The Suffragette

  This sort of thing went on day after day. On Thursday morning she was unconscious when they came into her cell, and they succeeded in feeding her. During the night she was in agony. She told the doctor he had given her too much food and cried: “For mercy’s sake, let me be, I am too tired,” but brandy and Benger’s food were forcibly administered. During the whole month she only slept four nights.

  But the story of these sufferings had no power to influence the Government. They were determined to persevere with the forcible feeding and were so far from abandoning this hateful form of torture, that, evidently thinking the women who had won their way out of prison by the hunger strike had been let off too easily, they proceeded to rearrest a number of them upon the most flimsy charges. Evelyn Wurrie, who had been arrested with Mrs. Leigh and the others, but afterwards discharged by the magistrate, had been refused bail between the time of her arrest and trial and kept for seventeen hours as an ordinary prisoner in the insanitary police court cells. She might have been thought, therefore, to be entitled to claim damages for wrongful arrest and detention, but was nevertheless rearrested because she had broken the cell window to obtain more air, and was sentenced either to pay a fine of eleven shillings or go to prison for seven days. She chose imprisonment, but her fine was paid by a member of the Birmingham Liberal Club. Miss Rona Robinson, Miss Florence Clarkson, Miss Georgina Heallis and Miss Bertha Brewster, who had all gone through the hunger strike in Liverpool, were also summoned for breaking their cell windows, in spite of the fact that they had already been severely punished in prison for these offences. On their refusal to answer to the summons, warrants were Issued for their arrest. Rona Robinson, who was said to have committed damage to the extent of two shillings, was arrested on October 15th in Manchester, and was taken the same night to Liverpool. Though her doctor had certified her to be suffering from laryngeal catarrh and a weak, irregular action of the heart, she was sent back to prison for fourteen days’ imprisonment in the third division. Owing to the state of her health, the Liverpool authorities refused to take the responsibility of feeding her by force and she was accordingly released after a fast of seventy-two hours.

  The other warrants were not executed for some time; that against Miss Florence Clarkson being held over until December, when she happened to notify the Manchester police of a burglary that had taken place in the W. S. P. U. offices in that city. She was then immediately arrested on the old charge; bail was refused and she was kept in custody from Saturday to Monday, when she was punished by a further fortnight’s imprisonment for having committed damage to the value of 6d. three months before. After three days (on December 15th), she was released in a state of complete collapse. The warrant against Miss Bertha Brewster was held over until January, when she was sentenced to six weeks’ hard labour to pay for her 3/9 damage.

  Arrest of Miss Dora Marsden outside the Victoria University of Manchester, October 4th, 1909

  * * *

  1 Mr. Gladstone afterwards stated in the House that the tubes were carefully cleaned and kept in boracic solution between each operation, but Miss Dorothy Pethick, who was imprisoned in Newcastle, saw the tube lying open and exposed in a basket in the reception room.

  2 The British Journal of Nursing stated that even under the most favourable circumstances forcible feeding required “delicate manipulation,” and that it was an operation which should only be performed by medical practitioners or trained nurses and pointed out that the prison wardresses were quite unqualified to take part in it.

  CHAPTER XXIII

  OCTOBER, 1909, TO JANUARY, 1910

  ARREST OF LADY CONSTANCE LYTTON AND OTHERS AT NEWCASTLE. SUFFRAGETTES ATTACKED AT ABERNETHY. HOSE PIPE PLAYED ON MISS DAVISON IN STRANGEWAYS GAOL, MANCHESTER. MR. ASQUITH AT THE ALBERT HALL.

  WHILST our comrades were thus enduring agonies in prison, protest meetings were being held in all parts of the country. The Daily News said of the people in our movement: “They are no longer men and women; they are a whirlwind.”

  During the first three days of forcible feeding £1,200 was collected. At a great demonstration in the Albert Hall on October 7th, a further £2,300 was subscribed, and the £50,000 campaign fund being complete, a fund of £100,000 was started. At this meeting a procession of women who had already gone through the hunger strike marched up to the platform carrying the purple, white and green tri-coloured flags of the Union, and here Mrs. Pankhurst, who was on the eve of her departure for America, decorated them with medals in recognition of their services to the cause. The scene was one of the most tremendous enthusiasm; it was one which none of those present will ever forget.

