The Suffragette Handkerchief

The Suffragette Handkerchief (March 1912)

The Suffragette Handkerchief is a handkerchief displayed at The Priest House, West Hoathly in West Sussex, England. It has sixty-six embroidered signatures and two sets of initials, mostly of women imprisoned in HMP Holloway for their part in the Women's Social and Political Union Suffragette window smashing demonstrations of March 1912. This was a brave act of defiance in a prison where the women were closely watched at all times.[1][2]

## Origin[edit]

It is believed that the Handkerchief was started by Mary Ann Hilliard as she kept it as a souvenir of her fellow prisoners afterwards[3] until donating it to the archive of the British College of Nurses. The March 1942 issue of the British Journal of Nursing recorded that:

> Miss Mary Hilliard, a gentle, very valiant suffragette, has bestowed as a gift to the College the fine linen handkerchief, signed by and embroidered by all the gallant women who suffered imprisonment for conscience sake, in support of the enfranchisement of women in Holloway prison in March 1912. It displays 67 signatures embroidered in various colours, and all that remains is to offer a warm vote of thanks to Miss Mary Hilliard, R.B.N.A., and to await the time when this historic gift can be suitably framed and placed in the History Section of the British College of Nurses, where its unique value will be appreciated.’[4]

Of the 66 women whose full names appear on the handkerchief, 61 are known to have been arrested on the window-smashing campaign of March 1912 and who received prison sentences ranging from two to six months. Sixteen of the women held positions in local branches of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1912 while 18 had served earlier sentences prison for their actions on behalf of women's suffrage, while at least four were arrested subsequently. Twenty-four of the women on the handkerchief took part in the hunger strikes of 1912 and fifteen were forcibly-fed.[1] These women received the Hunger Strike Medal from the leadership of the WSPU.

## Later ownership and exhibition[edit]

It is not known how the Handkerchief came to leave the collection of the British College of Nurses after it closed in 1956 or how it came to be found in the 1960s at a jumble sale at West Hoathly by Dora Arnold, custodian of the Priest House.[5][6] Its link to the village of West Hoathly is not clear (although an owner of the Priest House in the early 20th-century John Godwin King's daughter Ursula was a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies[7]) and research is ongoing.[8] The list of the signatories and some notes on their activism is available.[1]

The Suffragette Handkerchief is displayed on the first floor of The Priest House, West Hoathly. From September 2018 to January 2019 the Handkerchief was displayed at the Royal College of Physicians as part of the 'This vexed question: 500 years of women in medicine' exhibition. A particular focus of the exhibition was the signature of Alice Stewart Ker (1853–1943), a Scottish doctor who worked as a surgeon at the Children's Hospital in Birmingham, and who was honorary Medical Officer to the Wirral Hospital for Sick Children. Dr Ker had been active in the Birkenhead Women's Suffrage Society, and in 1912 was sentenced to three months in Holloway Prison for smashing a window at Harrods.[9]

## Signatories[edit]

* Mary Ann Aldham
* Janie Allan
* Doreen Allen
* Kathleen Bardsley
* Janet Boyd
* Hilda Burkitt
* Eileen Casey
* Isabella Casey
* Kate E. Teresa Cardro
* Grace Chappelow
* Georgina Fanny Cheffins
* Constance J. Collier
* Constance Craig
* Ethel M. Crawby
* Nelly Crocker
* Alice Davies
* Edith Downing
* Emma Fowler
* Lettice Floyd
* Katherine Gatty
* G. H. Grant
* Alice Green
* Joan Lavender Bailie Guthrie
* Louise Hargeld
* Mary Granley Hewitt
* Mary Ann Hilliard
* Edith Hudson
* Olivia Jeffcott
* Barbara S. Jocke
* May R. Jones
* Alice Stewart Ker
* C. L. (possibly Catherine Lane, who was arrested on 1 March 1912 and was bound over and released in April)
* C. E. L.
* Jessie Laing.
* Kate Lilley
* Louise Lilley
* Lillie Lindesay
* Gertrude Lowy
* Margaret Macfarlane
* Helen MacRae
* Lizzie McKenzie
* Frances McPhun
* Margaret McPhun
* E. K. Marshall
* Lillias Mitchell
* Anne Myer
* Cassie Nesbit
* Fanny D. Palethorpe
* Frances Parker
* Fanny Pease
* Isabella Potbury
* Zoe Proctor
* M. Renny
* Helena de Reya
* Gladys Roberts
* Dorothea Rock
* Madeleine Rock
* Margaret Rowlatt
* M. du Sautoy Newby
* Alice Maud Shipley
* Victoria Simmons
* Janie Terrero
* Grace Tollamache
* Leonora Tyson
* Vera Wentworth
* Frances Williams
* Eva Wilson
* Alice Morgan Wright

