The Hollowayettes

Converted into a banner it was first publicly revealed in the 'From Prison to Citizenship' procession in June 1910. Carried as part of the Prisoner’s Pageant it made a striking and emotively powerful impression on both spectators and participants.

The banner symbolises the spirit of comradeship that gave Suffragette prisoners the strength and courage to endure hunger strike and force-feeding and ‘face death without flinching’.

But behind this political message lies the highly personal story of 80 individual Suffragettes who each made a unique contribution and sacrifice for the militant votes for women campaign. Here are the stories of five of these Suffragettes.

On 30 June 1908, enraged by witnessing 'violence and indecency' inflicted on Suffragettes by the police in Parliament Square, Mary and Edith New went to 10 Downing Street and threw stones at a window.

This was the first act of physical militancy carried out by Suffragettes.

Imprisoned a third time, the same year, for taking part in the rush on the House of Commons, Mary spent more than six months of 1908 in Holloway.

In 1909 Mary became drum-major of the newly formed WSPU drum and fife band.

She continued to undertake militant acts and was repeatedly imprisoned between 1909 and 1912.

In 1909, whilst serving a term of imprisonment in Winson Green, for throwing slates from the roof of a hall in Birmingham in which Prime Minister Asquith was speaking, Mary became one of the first Suffragette hunger strikers to be force-fed.

In July 1912, Mary pursued Asquith to Dublin and set fire to a box at the Theatre Royal.

Sentenced to five years penal servitude for this offence, she was released on a 'ticket of leave' on 21st September only to take part in the WSPU window-smashing campaign in November.

This secretive group, dedicated to carrying out 'danger duty', met every Saturday at 4.30pm in Alan's Tea Rooms in Oxford Street and were used by the WSPU to lead protests, organise parliamentary demonstrations and harass government ministers.

Vera was imprisoned several times for militancy between 1908 and 1912. In September 1909, together with WSPU colleagues, she harassed the Prime Minister, Asquith, while he was staying in Lympne, Kent for the weekend, even pursuing him to the golf course.

Vera served her last term of imprisonment in 1912 for window smashing. Sentenced to 6 months in Holloway, she again went on hunger strike and was force-fed.

On her release, Vera achieved her ambition of studying at university by leaving London for St Andrews, where she stayed until 1914.

A committed militant, Emily went to prison seven times for a range of offences, including obstruction, stone throwing, window smashing, and assaulting a man she mistook for the Cabinet Minister David Lloyd George.

In December 1911 Emily initiated a new form of militancy: setting fire to pillar boxes, for which she received her longest prison sentence of six months.

Pillar box work was subsequently adopted as a tactic by other Suffragettes.

On 4 June 1913 Emily ran onto the Epsom racecourse during the Derby, in an attempt to stop the race.

Seriously injured by a horse owned by King George V, she never regained consciousness, and died four days later.

Emily's spectacular funeral procession through the streets of London, organised by the WSPU’s leaders, raised Emily to the status of martyr, and she remains one of the most famous Suffragettes.

Arrested a second time in October 1909 for throwing a stone at a car she believed was carrying Lloyd George, Constance returned to prison and immediately went on hunger strike.

On once again being released early she resolved to disguise herself in future as a working class Suffragette.

Whilst working in Liverpool during the WSPU's general election campaign, in January 1910, Constance was arrested using the disguise of a working girl, 'Jane Warton'.

Sentenced to two weeks in prison, with no special privileges, she went on hunger strike and was force-fed.

Constance’s treatment sparked fury within the WSPU. On her release Constance became a paid organiser of the WSPU.

Despite suffering a stroke in 1911, she took part in the window-smashing campaign and returned to Holloway, although she was quickly released after an anonymous benefactor paid her fine.

Following a second stroke in 1912, Constance was unable to resume an active role in the militant campaign.

In 1912 Elsie served two terms of imprisonment, with hunger strike and force-feeding, for smashing a window in Liberty and setting off a fire alarm.

In a letter written by her mother in 1931, now in the museum’s collection, it was claimed that Elsie required four months medical treatment to recover from force-feeding. 'Her beautiful voice was ruined.'

Elsie also memorably rode a white horse, while dressed as Joan of Arc, beside the coffin of Emily Wilding Davison during her funeral procession through London.