  On October 9th a great political pageant was held in Edinburgh, when a procession of women, led by Scotch pipers and Mrs. Drummond in her general’s uniform, astride a prancing charger, marched through the streets, accompanied by a number of tableaux representing the figures of heroic women famous in Scottish history.

  On October 4th, Lord Morley, as Chancellor of the Victoria University, visited Manchester to open the University’s new chemical laboratory. Deeply moved by the sufferings of Mrs. Leigh and her comrades in Winson Green Gaol, Miss Rona Robinson, M.Sc., and Miss Dora Marsden, B.A., both graduates of the University, and the former a subscriber also to the new laboratory, attended in their academic robes, and, with Miss Mary Gawthorpe, advanced down the central aisle of the Whitworth Hall of the University, just as Lord Morley was about to speak. Each one raising a hand in appeal, they said in concert: “My Lord, our women are in prison.”

  The rowdiness of the young men students of our British universities is time-honoured; their almost deafening shouts and yells and practical jokes, always in evidence at functions such as this, are invariably received with amused tolerance by the authorities. Mr. Asquith himself, when addressing the students of the University of which he is Chancellor, did not disdain to wait with a smile until their play was done before he could address them. Nevertheless the earnest, quietly-spoken words of these three young women were scarcely uttered when they were pounced upon by a number of strange men, who dragged them out of the Hall, and as soon as they were lost to sight by the audience, fell to striking, pummelling, and pinching them, as they pushed them into the street. The passers-by rushed up to know what had happened, and at once the police ordered the three women to move on. They replied that they would not leave until their graduates’ caps and other belongings, which had been torn from them, were restored, and until the names of the men who had ejected them were given. Thereupon, without further argument, the police seized them and dragged them to the police station, where they were accused of disorderly conduct and abusive language, in Oxford Street. These ridiculous charges could not be substantiated and were afterwards withdrawn by the Chief Constable of Manchester and the Vice Chancellor of the University.

  Such women as Mrs. Baines and Mrs. Leigh, both capable of the finest zeal and the most reckless heroism, spurred on by stern first-hand knowledge of the crushing handicaps with which the woman wage-earner has to contend, and the terrible disabilities which are rivetted upon her, had found it not difficult to become rebels. The torture of women in prison was now making it easy for gentler and happier spirits to cast aside also the mere going on deputations and asking of questions and, whilst doing hurt to none, yet by symbolic acts to shadow forth the violence that coercion always breeds.

  On October 9th Mr. Lloyd George was to speak at Newcastle and the town was prepared as though for a revolution. Police and detectives were to be seen in hundreds and great barriers were erected across the streets. The night before the meeting twelve women met quietly together to lay their plans for opposing these tremendous forces. Amongst them was Lady Constance Lytton, who had already served one imprisonment for the cause in the previous February, and who, as daughter and sister of an English peer, wished to place herself side by side with Mrs. Leigh, the working woman who was being tortured in Birmingham,— to do what she had done, prepared to suffer the same penalty. Mrs. J. E. M. Brai
lsford, who had joined the Women’s Social & Political Union but a few weeks before, was another who had come forward to bear her share in this fight. (It was Mrs. Brailsford’s husband who with Mr. Nevinson had recently thrown up his post as leader Writer to the Daily News, because of his sympathy with the Suffragettes). Amongst these women were also two hospital nurses, whilst two of the others, Miss Kathleen Brown and Miss Dorothy Shallard, had already won their way out of prison through the hunger strike.

  Next night, whilst vast throngs of people lined the streets and the police were massed in their thousands to guard from them the Chancellor of the Exchequer, “the son of the people,” as he called himself, the twelve women quietly proceeded to do their deeds. It was rumoured that Mr. Lloyd George was to stay with Sir Walter Runciman, and, seeing the latter gentleman’s motor car driving through the streets, Lady Constance Lytton threw a stone at it, carefully aiming at the radiator in order that, without injuring anyone, she might strike the car. Miss Dorothy Pethick and Miss Kitty Marion entered the General Post Office and, having carefully selected a window in the neighbourhood of which there was no one to be hurt, they went out and cast their stones through it with a cry of “Votes for Women.” A number of other women were also arrested for similar acts. Mrs. Brailsford walked quietly up to one of the police barriers and stood resting an innocent-looking bouquet of chrysanthemums upon it. Suddenly the flowers fell to the ground disclosing an axe which she raised and let fall with one dull thud on the wooden bar. It was a symbolic act of revolution, and, like her comrades, she was dragged away by the police. By direct order of the Home Office bail was refused and eight of the Suffragettes were kept in the police court cells from Saturday until Monday, without an opportunity of undressing, without a mattress, and with nothing but a rug in which to wrap themselves at night.

