Rare and harrowing images showing suffragettes imprisoned as they fought for equality in Britain.
From the early twentieth century until the First World War, nearly one thousand suffragettes were arrested in the UK.
In these fascinating photos, some of the brave women are pictured posing in their cell – whilst others are seen gaunt and frail after a hunger strike.
In one haunting image from 1913, suffragette Olivia Wharry is pictured weighing just 5 stone 9lbs after a gruelling 32-day hunger strike in Holloway Prison.
Meanwhile Evelyn Manesta and Lillian Forrester are seen walking in Holloway’s prison yard and suffragettes like Lilian Lenton are captured in Home Office surveillance photographs in 1912.
In prison, many suffragettes went on hunger strikes. Fearing that these women would become martyrs, prison guards started force-feeding them to keep them alive – strapping them down and jamming tubes painfully up their noses to do it.
Pictured left, a suffragette on hunger strike being forcibly fed with a nasal tube whilst in Holloway prison, circa 1911. Meanwhile, Suffragette Olive Wharry is pictured on hunger strike in the same prison in 1913. In this shocking photograph, she is seen weighing just 5 stone 9lbs after a gruelling 32-day hunger strike
Suffragettes Evelina Haverfield and Emmeline Pankhurst (right) in court, circa 1909. In 1903, Mrs Pankhurst set up the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) for a more militant approach to gaining the vote, after the limited success of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, set up in 1897, which believed in enfranchising women by peaceful means
Flora Drummond (pictured at the front) and other Suffragettes are placed under arrest, sometime in 1914. The union’s motto was ‘Deeds not Words’ and many of their actions were considered extreme by the population. They included large rallies and hunger strikes
Surveillance photos taken by British police of members of the Suffragette movement. Top row (L-R) Mary Raleigh Richardson, Lilian Lenton, Kitty Marion (Katherina Maria Schafer), Lillian Forrester. Bottom row (L-R) Miss Johansen, Clara Giveen, Jennie Baines, Miriam Pratt. Lilian Lenton (number 13) described being force-fed in prison as the most ‘intolerable and intense pain’ and she became seriously ill with pleurisy caused by food entering her lungs
Suffragettes and convicts Evelyn Manesta and Lillian Forrester are pictured as they talk a walk together in Manchester Prison, sometime in 1913. The photograph was taken covertly by the police as they sought to curtail the militant Suffragette movement
The practice did long-term damage to the physical and mental health of the suffragettes. Lilian Lenton (pictured) described being force-fed in prison as the most ‘intolerable and intense pain’ and she became seriously ill with pleurisy caused by food entering her lungs.
Eventually, authorities passed the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ in 1913 a law that allowed them to set hunger-striking suffragettes free and arrest them the second they had eaten a morsel of food.
The suffragette movement dates back to the mid-1800s, when Mary Smith delivered the first women’s suffrage petition to parliament in 1832.
Later that same year, the General Reform Act confirmed that women would remain excluded from the vote. In 1866, The National Society for Women’s Suffrage was formed.
The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was formed in 1897 and lead by Millicent Garrett Fawcett. In 1903, Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst set up the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) for a more militant approach to gaining the vote.
In 1918, The Representation of the People Act was passed, allowing men over 21 and women over 30 to vote. An amendment to the act 10 years later allowed everyone over 21 to vote.
Suffragettes in their cells at Holloway Prison are pictured waving through the bars, circa 1909. In prison, many suffragettes went on hunger strikes. Fearing that these women would become martyrs, prison guards started force-feeding them to keep them alive – strapping them down and jamming tubes up their noses.
A crowd gathers to welcome Mary Leigh after her release from prison in London, 1908. She joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906. Four years after her release, in Dublin, she threw a hatchet at serving Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, but she hit Irish nationalist leader John Redmond instead, leaving him badly injured
The arrest of Flora Drummond, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst (pictured left to right), 1908. Flora Drummond was nicknamed The General, due to her habit of leading marches whilst wearing a military-style uniform and cap and riding on a large horse. She was also known for her oratory skills, and was said to be able to put down a heckler with ease
Christabel Pankhurst, Flora Drummond and Emmeline Pankhurst in court, 1908. All three played a major role in the success and exposure of the Women’s Social and Political Union, and were regularly brought before the courts. The group was known for physical confrontations, with members encouraged to smash windows and assault police officers
Surveillance photos taken by British police of members of the Suffragette movement. Top row (L-R) Margaret Scott, Olive Leared (nee Hockin), Margaret McFarlane, Mary Wyan (Mary Ellen Taylor), Annie Bell. Bottom row (L-R) Jane Short, Gertrude Mary Ansell, Maud Brindley, Verity Oates, Evelyn Manesta
A portrait of Suffragette Lillian Forrester whilst in prison is shown left. Shown right, a mock prison cell for Suffragettes erected at The Women’s Exhibition held at Prince’s Skating Rink in Knightsbridge, May 1909
Suffragettes Christabel Pankhurst, right, with Annie Kenney, circa 1910. Kenney was the only working class woman to become part of the senior hierarchy of the Women’s Social and Political Union, becoming deputy of the group in 1912; an unusual occurence in a middle-class organisation
‘Deeds not Words’: The story of the suffrage movement
Emmeline Pankhurst (pictured) poses in a mock prison dress during a protest, circa 1911
The women’s suffrage movement began in the mid-1800s as organised campaigns began to take place across the UK after Mary Smith delivered the first women’s suffrage petition to parliament.
In 1866, a women’s suffrage committee was formed in London, which soon sparked other groups being set up in other areas, such as the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett lead the The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), which was set up in 1897.
They were known as ‘suffragists’, as they believed in enfranchising women by peaceful means such as protests and petitions. They stayed away from violence.
But Emmeline Pankhurst, who was then a member of the NUWSS, decided to employ more direct and militant tactics, leading her to set up the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906 with her two daughters, Sylvia and Christabel.
The union’s motto was ‘Deeds not Words’ and many of their actions were considered extreme by the population. They included large rallies and hunger strikes.
Another group, the Women’s Freedom League (WFL), was set up a year later by Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington-Grieg, and were somewhere in between the other two groups in regards to their approach.
But the onset of World War One changed the minds of many opposed to suffrage. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith declared his support of women’s suffrage in 1916.
Women over 30 were finally granted the right to vote in 1918 and ten years later, the Representation of the People Act was amended to allow everyone over the age of 21 to vote.