Kitty Marion

Portrait of Kitty Marion (1871-1944)
Born Katherina Maria Schafer in Germany, Kitty came to England in 1886 at the age of 15 shortly after which she started working for Variety theatre, touring the country. From 1908 when she became a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union and the Actresses' Franchise League Kitty combined her career as a militant with that of her music hall career as a 'vocal comedienne.' Kitty was arrested multiple times for militancy, the first in June 1909 for taking part in the WSPU deputation to the House of Commons. She was also sentenced to 5 terms of imprisonment, her first in October 1909 when she and Dorothy Pethick were sent to prison for throwing a stone at a post office window in Newcastle. Whilst in prison Kitty went on hunger strike, was forcibly fed and set fire to her cell. On her release in December she went on to do the Christmas pantomime season. In March 1912 Kitty took part in the window smashing campaign, using a hammer to smash the windows of both the Silversmith’s Association and Sainsbury’s on Regent Street. Because Holloway prison was full she served her 6 month sentence at Winson Green prison in Birmingham. In 1913 she and Clare Giveen were found guilty of causing a fire which destroyed the Grandstand at Hurst Park racecourse in 1913. The fire, which was one of several that she claimed to be involved with caused over £7000 worth of damage. It is also likely Kitty was responsible for the arson attack on the house of Arthur du Cros, the MP for St. Leonard’s in Sussex as well as other arson attacks in 1913 and 1914. During her last spell in Holloway for the grandstand fire Kitty was released several times under the terms of the Cat and Mouse Act and force-fed 232 times over a 14 week period.
Faced with deportation to Germany on the outbreak of World War I, Marion eventually negotiated her pasage to the USA where she lived for the remainder of her life devoted to Margaret Sanger's birth control cause.