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Howden, Jessie Catherine Diary, 1909-1914. Howden, of Pencaitland, attempted to form branches of the WSPU in Tranent and Pencaitland, and later became President of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. She disapproved, however, of the most notorious of local militant acts, the burning of Whitekirk Church in 1914. (East Lothian Local History Centre, Haddington, EL14)
Hudson, Edith Hudson was an Edinburgh nurse and active member of the WSPU. Papers relating to the arrest and imprisonment of Hudson under her own name and her alias Mary Brown are in the National Archives of Scotland (HH16/37 HH16/38 and HH16/44). These files contain correspondence and Press cuttings from Hudson's 30 days' imprisonment in Edinburgh in 1909. One letter tells how Hudson had refused to eat "and has been warned that artificial feeding is likely." Hudson was eventually released on payment of her £3 fine by her family, and related to the authorities that "it was just like her mother to be so determined."
Jack, Alexi Butter (1863-1948) Photographs, family details and press cuttings relating to Jack, born Newtyle, Angus, a prominent campaigner in Edinburgh and first-secretary of the Edinburgh branch of the Women’s Freedom League in 1907, survive with her family. Jack later became a member of the national executive of the WFL and was a prolific letter writer to the Edinburgh Press. (With family, copies in WC)
Ker, Dr Alice (1853-1943) Correspondence and notes. Born in Banff in 1853, Ker practised medicine for a time with Sophie Jex-Blake. After moving to Lancashire she became a militant member of the WSPU and was imprisoned in Holloway in 1912, where she contributed to the prison song book Holloway Jingles published by Glasgow WSPU. The correspondence includes her letters to her teenage daughter Margaret from Holloway Prison. (The Women’s Library, GB 106 9/29) See also, Votes for Women – the Events on Merseyside 1870-1928 by Marij van Helmond.
Martyn, Caroline (1867-1896) Press cuttings, book references and postcard photograph of Martyn, the Independent Labour Party organiser and women’s campaigner who died in Dundee in 1896. (Watson Collection)
McClaren, Priscilla Bright (1815-1906) Papers and correspondence of the Victorian campaigner who became the first president of the Edinburgh National Society for Women’s Suffrage (National Library of Scotland). (See also the Mill-Taylor Papers, London School of Economics, and Edinburgh National Society papers at The Women's Library.) Portrait photograph with Girton College, University of Cambridge.
Macdonald, Agnes (1882-1966) A folder containing eight items relating to Agnes Macdonald is filed in Edinburgh City Libraries under FWDA 1820 M13 15036B. Although this archive is small and contains bare details of Macdonald’s participation in the women’s movement it punches well above its weight in importance. Its highlight is an illuminated address, signed by Emmeline Pankhurst, and recording the WSPU’s “deep sense of admiration for your courage in enduring a long period of privation and solitary confinement in prison for the Votes for Women cause.” As important, however, is the copy of Holloway Jingles, a pamphlet compiled by prisoners at Holloway in 1912, and inscribed ‘Agnes S Macdonald, Holloway, 1912, E10.’ Edited by Mrs Nancy A. John and published by the Glasgow branch of the WSPU, Holloway Jingles includes a verse by Emily Wilding Davison, and contributions by Scots prisoners Maggie McPhun and Dr Alice Ker. The Macdonald archive also contains the printed music of The March of the Women by Ethel Smyth and The Women’s Marseillaise by Florence Macaulay, one-time Edinburgh organiser of the WSPU. The archive also features a ‘national’ period NWSPU song card, c1908, a WSPU Christmas card, c1909, and the court document summoning Agnes Macdonald to Canon Row Police Station in 1912 to answer charges of ‘malicious damage.’ At the foot of this item Miss Macdonald has noted in pencil ‘breaking windows.’
Macmillan, Crystal (1871-1937) Papers with the British Library. Member of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage and NUWSS executive committee. Pleaded equality case of Scottish university women graduates before House of Lords in 1908.
McPhun. Frances (1880-1940) and Margaret (1876-1960) The prison letters of Frances McPhun are held privately, with copies at the People’s Palace Museum, Glasgow. The Suffrage Fellowship Collection at the Museum of London holds other papers relating to the sisters. The McPhuns were active with Glasgow WSPU from 1909. Both were imprisoned in Holloway in 1912 after the London window smashing crusade. While imprisoned, Margaret contributed a poem to Holloway Jingles.
Moorhead, Ethel (1869-1955) Major sources for records of Scotland’s most significant militant are the National Archives of Scotland criminal case files HH 16/40 and HH 16/41. These comprise a remarkable archive of letters, prison documents, correspondence and Press cuttings detailing and describing her turbulent activities from the Scottish Office, Prison Commission, police, prison governors and doctors and Ethel Moorhead herself. They contains reports on her surveillance, arrest, imprisonment, trials and forcible feeding. They also feature a character study of Moorhead’s early life and activity composed by a senior Dundee police officer for the Scottish Prison Commissioners. Short entries for Moorhead's activities as 'Edith Johnston' are in the sheriff court records SC 67/44/33 and witness statements are to be found at AD 15/13/113. A brief record of the 1913 trial in Glasgow, in which she was charged with Dr Elizabeth Chalmers Smith, is contained in files JC 13/130 and JC 15/124. Elsewhere, a copy of a letter in a private collection sent to Moorhead by her brother Arthur, September 5, 1913 criticising her militant activities and complaining to her about dragging her family name through the courts, and also a colour copy of the hunger strike medal presented to Moorhead ‘for valour’ – showing imprisonment ‘bars’ – are in the Watson Collection. A short film featuring Moorhead is with the Scottish National Screen Archive and the document of appeal against her malicious damage conviction in 1912 is in Edinburgh Central Library (QYDA1820 M81). Her arrest as Margaret Morrison in Cupar and other personal details are listed in Fife Constabulary’s Conviction Book, 1896-1938 (Fife Archives A/AAX/7/2, Closed until January, 2014). Scotland’s only copy of Moorhead’s suffragette memoirs in This Quarter, printed in Milan in 1925, is held in the Watson Collection. |