## See also[edit]

* Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial
* Holloway brooch
* Holloway banner
* Hunger Strike Medal
* Suffrage jewellery

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c "The Suffragette Handkerchief at the Priest House, West Hoathly" (PDF). Priest House. Museum of New-Zealand. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
2. ^ "Marking Suffrage Day - remembering Frances Parker". Te Papa’s Blog. 18 September 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
3. ^ "Prison embroidery by Suffragettes, 1905 - 1914". Selvedge Magazine. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
4. ^ Suffrage Stories: The Mystery of Nurse Pine’s Medal - Woman and Her Sphere
5. ^ Atkinson, Diane (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. p. 291\. ISBN 9781408844045. OCLC 1016848621.
6. ^ Diane Atkinson, Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes, Bloomsbury Publishing (2018) - Google Books
7. ^ John Godwin King CBE. Sussex Past.
8. ^ The Suffragette Handkerchief. Sussex Past.
9. ^ Hunger Strikes and Handkerchiefs \- Royal College of Physicians website

* v
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Suffrage

Basic topics|

* Universal suffrage
* Women
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* Suffragette
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Events|

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UK|

* WSPU march (1906)
* Mud March (1907)
* Women's Sunday (1908)
* Black Friday (1910)
* Battle of Downing Street (1910)
* Women's Coronation Procession (1911)
* Great Pilgrimage (1913)
* Open Christmas Letter (1914)
* Suffragette bombing and arson campaign

US|

* Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
* Declaration of Sentiments (1848)
* Rochester Convention (1848)
* Ohio Women's Convention (1850)
* National Women's Rights Convention (1850–1869)
* Trial of Susan B. Anthony (1872–1873)
* Suffrage Hikes (1912–1914)
* Woman Suffrage Procession (1913)
* Suffrage Torch
* Suffrage Special (1916)
* Silent Sentinels (1917–1919)
* Night of Terror
* Prison Special
* 1920 United States presidential election
* "Give Us the Ballot" (1957)
* Freedom Summer (1964)
* Selma to Montgomery marches (1965)

Women
(memorials)|

* List of suffragists and suffragettes
* Timeline of women's suffrage
* US
* in majority-Muslim countries
* Historiography of the Suffragettes
* Women's suffrage organizations and publications
* Women's rights activists
* Leser v. Garnett
* Belmont–Paul Monument
* Rise up, Women (Emmeline Pankhurst statue)
* Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial
* Elizabeth Cady Stanton statue
* Suffragette Memorial
* Portrait Monument
* Women's Rights Pioneers Monument
* Forward statue
* Kate Sheppard National Memorial
* Millicent Fawcett statue
* Great Petition (2008 sculpture)
* Centenary of Women's Suffrage Commemorative Fountain
* Resilience
* Turning Point Suffragist Memorial
* Eagle House
* Pankhurst Centre
* Paulsdale
* Suffragette Handkerchief
* Holloway banner
* Holloway brooch
* Holloway Jingles
* Hunger Strike Medal
* Justice Bell
* Suffrage jewellery
* Suffragette penny
* Suffrage Oak
* Women's Rights National Historical Park
* Women's Suffrage National Monument
* International Women's Day
* Susan B. Anthony Day
* Women's Equality Day

Related|

* Age of candidacy
* National Voting Rights Museum (US)
* Umbrella Movement

Popular
culture|

* "The Women's Marseillaise"
* "The March of the Women" (1910 song)
* The Mother of Us All (1947 opera)
* "Sister Suffragette" (1964 song)
* Suffrage plays
* Women's suffrage in film
* Votes for Women (1912 film)
* Shoulder to Shoulder (1974 series)
* Not for Ourselves Alone (1999 documentary)
* Iron Jawed Angels (2004 film)
* Up the Women (2013 sitcom)
* Selma (2014 film)
* Suffragette (2015 film)
* Sylvia (2018 musical)
* Suffs (2022 musical)
* Susan B. Anthony dollar
* New Zealand ten-dollar note
* 2020 US ten-dollar bill
* Lioness (upcoming film)

* v
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Women's suffrage in Scotland

Organisations|

* Actresses' Franchise League
* Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage
* Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women's Suffrage
* Northern Men's Federation for Women's Suffrage
* Orcadian Women's Suffrage Society
* Shetland Women's Suffrage Society
* Stornoway Women's Suffrage Society
* United Suffragists
* Women's Freedom League
* Women's Social and Political Union
* Workers' Suffrage Federation