  Whilst the women who had thus been lodged in prison had been making their protest outside Mr. Lloyd George’s meeting, there were men who were speaking for them within. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer was running through the list of taxes in the Budget, a man complained that “there was no tax on stomach pumps.” The whole house rose at that and the man was violently ejected. Many others followed his example. Mr. Lloyd George taunted them by saying: “There are many ways of earning a living, and I think this is the most objectionable of them!” and by asking: “Are there any more of these hirelings?” Evidently he thought that there were no men disinterested enough to support the cause of women unless they received pay for it.1

  On Monday, whilst the other women received sentences varying from fourteen days to one month’s hard labour, Lady Constance Lytton and Mrs. Brailsford were ordered to be bound over to be of good behaviour, and on refusing were sent to prison in the second division for one month. The authorities were evidently very loath to convict these two ladies, one of them because of her rank, and the other because of her own and her husband’s association with the Liberal party, but both were determined to Stand by their comrades and steadfastly refused to express any regret for what they had done.

  Their hope that their courageous action might save Mrs. Leigh and the other Birmingham prisoners from further suffering proved to be vain, and on Wednesday, October 13th, Lady Constance Lytton and Mrs. Brailsford, both of whom had refused food, were released after having been imprisoned for no more than two and a half days. Mr. Gladstone asserted that in deciding to release them, he had not been in any way influenced by regard for their position, but that they had been turned out of prison on purely medical grounds. It was indeed true that Lady Constance was exceedingly fragile and delicate and that she suffered from a slight heart affection, but Mrs. Brailsford protested that she herself was perfectly well and strong.

  The eight other women were all forcibly fed and all but two were retained in prison till the end of their sentence. In most cases the nasal tube was used; it always caused headache and sickness. The nostrils soon became terribly inflamed and every one of the women lost weight and suffered from great and growing weakness.

  On Saturday, October 16th, Mr. Winston Churchill was to speak at an open-air gathering at Abernethy, some sixteen miles from Dundee. The W. S. P. U. had no intention of heckling him or creating any disturbance, for after much pressing and a lengthy correspondence he had agreed to fulfil a promise made to the Women’s Freedom League in the previous January to receive a Woman’s Suffrage deputation on the following Monday. Nevertheless the occasion was thought a suitable one for distributing Suffrage literature and for holding a meeting somewhere in the neighbourhood. Adela Pankhurst, Mrs. Archdale, the daughter of Russell, the founder of the great Liberal newspaper, “The Scotsman,” Mrs. Frank Corbett, the sister-in-law of a Member of Parliament, and Miss C. Jolly accordingly decided to motor over there.

  They started off on a crisp bright autumn day, the clouds high, the sun shining and the trees all turning gold, and the little frost sparkles gleaming on the good hard road. Everything began auspiciously but before long they were held up by a punctured tire. Owing to this delay they lost the opportunity of giving out leaflets to the people as they arrived, for the audience had already entered the big tent where the speaking was to take place when the Suffragettes drove up. Standing in the road were some thirty or forty men, all wearing the yellow rosettes of official Liberal stewards, and as the car slowed down, they rushed furiously towards it, shouting and tearing up sods from the road and pelting the women with them. One man pulled out a knife and began to cut the tires, whilst the others feverishly pulled the loose pieces off with their fingers. The Suffragettes tried to quiet them with a few words of explanation, but their only reply was to pull the hood of the motor over the women’s heads and then to beat it and batter it until it was broken in several places. Then they tore at the women’s clothes and tried to pull them out of the car, whilst the son of the gentleman in whose grounds the meeting was being held then drove up in another motor and threw a shower of pepper in the women’s eyes. The shouts of the men reached the tent where Mr. Churchill was speaking, and numbers of people flocked out and watched the scene from over the hedge, but only two gentlemen had the courage to come to the aid of the women, and their efforts availed little against the large band of stewards. At last, fearing that his motor would be entirely wrecked, the driver put on full speed and drove away. The only excuse for the stewards who took part in this extraordinary occurrence is that many of them were intoxicated.

