parliament was to be dissolved.  The suffragettes were incensed. The deputation were corralled by the police and forced to stay in one place where all they could do was watch the events unfurl. For four and half hours hundreds of suffragettes struggled with the police who were on foot and on horseback. The police’s approach was to wear the women down rather than arrest them. The women were met with beatings, batoning and punches. The Daily Mirror published, a few days afterwards, a picture of suffragette Ada Wright on the ground. As one eye witness reported she was bodily lifted and thrown back into the crowd. When she approached again a policeman struck her with all his force knocking her to the ground, as she tried to get to her feet she was struck again. As the picture shows a man remonstrates with the police but he was swiftly moved on. After knocking her down again and again she was left lying by a wall of the House of Lords.
As women marched towards the House of Parliament their banners were snatched from them by the police whilst they kicked or punched the women. Some women claimed they were sexually assaulted. Only after four and half hours did the police take to arresting the women rather than trying to wear them down. One hundred and nineteen were taking to the cells. In reports included in Votes for Women the women placed the blame at the drafting in of policemen from other areas who were not well trained or used to dealing with men.

​When Winston Churchill became aware of the photograph that the Daily Mirror had taken he tried to suppress it but they refused publishing it on their front page. Its publication led to an enquiry into the day’s events which Churchill refused. The day became known as Black Friday. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the outcry at the women’s treatment the Home Office decided to offer no evidence and the women were discharged. Many questioned the reasoning behind this and felt the decision had been made as an election was coming up and it was an attempt to mollify the women. The suffragettes saw it as a victory due to the generally supportive press coverage and the clear
acknowledgement, in their eyes, that the government felt that any stand against them would make them unpopular at the forthcoming election.

Doris was born in October 1882 in Kensington, London to George, a produce merchant, and Janet. The family settled in Eastbourne, East Sussex. By 1901 George had retired and the family had moved back to London settling in Hampstead. The family were comfortably off, at sixteen Doris was still at school and they had a live in housekeeper. One of three children Doris married John Edward Bartrum on March 24th 1906. John was a mantle manufacturer for gas lamps and seller. The couple had two daughters Joanna born in 1908 and Bridget in 1914. John completed the 1911 census return where Doris is recorded as working as a commercial traveller in his business. Other than her name, her occupation, numbers of years married and number of children. No other details are recorded about Doris such as date or place of birth. This is true of the other women in the house on census night: Alice Glover single, Kate servant. Only her daughter’s and husband’s details are recorded in full. Someone presumably Doris has written in large red writing “VOTELESS Women of Household only prevented by illness from evading census, therefore have refused to give information to occupier”.

​John and Doris divorced in 1918. The following year Doris married John Mackie. Doris died on December 27th 1933.
 
With thanks to the Museum of London
 
Bibliography
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/