This is a very important time for the Cause and I want to involve myself more
deeply. Marion Wallace Dunlop’s claim that it is our right as citizens to be allowed to protest is being taken up as a legal battle among the suffragettes. If the Cause wins this point, none
of us can ever again be imprisoned for demonstrating for our rights.
I would certainly feel less guilty then about the fact that I have not volunteered for anything more dangerous than office work or newspaper-selling. And I thought I was brave!
30th June 1909
Marion has been sentenced to serve a month in Holloway Prison on a charge of wilful damage. She has been classed as a Second Division prisoner but is fighting against such
treatment and insisting that she be moved to the First Division. The request has been refused by Mr Herbert Gladstone, the Home Secretary.
A letter from the school in north London arrived today. Flora said that they have not accepted me. No reason was given.
“Don’t be disappointed. There’s still St Paul’s,” she said. “If not, we’ll try others. And Miss Baker will continue to tutor you until you are
settled.”
Lord, I feel a real failure.
5th July 1909
Something quite extraordinary and unforeseen has happened. Marion Wallace Dunlop has thrown away the food that has been brought to her and decided on a hunger strike. This is
her own idea. No one at the WSPU knew a thing about it. Several members spoke of the dangers to her health when the news reached us, but most of us saw it as an act of real courage and daring.
The prison authorities are threatening to force-feed her through her nostrils with a liquid mixture of egg and milk. Ugh, how disgusting!
6th July 1909
Miss Baker told me that the wardresses have been leaving trays of food in Marion’s cell in the hope that she will weaken and break her fast. So far she has stood firm. We
are all keeping our fingers crossed that Mr Asquith will relent and improve her prison status.
Flora set off on her travels this morning. I was really sad to see her go. I hugged her tightly and thanked her for allowing me to remain on here, and for all her many kindnesses to me and to my
mother, who has grown a little stronger these last few days. When I visited her this afternoon she was quite chirpy and talked about going home soon. I pray it won’t be too long before she is
allowed to leave the hospital, but I hate the idea of her returning to the East End.
When I arrived back at the house, it felt so empty. I wandered about from room to room, not knowing what to do with myself. Then I sat on the sofa with the two cats at my side and read
A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
– Miss Baker is going to set me an exam on Shakespeare.
I have promised myself to use these weeks fruitfully, to work hard at my studies and prepare myself well for whichever new school takes me.
9th July 1909
Marion has been released! After 91 hours of fasting, almost four days, the Home Secretary has set her free.
Emmeline Pankhurst, who is away, travelling from one corner of Britain to the next, talking to groups, at societies, and raising the profile of the Cause, has stated that this act of
Marion’s has lifted “our militant movement on to a higher and more heroic plane”.
I am so proud to be a member of the Union.
When I popped into the hospital to see Mother I was dying to tell her some of the WSPU news and all that is happening to me, but two of my brothers were there with their wives and children and
Mother looked tired and weak again. So I only stayed a while and came home.
I feel very distanced from my family and I suspect my brothers resent me. I know my oldest brother’s wife, Clara, does. I can tell by the way she looks at me. And one of my nephews, Henry
junior, said to me, “You talk funny.”
20th July 1909
Talk at the WSPU offices today was that Marion’s example has been followed by other imprisoned suffragettes. Fourteen women who were convicted of stone-throwing on
deeply. Marion Wallace Dunlop’s claim that it is our right as citizens to be allowed to protest is being taken up as a legal battle among the suffragettes. If the Cause wins this point, none
of us can ever again be imprisoned for demonstrating for our rights.
I would certainly feel less guilty then about the fact that I have not volunteered for anything more dangerous than office work or newspaper-selling. And I thought I was brave!
30th June 1909
Marion has been sentenced to serve a month in Holloway Prison on a charge of wilful damage. She has been classed as a Second Division prisoner but is fighting against such
treatment and insisting that she be moved to the First Division. The request has been refused by Mr Herbert Gladstone, the Home Secretary.
A letter from the school in north London arrived today. Flora said that they have not accepted me. No reason was given.
“Don’t be disappointed. There’s still St Paul’s,” she said. “If not, we’ll try others. And Miss Baker will continue to tutor you until you are
settled.”
Lord, I feel a real failure.
5th July 1909
Something quite extraordinary and unforeseen has happened. Marion Wallace Dunlop has thrown away the food that has been brought to her and decided on a hunger strike. This is
her own idea. No one at the WSPU knew a thing about it. Several members spoke of the dangers to her health when the news reached us, but most of us saw it as an act of real courage and daring.
The prison authorities are threatening to force-feed her through her nostrils with a liquid mixture of egg and milk. Ugh, how disgusting!
6th July 1909
Miss Baker told me that the wardresses have been leaving trays of food in Marion’s cell in the hope that she will weaken and break her fast. So far she has stood firm. We
are all keeping our fingers crossed that Mr Asquith will relent and improve her prison status.
Flora set off on her travels this morning. I was really sad to see her go. I hugged her tightly and thanked her for allowing me to remain on here, and for all her many kindnesses to me and to my
mother, who has grown a little stronger these last few days. When I visited her this afternoon she was quite chirpy and talked about going home soon. I pray it won’t be too long before she is
allowed to leave the hospital, but I hate the idea of her returning to the East End.
When I arrived back at the house, it felt so empty. I wandered about from room to room, not knowing what to do with myself. Then I sat on the sofa with the two cats at my side and read
A
Midsummer Night’s Dream
– Miss Baker is going to set me an exam on Shakespeare.
I have promised myself to use these weeks fruitfully, to work hard at my studies and prepare myself well for whichever new school takes me.
9th July 1909
Marion has been released! After 91 hours of fasting, almost four days, the Home Secretary has set her free.
Emmeline Pankhurst, who is away, travelling from one corner of Britain to the next, talking to groups, at societies, and raising the profile of the Cause, has stated that this act of
Marion’s has lifted “our militant movement on to a higher and more heroic plane”.
I am so proud to be a member of the Union.
When I popped into the hospital to see Mother I was dying to tell her some of the WSPU news and all that is happening to me, but two of my brothers were there with their wives and children and
Mother looked tired and weak again. So I only stayed a while and came home.
I feel very distanced from my family and I suspect my brothers resent me. I know my oldest brother’s wife, Clara, does. I can tell by the way she looks at me. And one of my nephews, Henry
junior, said to me, “You talk funny.”
20th July 1909
Talk at the WSPU offices today was that Marion’s example has been followed by other imprisoned suffragettes. Fourteen women who were convicted of stone-throwing on
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