British nurse and suffragette
Edith Hudson
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a1/Edith_Hudson_born_1872.png/220px-Edith_Hudson_born_1872.png) |
Born
| 1872
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Occupation
| Nurse
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Years active
| 1909?1913
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Movement
| Women's Social and Political Union, women's suffrage
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Edith Hudson
(born 1872) was a British
nurse
and
suffragette
. She was an active member of the
Edinburgh
branch of the
Women's Social and Political Union
(WSPU) and was arrested several times for her part in their
protests
in
Scotland
and
London
. She engaged in
hunger strikes
while in prison and was forcibly fed. She was released after the last of these strikes under the so-called
Cat and Mouse Act
. Hudson was awarded a
Hunger Strike Medal
'for Valour' by the WSPU.
[
citation needed
]
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Hudson was born in 1872.
[1]
By 1891 she was living with her mother and siblings in Glasgow in the census records, and in 1901 census she is working as a hospital nurse at Western Infirmary, Glasgow.
[2]
She gave up her profession to dedicate herself to the
women’s suffrage
movement.
[3]
Campaign for women's suffrage
[
edit
]
Hudson was an active member of the Edinburgh branch of the Women's Social and Political Union and engaged in protests in Scotland and London. She hosted meetings of the Edinburgh WSPU at her home in Melville Place.
[4]
She was arrested for the first time in Edinburgh in December 1909 at a
demonstration
where Liberal MP
Sir Edward Grey
was delivering a speech. Hudson addressed a large crowd before making her way to the theatre and becoming engaged in scuffles with police who were blocking the way.
[5]
She was charged with committing a
breach of the peace
and pled guilty, but claimed her actions were “purely political” and necessary as “the Government at present had refused to hear any questions about women’s franchise that were put in a constitutional and peaceful manner.”
[6]
She was given a £5 fine or 30 days' imprisonment. Hudson opted to go to
prison
and was removed to
Calton Jail
with a fellow suffragette
Elsie Roe-Brown
. Members of the Edinburgh WSPU gathered at the walls of Calton Jail to give them “an encouraging cheer”.
[6]
She was involved in an incident at
Louth Town Hall
at
Louth
in
Lincolnshire
in 1910, when during a speech being given by the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer
and future
Prime Minister
,
David Lloyd George
, she and
Bertha Brewster
conducted a protest and were arrested.
[7]
On 21 November 1911, Hudson was among the 223 protesters arrested at a WSPU demonstration at the
House of Commons
, to which she had travelled with other women from the Edinburgh branch, including
Jessie C. Methven
,
Alice Shipley
,
Elizabeth and Agnes Thomson
and
Mrs N Grieve
.
[3]
The demonstrations followed the "torpedoing" of the
Conciliation Bill
, meant to extend the right to vote to wealthy, property-owning women.
[8]
Hudson had previously been arrested in London in November 1910.
[1]
Hunger strikes
[
edit
]
suffragette window smashing campaign
In March 1912, Hudson took part in a
militant
protest which involved concerted window-smashing in London over three days.
Scottish participants were assigned
Kensington High Street
. Hudson was arrested, sentenced and sent to
Holloway prison
.
[9]
While she was serving her sentence,
Emmeline
and
Christabel Pankhurst
were charged with
conspiracy
and imprisoned in Holloway in April 1912. Suffragette prisoners were instructed by the WSPU to go on hunger strike to protest Mrs Pankhurst's
sentence
. A fellow Scottish prisoner,
Lilias Mitchell
, described the forcible feeding of the hunger strikers as "a sort of hell for two hours" and reported that Hudson "fought splendidly - knocked down all the six wardresses & told the doctor what she thought of him!"
[10]
Mrs Pankhurst was released the following day. All the released prisoners were presented with an "illuminated address"
[11]
designed by
Sylvia Pankhurst
and signed by Emmeline.
[12]
In May 1913 Hudson was charged with attempting to set fire to
Kelso Racecourse
stand, along with
Arabella Scott
and
Elizabeth and Agnes Thomson
, and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment in Calton Jail.
[13]
The women immediately went on hunger strike.
[14]
After seven days, Hudson and the other female prisoners were released under The
Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913
, also known as the Cat and Mouse Act, which had recently been introduced to allow prisons to release women whose hunger strike had reached a critical stage. They were released
on licence
, to return when their health improved. No attempt had been made to
forcibly feed
them.
[15]
After her release Hudson stayed at the home of Dr
Grace Cadell
, which was used as a refuge for suffragettes.
[16]
She was interviewed there by a journalist who described her as "a woman of fine physique" who would soon be to fit enough to return to Calton for "further martyrdom".
[17]
None of the women returned to prison when their licenses expired and Hudson subsequently “vanished”.
[16]
Like many suffragettes at the time, Hudson used an alias to evade the police and went by Mary Brown.
[18]
For this reason it is likely that she is noted twice on the Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners.
[19]
She was remembered by a fellow suffragette as "about the most gentle person I knew".
[20]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Suffragette Amnesty of August 1914: index of women arrested 1906-1914. Home Office: Registered Papers. Suffragette Collection. National Archives. Ref. HO 45/24665.
- ^
"Find your Scottish ancestors | ScotlandsPeople"
.
www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
. Retrieved
26 August
2023
.
- ^
a
b
The Suffragist Disturbances. The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 23 November 1911.
- ^
Edinburgh Suffragists and the London Raids. The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 8 March 1912.
- ^
Exciting Suffragist Scenes in the Streets. The Scotsman. Edinburgh 6 December 1909.
- ^
a
b
The Leith Suffragist Disturbance. The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 7 December 1909.
- ^
Pankhurst, Sylvia (2015).
The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910
. Arkose Press. p. 479.
ISBN
978-1345563368
.
- ^
Crawford, Elizabeth (1999). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge.
- ^
Leneman, Leah (1991). A Guid Cause. Aberdeen University Press. P110-12.
- ^
Leneman, Leah (1991). A Guid Cause. Aberdeen University Press. P112.
- ^
"Suffrage Stories/Suffrage Collecting: WSPU Illuminated Address"
.
Woman and her Sphere
. 30 April 2014
. Retrieved
27 September
2020
.
- ^
Pankhurst, ES (1931). The Suffragette Movement: An Intimate Account of Persons and Ideals. London. p218.
- ^
Crawford, Elizabeth (2006). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland. Routledge. p237.
- ^
Geddes, J. F. (2008). "Culpable Complicity: the medical profession and the forcible feeding of suffragettes, 1909?1914". Women's History Review. 17 (1): 79?94. doi:10.1080/09612020701627977. p82.
- ^
Another Edinburgh Hunger-striker Released. The Scotsman. Edinburgh 25.05.1913.
- ^
a
b
Leneman, Leah (1991). A Guid Cause. Aberdeen University Press. p144.
- ^
Edinburgh Evening Dispatch. 27 May 1913.
- ^
Leneman, Leah (1991). A Guid Cause. Aberdeen University Press. P261.
- ^
Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914. c.1960. Held by: London University: London School of Economics, The Women's Library.
[1]
- ^
Leneman, Leah (1991). A Guid Cause. Aberdeen University Press. P140.
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