Campaigners|

|  Suffragists|

* Wilhelmina Hay Abbott
* Jane Arthur
* Mary Anne Baikie
* Mary Bell
* Nannie Brown
* Mary Burton
* Edward Caird
* Jane Clapperton
* Jessie Craigen
* Muriel Craigie
* Mary Crudelius
* Margaret C. Davidson
* John McAusland Denny
* Helen Fraser
* Elizabeth Finlayson Gauld
* Edith Hacon
* Mary Henderson
* Elsie Inglis
* Margaret Irwin
* Christina Jamieson
* Jessie Keppie
* Harriet Leisk
* Anna Lindsay
* Thomas Martin Lindsay
* Louisa Lumsden
* Ann Macbeth
* Louisa Macdonald
* Chrystal MacMillan
* Alice McLaren
* Sarah Mair
* Lavinia Malcolm
* Flora Masson
* Lilly Maxwell
* Isabella Fyvie Mayo
* Frances Melville
* Graham Moffat
* Mary Murdoch (Hull)
* Eunice Murray
* Frances Murray
* Sylvia Murray
* Margaret Mylne
* Jessie Newbery
* Grace Paterson
* Elizabeth Pease Nichol
* Elizabeth Margaret Pace
* Emily Rosaline Orme
* Jane Rae
* Marion Kirkland Reid
* Jessie Saxby
* Frances Simson
* Mary Anderson Snodgrass
* Jessie M. Soga
* Mary Somerville
* Catherine Helen Spence
* Flora Stevenson
* Louisa Stevenson
* Charlotte Carmichael Stopes
* Annie S. Swan
* Jane Taylour
* Muriel Thompson
* Isabella Tod
* Eliza Wigham
* Jane Wigham

|

Suffragettes|

* Janie Allan
* Mary Sophia Allen
* Helen Archdale
* Janet Barrowman
* Edith Marian Begbie
* Catherine Hogg Blair
* Jane Esdon Brailsford
* Lucy Burns
* Isabella Carrie
* Dorothea Chalmers Smith
* Lila Clunas
* Catherine Corbett
* Annie Walker Craig
* Helen Crawfurd
* Agnes Dollan
* Marion Wallace Dunlop
* Flora Drummond
* Louise Eates
* Maude Edwards
* Margaret Milne Farquharson
* Ellison Scotland Gibb
* Margaret Skirving Gibb
* Marion Gilchrist
* Frances Graves
* Mary Pollock Grant
* Laura Grey
* Florence Haig
* Edith Hudson
* Agnes Husband
* Maud Joachim
* Mabel Jones
* Alice Stewart Ker
* Isabella Leitch
* Mary Macarthur
* Agnes Syme Macdonald
* Florence Macfarlane
* Margaret Macfarlane
* Jenny McCallum
* Priscilla Bright McLaren
* Frances McPhun
* Margaret McPhun
* Mary Maloney
* Jessie C. Methven
* Maggie Moffat
* Ethel Moorhead
* Anna Munro
* Flora Murray
* Helen Ogston
* Adela Pankhurst
* Frances Parker
* Isabella Bream Pearce
* Caroline Phillips
* Mary Phillips
* Annot Robinson
* Amy Sanderson
* Arabella Scott
* Muriel Scott
* Maud Arncliffe Sennett
* Margaret Skinnider
* Georgiana Solomon and her daughter Daisy Solomon
* Barbara Steel
* Jessie Stephen
* Elizabeth and Agnes Thomson
* Bessie Watson
* Mona Chalmers Watson
* Helen Wilkie or Annot Robinson
* Henria Leech Williams

Others|

* Rachel Cook
* Helen Cruickshank
* Margaret Neill Fraser
* Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon
* Frances Ivens
* Jennie Lee
* Agnes McLaren
* Helen Matthews

Anti-suffrage activists|

* Lady Griselda Cheape
* Violet Graham, Duchess of Montrose

Historians and
writers|

* Leah Leneman
* Elspeth King
* Diane Atkinson
* Sarah Pedersen

Art, culture and
commemoration|

* Holloway Jingles
* Hunger Strike Medal
* The Suffrage Oak
* The Suffragette Handkerchief
* WSPU Holloway Prisoners Banner
* War Song Justice for Ever
* Scotland's Suffragette Trumps cards and Scotland's Suffrage History Education Packs, produced by Protests and Suffragettes

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