  On Monday, as he had promised, Mr. Churchill received the deputation from the Women’s Freedom League. He then entirely departed from what he had said during the elections both in Manchester and at Dundee itself. In Manchester, when asked what he would do to help to secure the enfranchisement of women he had said: “I will try my best as and when occasion offers.” He had added that the women Suffragists had “now got behind them a great popular demand,” and that their movement was assuming “the same character as Franchise movements have previously assumed.” In Dundee he had said that Women’s Suffrage would be “a real practical issue” at the next general election and that he thought that the next Parliament “ought to see” the gratification of the women’s claim. Now that no election was in prospect he said: “Looking back over the last four years I am bound to say I think your cause has marched backwards.” He further said that the mass of people still remained to be converted and that, so far as he could see, women’s enfranchisement would not “figure either in the programme of any great political party” or “in the election address of any prominent man,” and that, until militant tactics were discontinued, he himself would render no assistance to the cause. A more flagrant example of political dishonesty than that which these conflicting statements of Mr. Churchill’s presented, it would be difficult to find and not merely the Suffragettes but the people of Dundee freely expressed their disapproval.

  On Tuesday, Mr. Churchill was to speak in the Kinnaird Hall, and huge crowds then filled the streets and in spite of the tremendous force of police the barricades were stormed. Led by Mrs. Corbett
, Miss Joachim, and Mrs. Archdale, they shouted “Votes for Women,” and rushed again and again at the doors of the Hall. The three women who led the crowds were arrested but the storm still went on.

  Adela Pankhurst and Miss C. Jolly, who had lain concealed there since the previous Sunday, had raised the cry, “Votes for Women,” in a little dark room, the windows of which overlooked the large hall. After a tussle with the police and stewards, which lasted three quarters of an hour, they were arrested and with the three who had been taken in the street, were eventually sent to prison for ten days. They immediately commenced the hunger strike, and were set free on Sunday, 24th October, after having gone without food for five and a half days. Whilst they were in prison, huge crowds came to the gates every night to cheer them, and on the next night after their release the men of Dundee organised a meeting of protest, in the Kinnaird Hall.

  Meanwhile, four Suffragettes were suffering the torture of forcible feeding in Strangeways Gaol, Manchester. They had been arrested in connection with a meeting held by Mr. Runciman at Radcliffe, and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, with hard labour, on October 21st. They had gone into prison on the Thursday, and had begun the hunger strike at once, and on Friday the doctors and wardresses came to feed them by force. Miss Emily Wilding Davison urged that the operation was illegal, but she was seized and forced down on her bed. “The scene which followed,” she says, “will haunt me with its horror all my life and is almost indescribable.” Each time it happened she felt she could not possibly live through it again. On Monday a wardress put her into an empty cell next door to her own, and there she found that instead of one plank bed there were two. She saw in a flash a way to escape the torture. She hastily pulled down the two bed boards, and laid them end to end upon the floor, one touching the door, the other the opposite wall, and, as the door opened inwards, she thus hoped to prevent anyone entering. A space of a foot or more, however, remained, but she jammed in her stool, her shoes, and her hairbrush, and sat down holding this wedge firm. Soon the wardress returned, unlocked the door, and pushed it sharply, but it would not move. Looking through the spyhole she discovered the reason and called, “Open the door,” but the prisoner would not budge. After some threats and coaxing the window of her cell was broken, the nozzle of a hose pipe was poked through, and the water was turned full upon her. She clung to the bedboards with all her strength gasping for breath, until a voice called out quickly, “Stop, no more, no more.” She sat there drenched and shivering, still crouching on the bedboards, the water six inches deep around her. After a time they decided to take the heavy iron door off its hinges, and, when this was done, a warder rushed in and seized her, saying, as he did so, “You ought to be horsewhipped for this.” Now her clothes were torn off, she was wrapped in blankets, put into an invalid’s chair, and rushed off to the hospital, there to be plunged into a hot bath and rubbed down, and then, still gasping and shivering miserably, she was put into bed between blankets with a hot bottle. At 6 P. M. on Thursday she was released.